TV character kill-offs shouldn’t be morbid, should they?
Roseanne Barr couldn’t stay from away from Twitter — even if she really, really tried. (Remember, she did try when she quit Twitter after her absurd Valerie Jarrett debacle — then rejoined hours later to plead her case.) Yesterday was no different.
Last night (Oct. 16) marked ABC’s premiere of The Conners, the Roseanne spin-off created after Barr was fired from her own show earlier this year.
Viewers knew Roseanne would be “killed off,” but who knew it would take place in the first five minutes of the series’ reboot?
After a PR nightmare, writers were decisive in removal from the show, so they killed her character off with an opioid overdose. The Conners believed their matriarch died from a heart attack in her own bed, but a friend at the coroner’s office told Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) her sister committed suicide with opioids.
Entertainment Weekly reports Barr released a statement about The Conners premiere, saying, “[An] opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show.”
For old time sake, Roseanne even took to Twitter to respond to her character’s death with four simple words: “I’m ain’t dead , bitches!!!”
The Conners “delivered 10.5 million viewers and a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49.” Those numbers are reportedly down 55 percent from the ratings seen during the premiere of Roseanne this past spring, which debuted with 18.2 million viewers.
Check out a clip from the The Conners debut episode below, and watch as Becky and Darlene fight over who will take on their late mother’s familial and financial responsibilities.
