Channing Dungey, who was the first African-American woman to head the entertainment division of a major broadcast network is history after making one of the worst decisions since John Jacob Astor decided to take a cruise on the Titanic.
The amount of money ABC laid out and lost is incredible. You can’t remove the talent from a show and expect it to succeed. Try to imagine the Rolling Stones without Mick Jagger. Being politically correct in business can be disastrous and the likelihood of Dungey ever getting a second chance is as unlikely as Hillary winning the presidency in her third try.
Channing Dungey, who was the first African-American woman to head the entertainment division of a major broadcast network, is now the former president of ABC Entertainment following the announcement of her resignation last week.
It was Dungey who decided to cancel “Roseanne” following the star’s controversial tweet in May about former Obama administration staffer Valerie Jarrett, who is also African American, that was labeled as racist.
Dungey, named president in 2016, defended her decision to cancel the popular show by saying, “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”
A spinoff of “Roseanne” debuted last month under the title of “The Conners,” with the Roseanne character having been written out of the show due to an accidental drug overdose.
The ratings were respectable for its Oct. 16 debut — likely from fans who were curious about how Roseanne’s death played out on the show — but have continued to decline as the original “Roseanne” fanbase has stayed away from the show.
Somewhere Rosie is sipping some chardonnay and laughing her ass off.