Whitney Cummings Reveals Real Reason She Quit ‘Roseanne’ Revival

Whitney Cummings has finally revealed the real reason she quit the Roseanne revival ahead of it’s cancellation. Cummings is a stand-up comedian and actress who signed on to be the showrunner for Season 11 of the iconic comedy series. She eventually left, citing her busy schedule as the reason why.

“Working on Roseanne was a surreal, incredible experience,” Cummings said in a statement at the time. “Due to work commitments and my tour schedule, I’m gonna have to watch the Conners from the sidelines next season. It was an honor to work with such an incredibly talented group of actors, writers and crew.”

Notably, co-showrunner and executive producer Bruce Helford also explained her absence this way telling reporters, “I think Whitney is going to be too busy. Whitney is always a member of the family of the show but she’s got so much going on. I don’t know how she had time to work on the show in the first place. I don’t think she’ll be able to join us in the capacity she was joining us in this first season.”

Now, in an interview with The Daily Beast’s “The Last Laugh“ podcast, Cummings revealed that it was Roseanne Barr‘s tweeting that led her to leave.

“I wanted her to get off Twitter,” she said. “I felt like it was going to come to a head. It was like whack-a-mole.”

She also commented on how the cast and crew “all worked really hard on that show and it’s just a shame,” later adding that many people put their “heart and soul” into the show but it was “just for nothing.”

“I grew up watching Roseanne, I loved it,” Cummings went on to say. “I grew up poor and that was the first show that looked like my house. It was the first show that didn’t make me feel bad about myself.”

Roseanne was cancelled shortly after Cummings left, for the exact reason she was worried about: Barr’s tweets. The longtime comedian and political conservative posted a racially motivated commented about former White House aide Valerie Jarrett, saying that she looked like the “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.”

This set off a massive backlash, which caused Barr to be fired and eventually the show to be canceled. Ultimately, producers were able to salvage the situation, by pitching ABC a spin-off wherein Barr’s character had passed away, but the remaining characters were still around.

That series became The Conners, and it’s first season was a hug success for the network. A new season of the sitcom will debut on Tuesday, Sept. 24.