Reboots and revivals are all the rage on the small screen nowadays, and the most talked-about new revival is none other than Roseanne on ABC. The premiere last week scored massive and even unprecedented ratings for ABC, and the network ordered a renewal only days later. A big question was whether or not the show would be able to hold on to its crazy ratings for the rest of the first revival season. Well, the second week's episode has officially aired, and we now know that fewer people tuned in for Week 2 but there's no reason for the network to start panicking just yet.
The Roseanne premiere actually consisted of two episodes, and Week 2 aired the third episode. In Live+Same Day calculations, 15.2 million people in the key 18-49 age demographic tuned in to the episode, which scored a 3.9 in that demo. Those numbers make Roseanne the top Tuesday TV show in total viewership and 18-49 ratings for the second week straight. In fact, ABC beat its competition on both NBC and CBS by 50%. ABC's Tuesday comedy block won in all four of its half-hour slots from 8 p.m.-10 p.m. ET.
While we can't be positive how exactly Roseanne helped ABC's other shows, it's surely no coincidence that the shows are doing particularly well with Roseanne opening the evening of primetime. ABC may not be too concerned about the drop in ratings and viewership from the first week to the second.
That said, the drop is worth noting. In Live+Same Day calculations for Roseanne's revival premiere, 18.16 million people tuned in for the episode that scored an incredible 5.1 rating, both in the all-important 18-49 demographic. The show dropped by 15% in total viewers and 20% in the ratings from Week 1 to Week 2. Now, if we were talking about a show that had only performed reasonably well in its first week, drops of 15% and 20% might be a pretty big deal. Such drops don't really spell doom for a show that started out as strongly as Roseanne did.
Besides, shows often drop from their first week to their second. Viewers may tune in out of curiosity or just to give a new show a try, then decide that it's not the show for them and not bother to watch. It would have been shocking if Roseanne had equalled its premiere ratings, let alone surpassed them. Something tells me ABC isn't regretting the decision to renew the revival for a second season.
There's also the point that the ratings and viewership numbers are bound to change in the coming days. The first week of Roseanne saw its numbers get a big boost once Live+3 Day numbers could be calculated. Delayed calculations resulted in Roseanne breaking a record for the largest Live+3 increase for a single telecast on any network. Viewership jumped up to 25.04 million and the ratings peaked at 7.2 in the 18-49 demo. The ratings and viewership for Roseanne's second week could ultimately be quite a bit higher than what was calculated for Live+Same Day measurements.
We'll have to wait and see. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere guide and summer TV premiere schedule. New episodes of Roseanne air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. If the ratings continue to climb, we may need to reevaluate the future of broadcast television.
