Pro-Middle Class, MAGA Rosanne Reboot Crushes Ratings

The return of Rosanne after 21 years is one of many old successes making a go at resurrection. This one is different however due to the ethos of the show and it’s resonance in the age of MAGA political and cultural divides.

In the show, Rosanne is a pro-Trump matriarch of a struggling middle class family that doesn’t hold her tongue when it comes to speaking very real socioeconomic truths that exist on minds of a huge swath of the American working class communities.

Despite low (climbing) approval ratings for the White House, the premiere of the blue collar, Trump Country comedy hit it out of the park.

“The return delivered an incredible 18.2 million viewers along with an equally impressive 5.1 rating among adults 18-49.

According to ABC, this is the highest-rated comedy telecast on any network in nearly four years (since a premiere episode of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory from 2014).

So, yes, even bigger than NBC’s mega-hit This Is Us during any of its regularly scheduled episodes, where the weepy dramedy usually tops out around a 3.0 adult demo rating (the special This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode was bigger, but that’s to be expected).

In the adult demo, it also trumps Sunday’s blockbuster 60 Minutes episode which featured an interview with Stormy Daniels.

Also kinda incredible, given how ratings have declined over the years: Roseanne’s return was actually higher among total viewers than its 1997 finale 21 years ago!

The Roseanne hour-long premiere audience also grew slightly from the show’s first episode at 8 p.m. to its second at 8:30 p.m., which is a good sign.

A couple other data points: This is Tuesday’s highest-rated entertainment telecast in six years among young adults and ABC’s best results in the time slot since 2006.”

The opening home run goes to show that there is a huge swath of the American public that are overlooked, even demeaned, when it comes to mainstream media offerings. And it’s not as if the show shies away from the sensitive issues – it tackled the 2016 elections, healthcare, jobs, and a family deals with a cross-dressing 9 year old boy all in the first hour of the season.

You can bet that next week’s numbers will follow through as people catch wind of knee-slapper that respects and articulates a Make America Great Again attitude and wraps it up with the self-evident importance of family.

Now, Rosanne herself, a real life Trump supporter now, has been all over the Left side of the political map in a big way. She ran for president as a Green Party communist in 2012.

Still, the show cuts to the bone with its portrayal of political and social tug-of-wars and hits a funny bone repeatedly while dropping truth bombs.