Roseanne Barr was fired from the Roseanne reboot in late May 2018, when ABC cancelled the revival of the show after her racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.

Quick Scoop: What Happened

  • ABC cancelled the hit Roseanne revival and severed ties with Roseanne Barr on May 29, 2018, following her offensive tweet about Valerie Jarrett.
  • The tweet compared Jarrett to characters from Planet of the Apes and was widely condemned as racist, triggering immediate backlash online and in the media.
  • Within hours, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey announced the show was cancelled, calling Barr’s comment “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.”

Why She Was Fired

  • The firing was directly tied to a single tweet Barr posted about Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
  • The tweet’s language was seen as dehumanizing and racist, sparking intense public outrage and calls for accountability from both viewers and advocacy groups.
  • ABC, owned by Disney, moved quickly to distance itself from the controversy, cancelling the show despite its strong ratings and plans for another season.

How Roseanne Barr Responded

  • Barr deleted the tweet and apologized, calling it a “bad joke” and at one point blaming a mix of Ambien and alcohol, though the drug’s maker publicly rejected that excuse.
  • She has since argued in interviews that her comments were misunderstood and has claimed that political bias and her support for Donald Trump played a role in her firing.
  • In some later comments, Barr suggested that Michelle Obama and others influenced ABC’s decision, though these claims are her perspective and not independently verified by ABC.

Aftermath and Ongoing Discussion

  • ABC reworked the show without Barr, launching The Conners , which continued the family’s story but wrote her character out.
  • Commentators and forum users still debate whether the firing was a fair consequence of racist speech or an example of “cancel culture” and political double standards.
  • Many media and opinion pieces frame the incident as a cautionary tale about how a single tweet can end a major TV career and force networks to enforce stricter standards on public behavior.

TL;DR: Roseanne Barr was fired from the Roseanne reboot when ABC cancelled the show on May 29, 2018, after her racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett sparked widespread backlash and was deemed incompatible with the network’s values.

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