Trump Congratulates ‘Roseanne’ on Ratings—Where the Show Performed Best
Following Roseanne‘s triumphant return to television on Tuesday, many are taking notice of the show’s success—including Donald Trump.
We’re now finding out that the president rang up TV’s current comedy queen, Roseanne Barr, to congratulate her on her ABC revival’s record ratings. The premiere garnered over 18 million viewers with the majority of them tuning in from Middle America—Tulsa, Oklahoma to be exact.
The ratings reported by The Hollywood Reporter reveal that Tulsa, as well as Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri, were the three American cities with the most Roseanne viewers. It was also reportedly the highest-rated sitcom broadcast in three years, bringing more viewers than the show’s original series finale in 1997.
Since both Roseanne Barr the actress and Roseanne Conner the character are Trump supporters, the president showed his support with a private phone call. On Good Morning America Thursday, Barr was asked about the buzzed-about exchange.
“We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.” @RoseanneOnABC sets record ratings as the Conners come roaring back to primetime, and we speak LIVE to @therealroseanne about her phone call with the President and the return of the show: pic.twitter.com/CEBMfnnBAx
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 29, 2018
“They said: Hold please for the President of the United States of America, and that was about the most exciting thing ever,”she recalled. “It was just very sweet of him to congratulate us.”
As for the rest of their conversation, she left it up to our imaginations. “We just kind of had a private conversation, but we talked about a lot of things and he’s just happy for me.”
“It was just a friendly conversation about work and television and ratings. He really understands ratings and how they measure things,” Barr added. “That’s kind of been an interest of mine for long time.”
The politically-involved star also made a point to stress one message: We should all agree to disagree. “Conflict resolution and agreeing to disagree are important things I like to feature and talk about,” she reasoned. “I haven’t seen much of that.”
The comedienne has never been known to beat around the bush when it comes to hot-button issues, but she did admit she prefers things to be civil, saying, “I really hope it opens up civil conversation between people instead of just mud slinging. I really do. I think We need to be more civilized than that.”
Time will tell if the show continues to cover political topics and whether or not the strong ratings will hold.
Roseanne, Tuesdays, 8/7c, ABC
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