'Roseanne' Ratings Climb, Hit 25 Million Viewers With Time-Shifting Record

The comedy's first telecast after a 20-year break also hits an obscene 7.3 rating in the key demo.


Roseanne's ratings riches keep climbing, hitting a record haul for Nielsen's live-plus-three day ratings growth.


The new totals for the Mar. 27 premiere have the comedy totaling 25 million viewers and a massive 7.3 rating among adults 18-49. Looking at just the audience, the 6.6 million add-on from the premiere night is a time-shifting record. And that doesn't even include the additional 4.3 million viewers who tuned into an encore telecast on Sunday night — or the growth it will see from Hulu and ABC streaming.


The last series to add nearly as many viewers in three-day playback was the series premiere of ABC's How to Get Away With Murder way back in September 2014.


But the minutia of Roseanne's premiere success is now just that. It was big, and it will surely get bigger, more than justifying the speedy renewal. Now the real question is how the series will fare moving forward. Tuesday's second night, its third of nine scheduled episodes overall, is under enormous pressure to retain a good portion of its record haul.