Author: Joy Press / Source: HWD
The Conner family has survived the death of its matriarch, but the question remains: can The Conners thrive in the ratings without Roseanne Barr? I can’t think of another TV sitcom so politically polarizing that its success or failure feels like a referendum for its supporters.
Approximately 7.9 million viewers watched Episode 2 of The Conners on Tuesday. Considering that it was competing for live viewers with the first game of the World Series—and that there had been some predictions that the withdrawal of pro-Donald Trump Barr fans would tank the show—it’s not a terrible result.
That is, however, a steep 25 percent drop from the 10.56 million people who watched the premiere of the show last week, curious to see how Roseanne Conner’s character would be killed off. And it’s a vertiginous fall from the 18.2 million viewers who watched the premiere of Roseanne back in March, when it became the season’s biggest broadcast-TV hit and Trump happily took credit for the show’s success.
From the start, ABC wanted to temper expectations for The Conners, apparently hoping for a steady but not mercurial success from the Roseanne spin-off, in line with ratings for The Middle, the network’s wonderful, working-class family show that ended its nine-season run this year. Created by former Roseanne and Murphy Brown writers Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, The Middle had 5.8 million viewers around the same time last fall. A spin-off pilot for The Middle, focusing on Eden Sher’s character, Sue Heck, is currently in the works.
Creatively, the first two episodes of The Conners soared. Freed of the political baggage of trying to speak pointedly to contemporary issues, the show can return to breathing life into these rich, familiar characters. The second episode brought back Johnny Galecki’s sweetly befuddled David, who is trying to figure out how to be a dad and a functioning…
The post Can The Conners Speak to a Broken America? appeared first on FeedBox.