‘The Conners’ Earns Additional Episode at ABC

The Roseanne spin-off The Conners is getting an extra episode from ABC, the network said Friday.

The Conners‘ first season will now run 11 episodes, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Only two episodes of the series have aired so far, but it is already the top-ranked new sitcom of the 2018-2019 TV season among live same-day and delayed viewing. The first episode drew 10.5 million viewers and a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, while episode two fell to 7.2 million viewers and a 1.7 rating in the key demographic.

ABC ordered The Conners over the summer after Roseanne Barr posted a racist message on Twitter that led to ABC cancelling Roseanne. The Conners features the entire Roseanne cast except Barr, including John Goodman, Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf. Bruce Helford also returned as showrunner.

The premiere episode also revealed how Barr’s Roseanne Conner was killed. She died after an opioid overdose, following the family matriarch’s addiction to pain medication from the Roseanne revival season.

“We really miss Roseanne and love her very much, you know and her spirit is still very much with us, so we understand that she’s hurting right now and she’s in pain and she’s always with us,” star Lecy Goranson said on Good Morning America. “Hopefully, we can see her and kind of remedy some of this at some point in time, I hope.”

Michael Fishman also pointed out that Roseanne’s death was inspired by the real-life opioid addiction crisis.

“The tone of the way she passed away was related to last season, and I think you listen to our producers, they really wanted to take a real crisis that’s happening in our country and find a way to give voice to that,” Fishman explained. “I know that the reaction to that is going to be different to different people, but what we’ve always tried to do is tackle big topics and try to be honest about them.”

ABC also picked up the This Is Us-inspired drama A Million Little Things for four more episodes, bringing its freshman total to 17 episodes. ABC also previously picked up the sitcom Single Parents for a full season and ordered three more scripts for The Kids Are Alright, The Rookie and Splitting Up Together.

So far this season, CBS has picked up The Neighborhood, God Friended Me, Magnum P.I. and FBI for full seasons; whereas Fox picked up the sitcom The Cool Kids and NBC picked up New Amsterdam and Manifest.

New episodes of The Conners airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. The next episode is titled “There Won’t Be Blood” and is another Halloween episode in the tradition set by Roseanne.

Photo credit: ABC/Eric McCandless