Paramount Network Picks Up 'Roseanne'

The off-network version of Roseanne will join a fourth Viacom-owned network, with the series premiere on Paramount Network, formerly Spike, on Tuesday, April 17.

Roseanne will make its entrée to Paramount Network via an 11-hour marathon, running 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET/PT, leading into a new episode of the rebooted version on ABC that night. Starting on Wednesday, April 18, four episodes of the series will air from 4 to 6 p.m. ET/PT.

Roseanne currently airs on TV Land, CMT and Logo, as well as on Katz’ Laff digi-net network on broadcast. TV Land ran marathons of the show on every Saturday in March and plans to run another marathon over Memorial Day, while CMT is going to air a marathon over Mother’s Day.

ABC revived Roseanne with most of the original cast, with the new show launching on Tuesday, March 27. The two-episode, one-hour premiere opened to 18.2 million viewers and a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49, the best debut for a sitcom in four years and the best Tuesday-night debut for any show in six years. That viewership grew to more than 25 million viewers in the live-plus-seven day ratings, setting a record for most delayed-viewing lift.

The second week’s showing fell back to earth a bit, but still saw very strong numbers, with 15.4 million viewers tuning in, according to Nielsen’s live-plus-same- day ratings, and a 3.9 among adults 18-49.

Roseanne stars Roseanne Barr and centers around a working-class American family in Illinois. From executive producer Carsey Werner Productions, Roseanne ran from 1988-1997. The cast also includes John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, and Natalie West.

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.