Maybe ABC wants to give Roseanne Barr the last laugh after all.
The network moved “The Conners” from Tuesday to Wednesday this season, aired the opener at 9pm instead of 8pm, and lost a sizeable chunk of its audience.
Over 20 percent of “The Conners” fans from last season didn’t show up for the Season 3 premiere on Wednesday. It was the wrong night and the wrong time. For some reason, ABC put on back to back half hours of “The Goldbergs” as the lead in for “The Conners.” The latter show had been ABC’s strongest comedy hit on Tuesdays at 8pm. So, of course, they moved the “Roseanne” spin off to see if they could kill it.
All of this changing schedule has to do with having “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Bachelorette” on air at the same time. They used to alternate on Mondays at 8. But with the two shows on, one had to move to Tuesdays. So ABC sacrificed “The Conners.” Last spring’s season finale had 6 million viewers. Wednesday night’s premiere brought 4.9 million.
You could say baseball interfered, with the World Series on Fox. But really, there is no cross over or commonality between those audiences unless Roseanne herself was singing the national anthem.
ABC had better move “The Conners” back to Tuesdays at 8pm. No one at network TV has ever subscribed to the adage, If ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They might give that a try.
