It’s safe to say that America is very happy to have Roseanne and her blue-collar, somewhat dysfunctional family back.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, last night’s premiere of the reboot broke records left and right, proving that the Conners have still got it.
An astounding 18.1 million people tuned in to ABC to see Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr), her husband Dan (John Goodman) and adult children reunite on the small screen for the first time in 11 years. In the internet age, ratings numbers like this are few and far between, and the Roseanne premiere swiftly became the highest-rated sitcom in over three years and the highest-rated scripted show since Fox’s Empire hit the scene. Wowza.
But wait, there’s more exciting news. Viewership actually increased in the second half of the hour-long block of episodes, making it the most-watch show of the evening. The reboot’s premiere easily trumped other shows on rival networks, including NBC, CBS and FOX. The only show that got even remotely close to matching Roseanne’s mind-blowing viewership numbers was NBC’s The Voice, which snagged a 1.6 rating (ahem, Roseanne got a 5.1).
As if it wasn’t clear already, reboots are back in an enormous way and it looks like the Conners are definitely here to stay. We’re all about it.