ABC Has Not Asked Roseanne Barr to Return for ‘The Conners,’ Despite Tabloid Claim

Despite reports that Roseanne Barr is being begged by ABC to appear on The Conners, the Roseanne star will not be making a return to the alphabet network anytime soon.

The Globe reported this week that even though Barr is “bitter after getting fired from her own sitcom,” she is getting the “last laugh as desperate ABC brass are secretly begging her to come back and save their replacement show.”

The tabloid contended in the article that ABC is “ready to pay the star major bucks to save [The Conners]” and that “execs are desperate to see Roseanne return because they know the show is doomed without her.”

But a representative for Barr told Gossip Cop that no one from ABC has approached her about a return, calling the magazine’s story “not true” and adding that there is “no contract” between ABC and Barr.

As previously reported, Barr was fired from ABC and her sitcom Roseanne was canceled after she sent a racist tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. The network quickly ordered a new spinoff series, The Conners, with all of Roseanne‘s major actors — except for Barr.

In the show’s first episode earlier this month, it revealed that Roseanne, who was the matriarch of the Conner family, died following an opioid overdose. Initially, the family thought Roseanne had died of a heart attack, but eventually they discovered via an autopsy report that it was actually an overdose. She had developed an addiction after being prescribed pain medication after her knee surgery. Dan (John Goodman) flushed them all down the toilet, but the family found a bottle of pain pills belonging to a neighbor in the closet.

Barr was not pleased with the way she was written off the show, to say the least. At the end of the series premiere, she tweeted, “I AIN’T DEAD BITCHES!!!!” In a more composed statement, she and good friend and podcast host Rabbi Shmluey said they “regret that ABC chose to cancel Roseanne by killing off the Roseanne Conner character.”

“That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show,” the statement read. “This was a choice the network did not have to make.”

It continued, “Roseanne was the only show on television that directly addressed the deep divisions threatening the very fabric of our society. Specifically, the show promoted the message that love and respect for one another’s personhood should transcend differences in background and ideological discord. The show brought together characters of different political persuasions and ethnic backgrounds in one, unified family, a rarity in modern American entertainment. Above all else, the show celebrated a strong, matriarchal woman in a leading role, something we need more of in our country.”

“After repeated and heartfelt apologies, the network was unwilling to look past a regrettable mistake, thereby denying the twin American values of both repentance and forgiveness. In a hyper-partisan climate, people will sometimes make the mistake of speaking with words that do not truly reflect who they are. However, it is the power of forgiveness that defines our humanity,” it read.

The Conners airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.