Why Roseanne Succeeded Where Idol Failed

Within the last month, ABC has premiered two revivals of classic shows, American Idol and Roseanne. One is withering on the vine despite a hefty price tag, and the other is mired in controversy over a star's political beliefs. So why is one show thriving and the other dying? The answer is both simple and complicated and has to do with the producers of the show.

Let's get the obvious answers out of the way. Roseanne signed off 21 years ago, and at the time it was still a rating's heavyweight. There has been speculation that ABC had tried to coax Roseanne Barr into doing another season, but the sitcom doyenne was irritated that her attempts to bring over classic British comedy, Absolutely Fabolous, over to America had been met with resistance by the network. Allegedly this led to her wanting to end her aging family sitcom and focus on other opportunities.

American Idol, on the other hand, had only been off the airwaves for 2 years. Even when it was announced that the show would be returning, many people were asking one question: Why? There was no demand for the show, especially since NBC's The Voice had taken over as the singing competition that America wants to watch. They didn't give fans a chance to miss the show before it reappeared on another network. But that's a different argument.

Which is what I'll make right now. When Idol originally ran, it was on Fox. It infamously helped the Murdoch owned network hit number 1 in the ratings for 3-4 seasons. It also lured A-list musical talent to judge the competition. The move to Disney owned ABC made no sense in continuity and overall health of the series. If they expected it to launch big, why wouldn't the original network bring it back?

Like ABC did with Roseanne, NBC did with Will and Grace, and CBS will be doing with the Murphy Brown revival, the home network is important. People will say it doesn't matter but if that was true, why not go to Netflix or Hulu or The CW? The answer is simple, the home network matters. Not only from a business standpoint but also from a nostalgic stance.

Also helping nostalgia for Roseanne is the fact that the entire cast came back. Roseanne, John Goodman, Sara Gilbert, Laurie Metcalf, all fo the originals have come back to play again. That truly helps fans reconnect with characters new and old. There is nothing that can convince me that the familiarity of the cast did not contribute to the massive ratings that ABC saw for the premiere. Especially when you look at Idol.

American Idol lured Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie to be judges. For any other show, this would be a dream panel. However, for an unwanted revival of a reality show, it's a nightmare. Each individual is fine and brings a unique perspective to the table, but if they wanted this to be a ratings success, then they should have lured Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, and Randy Jackson back to the table. This would have been a revival that people wanted to see and would have tuned in for. Hell, even if they couldn't get the OG judges, aim for some of the more famous alumni of the show. Kelly Clarkson would have been an ace judge for the show (and it would've brought her back into the ABC fold), Carrie Underwood, and Adam Lambert would have made great judges. They would have also made it easier for the audience to be excited about the show coming back.

Another thing that made people excited about Roseanne coming back, allegedly at least, is that Roseanne Connor was a supporter of Trump. Much has been written about this but nothing that I have read hits on the real issue here. Yes, the Roseanne and Dan seem to be Trump supporters, but there are also Hillary supporters and other viewpoints thrown in there for good measure. And Roseanne (the character) made it clear that she supports Trump because he talked about job creation. So while some Conservative pundits will crow about Roseanne's huge ratings being affiliated with Trump, that is a strawman argument at best. At worst it is being used to inflate someone's ego.

While the cast of Roseanne was everywhere, Idol got very little promotion. Sure there were some billboards and Ryan Seacrest did some interviews but nowhere near the amount of promotion and marketing that Roseanne got. Why? My guess is that ABC knew that it was getting a bad deal when they picked up the former reality juggernaut. And those who blame the Ryan Seacrest #metoo story for the loss of ratings are missing the bigger picture. While that story may have a small impact, the fact is that the scandal hasn't impacted his daytime show in the ratings.

There are many reasons why Roseanne is flying high on the ratings plane and why Idol is steady but unspectacular in the ratings. Nostalgia and familiarity are important parts of reviving a classic TV show.