Roseanne Barr isn’t holding back on her frustration with ABC. The comedian is blasting the network for quickly bringing back Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after a short suspension, while her own “Roseanne” reboot got permanently axed back in 2018 over racist tweets.
At 72, Barr sees a clear double standard in how ABC treated her compared to Kimmel, who’s 57. “I got my whole life ruined, no forgiveness and all of my work stolen and called a racist for time and eternity, for racially misgendering someone,” she told NewsNation on Tuesday. “It just shows how they think. It’s a double standard.”
Barr, a vocal Donald Trump supporter, didn’t stop there. She took a jab at Kimmel too, saying his small fan base—maybe 2,000 people—would cheer the return like they’d won another round against Trump and everyday Americans.
The whole ordeal still stings for Barr. She says the cancellation wiped out her legacy, especially as a trailblazer for women in media and feminism. “I’ve been erased from history, from the history of feminism, which that cracks me up,” she added. “I’m never mentioned in anything about women who are pioneers in media. I’m never mentioned in anything anymore.”
Let’s rewind to what sparked the 2018 drama. Barr’s tweets compared Valerie Jarrett, a top advisor to former President Barack Obama, to the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.” The backlash was swift, and ABC pulled the plug on the hit reboot. Barr apologized right away, explaining she thought Jarrett was white and that her joke about politics and looks went too far. “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans,” she wrote at the time. “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me—my joke was in bad taste.”
This isn’t the first time Barr has called out ABC over unequal treatment. Back in 2023, during her Fox Nation special “Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!,” she pointed fingers at Kimmel and “The View” co-host Joy Behar for their own past controversies. “I’ll tell you what, just put me on the ‘Jimmy Kimmel Show’ and on ‘The View’ and a lot of your other shows you’ve got on the ABC channel, you know, where people they’ve been in blackface and everything,” she said. “I’ll go on there and surely, they’ll understand my mistake.”
Kimmel has owned up to using blackface in old “The Man Show” sketches to impersonate stars like NBA player Karl Malone. As for Behar, she pushed back on claims she wore blackface for a Halloween costume, calling it an “homage” instead.
Kimmel’s show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” is set to return Tuesday after his nearly week-long break over comments about Charlie Kirk. For Barr, though, the contrast highlights ongoing issues in Hollywood cancel culture and network decisions.
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