An estimated 18.2 million viewers tuned in to watch the Tuesday, March 27, premiere of Roseanne. And President Donald Trump couldn’t be prouder. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that the 71-year-old politician called creator and star Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on the reboot ratings.
“It was pretty exciting, I’ll tell you that much,” Barr, 65, told Good Morning America on Thursday. “I’ve known him for many years and he’s done a lot of nice things for me over the years.”
Roseanne, a sitcom about a blue collar family, aired from 1988 to 1997. The revival features original characters including Sara Gilbert, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf. In the first episode, Barr’s character Roseanne Conner reveals she is a Trump supporter. Her TV sister Jackie (Metcalf) is an extreme liberal.
“I just wanted to have that dialogue about families torn apart by the election and their political differences of opinion and how we handle it,” Barr told the New York Times in an interview published on Tuesday. Barr added that it was her idea for Roseanne to be a Trump supporter.
“It’s an accurate portrayal of these people and people like them,” she revealed. “In terms of what they think,and who they feel when they are the ones who send their kids over to fight. We’ve been in wars for a long, long time, which everybody seems to forget — but working class people don’t forget it because their kids are in it.”
At a Television Critics Association panel in January, the Emmy winner explained why the ABC series would be politically charged.
“It was the working-class people who elected Trump,” she said at the time. “I felt that was very real and something that needed to be discussed, and especially about polarization in the family and people actually hating each other for the way they voted, which I feel is not American.”
Trump’s son Donald Trump, Jr. was equally ecstatic about Roseanne’s comeback. “Wow amazing. Congrats @therealroseanne,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “If you’re not too busy already maybe work in a late night show too . . . seems there’s some demand for an alternate viewpoint.”
Roseanne airs on ABC on Tuesday’s at 8 p.m. EST
