Howard Stern and Roseanne Barr have a lot in common. They may be on different sides of the political spectrum (Roseanne is a proud Trump supporter; Howard supported Hillary Clinton), but they both speak the same language: FUNNY. Make that politically incorrect, straight-shootin’ funny. So it was a great fit when Roseanne stopped by Stern’s show this week to promote the reboot of Roseanne on ABC. These days, anybody promoting anything must stop at Howard’s if they can get an invitation — but it wasn’t that way back in 1988 when Roseanne premiered. Howard was just starting his journey to become King of All Media then — and many acts actually stayed away from the Stern Show, thinking it unseemly. Times change. (See Howard at his combative best in 1988 on Larry King’s show in video below.)
But it’s not just Howard’s stature and prominence that changed –it’s the entire media landscape. Roseanne knows this better than anyone. Howard asked her if she expects the same success from the reboot as she had on the original Roseanne run (1988-97). No way, Roseanne replied with her signature frankness. How different are things today? Roseanne said:
“We used to get 40 million viewers a week, now you get 3 million…There were only 4 networks or something back then, now there’s like 900.”
Roseanne’s hopes for the reboot? Same as any fledgling entertainment enterprise, despite her big name. Roseanne just wants to get renewed for a second season.
