Saturday, May 23, 2026

“Roseanne” Return Scores Huge 18 Million Viewers, Lifts the Rest of ABC Schedule

Share

The return of “Roseanne” was a smash hit last night. The ABC comedy scored 18 million viewers and blew everything else on TV away.

“Roseanne” was such a hit that it lifted all the other ABC shows on last night’s schedule. You can just imagine hearing Roseanne Barr cackling in the background.

“Roseanne” handed CBS a rare loss for the night– “NCIS” and “Bull” pulled in 10 to 11 million viewers, which is usually a blockbuster combo.

Will “Roseanne” continue at that level? Probably not. But it was quite a grand slam home run for a show that hasn’t been on the air for 20 years.

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News