Really, the only series to offer comparable competition would be NBC’s This Is Us, and the only reason that drama scored higher numbers this year is because it landed the lucrative post-Super Bowl time slot.
In fact, “Twenty Years to Life” and “Dressed to Impress” reportedly combined for network TV’s highest-rated comedy telecast in around four years.
ABC did wisely premiere Roseanne in the weeks after the NBC mega-hit wrapped its second season, but the sitcom’s numbers might inspire more confidence about when to premiere the next season, assuming another gets ordered up.
As previously mentioned, Roseanne’s latest pair of episodes managed to draw a bigger crowd than the 16.6 million people that tuned in for the double-episode Season 9 finale, in which it was revealed that much of that season wasn’t even real.