The revival’s Tuesday premiere earned a mind-boggling 5.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and over 18 million viewers, according to TV by the Numbers, which makes it the biggest premiere of the 2017-18 broadcast season and one of the biggest non-sports or news shows on TV.
According to Variety, the only scripted show to draw bigger numbers than Roseanne this season was the post-Super Bowl episode of This Is Us, which earned a 9.3 rating and 26.97 million viewers.
Roseanne premiered with two back-to-back episodes, and the fan response was as polarized as the Conner family’s politics.
So after time-shifting gets factored in, the final number of Roseanne premiere watchers is going to be well over 20 million at a time when very little cracks 20 million viewers.