Jimmy Kimmel Roasts ABC for Canceling ‘Roseanne’: This Was a ‘Huge Blow’

Earlier this month, Jimmy Kimmel was making fun of Roseanne Barr’s outsized influence over his network at ABC’s upfront presentation.

“We’re saying goodbye to Shondaland and we’re going headfirst into Roseanne-istan,” Kimmel joked at the time, adding, “Our new strategy is resurrecting old crap. I have three words for you: Who’s the Boss? Literally, who the hell is running this place?”

Two weeks later, Roseanne has been cancelled after its creator and star tweeted a racist attack on former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett (and an anti-Semitic one aimed at George Soros).

As ABC’s resident late-night host, Kimmel couldn’t exactly avoid the “biggest story of the day” in his monologue Tuesday night. But he didn’t dwell on it either.

“You’re not going to believe this but she tweeted something outrageous,” Kimmel said of the tweet that led ABC to give Roseanne Barr the boot. “ABC today decided to cancel their highest-rated show, Roseanne, following a tweet in which Roseanne compared an African-American woman, a former advisor to President Obama, to an ape,” he added. “Which did not sit well with ABC management—or anyone with a brain, really.”   

Kimmel joked that the move was a “huge blow” to ABC because “we don’t have much on this network.” He added, “Roseanne was a very ‘bigly’ hit for ABC and we needed it.”

From there, the host argued that just because Roseanne Barr is out doesn’t mean Roseanne can’t continue on without her. “The show must go on,” he said before presenting the trailer for Dan, starring John Goodman.