‘Roseanne’ Revival Rejected Major Pop Star Who Auditioned: How Whitney Cummings Explains Passing on Sabrina Carpenter

Before The Conners there was the Roseanne revival, which Sabrina Carpenter auditioned for and didn’t get. When ABC was casting for the series back in 2018, the “Please Please Please” singer, who was 19 at the time and looking for roles beyond Disney after Girl Meets World ended the previous year, auditioned for Roseanne’s granddaughter Harris Conner-Healy. Emma Kenney eventually landed the role as Sara Gilbert’s Darlene Conner-Healy’s daughter.

Cummings actually played a part in who got the role as she served as an executive producer and briefly as showrunner on the revival prior to it being The Conners. She previously told PEOPLE that Carpenter auditioned “and it wasn’t the right fit. She got a rejection that day when we were casting the daughter. And by the way, thank God we said no to her because she’d be stuck on a sitcom set and not being Sabrina Carpenter.”

It’s hard to imagine how different things would be had Carpenter landed the role and not Kenney. For instance, between 2018 and now, she’s released four albums, including last year’s Short n’ Sweet, and has gone on two full headlining tours, and is in the middle of her third. She also opened up for Taylor Swift on international dates of The Eras Tour, not to mention the fact that she finally blew up last spring with “Espresso.” There’s also the fact that The Conners could have turned out differently, and Kenney’s life would have also gone in a different direction.

Whitney Cummings addressed the rejection while appearing on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. Via Deadline, Cohen brought up the situation, to which Cummings said, “No one passes on Sabrina Carpenter for anything. She came in, and she was not a match for a million reasons.” She also joked that she deserves “a percentage of her touring money for not hiring her. Otherwise, she would still be on that show. You’re welcome, Sabrina.”

Things definitely worked out for the better for Sabrina Carpenter, and luckily, fans won’t have to think about how different it would have been. Carpenter is going back out on tour in March in Ireland and The Conners’ final season is also set to premiere sometime this spring. A set premiere date has not been announced, but more information should be coming in a matter of weeks.