‘The Conners’ premieres without Roseanne, draws 10.5M viewers

Premiering without its formerly titular character, played by Roseanne Barr, ABC’s “The Conners” drew 10.5 million viewers on Tuesday night, topping all programs on network television including NBC juggernaut, “This Is Us,” according to early Nielsen ratings released Wednesday afternoon.

Tuesday’s ratings came in higher than the 10.3 million the “Roseanne” finale with Barr drew for ABC. Still, the number was well below that of the “Roseanne” reboot, which premiered in March, attracting 18.4 million viewers.

The numbers come months after Barr posted a racist tweet aimed at former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett that said Jarrett was the child of the Islamist organization Muslim Brotherhood and from the movie “Planet of the Apes.”

ABC abruptly canceled Barr’s top-rated sitcom, “Roseanne,” in May following the tweet.

On Tuesday night’s premiere, Barr’s character was killed off due to an opioid overdose. Barr later took to Twitter to declare she was very much alive.

“I AIN’T DEAD, BITCHES!!!!” Barr wrote to her more than 900,000 followers.

I AIN’T DEAD, BITCHES!!!!

— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) October 16, 2018

Barr would later slam the show’s producers in an interview with HBO’s “Vice News Tonight.”

“It’s like the worst thing they could’ve possibly done to me was to fire me from my own show and let other people write my own story,” Barr said.

With the exception of Barr, the show’s “Roseanne” cast returned for “The Conners.”