Roseanne season 11: Whitney Cummings exits as co-showrunner
In a conference call (per The Hollywood Reporter), co-showrunner Bruce Helford confirmed that comedian / writer Whitney Cummings will be departing her post moving into the next batch of episodes. He cited Whitney’s busy schedule as the reason. This means that Helford, a veteran showrunner, could presumably be showrunner for the eleventh season premiering on ABC this fall. Helford was involved in the original version of the show and has a number of other notable credits including The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez, Kevin Can Wait, and Anger Management. He knows the business of creating and operating sitcoms better than anyone.
There will be shake-ups behind the scenes in the writers room moving into season 11, but Roseanne Barr is expected to retain her position as head writer throughout the whole process. She’s been there with the Connors since the beginning and we don’t foresee that changing however long the revival lasts.
At this point, one thing feels clear: Roseanne is a show that ABC is banking on heavily entering the fall after it delivered incredible ratings through most of its run this spring. They want to build a new lineup around it and beyond that, we’re seeing other networks look a little towards it for inspiration. For example, the revival’s success was the impetus in Fox deciding to bring back Last Man Standing, a show that originally aired on ABC through its first six seasons. There is so much irony now in the fact that had ABC kept Last Man Standing and aired it after Roseanne, they would probably have one of the most successful comedy lineups on TV. In terms of demographics those two shows compliment each other almost perfectly.
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