Bob Iger Tells Oprah Winfrey Firing Roseanne Barr Was Easy

Bob Iger, Roseanne Barr, Oprah YouTube thumbnails

The Conners Season 2 premiered this week.

With the premiere came the rehashing of Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger’s decision to fire Roseanne Barr. Was it an easy decision? How long did it take to come to the decision? Fans of the Roseanne reboot were dying to know. Fortunately, so was Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday Featured Bob Iger This Week

As those who follow the Disney chairman know, his book The Ride of a Lifetime hit the market this week.

During the interview, Winfrey and Iger discussed a wealth of topics. Among them included the talk show host’s desire for Bob to run for president.

“If Bob Iger had decided to run for president, I would be canvassing in Iowa right now. More than ever, every day, I wish you had done it,” Oprah revealed.

While Iger had entertained the idea of running during 2020. The extension of his Disney tenure after the 21st Century Fox deal forced him to focus his efforts elsewhere.

Per Deadline, the highlight of the interview was the discussion of Roseanne Barr.

How did the decision to fire Roseanne Barr play out?

As most remember, Roseanne was fired and the reboot of her series was cancelled after a late night tweet that mocked former Barack Obama consultant Valerie Jarrett. They ultimately decided to continue the series under a new name without Roseanne.

Iger explained to Oprah that he didn’t see any scenario that would make what happened better. He also revealed that the decision to fire Barr wasn’t something that required a lot of thought. According to Iger, he only needed “five minutes to know what we had to do.”

“It seemed completely insensitive, completely disrespectful. It was very clear. The decision, it was easy to make. What she had done was very, very clear. I didn’t believe any context could make this better or acceptable or could result in us forgiving her. So we did it. And you also know, in today’s world, if there’s a decision to be made by you, make it — because otherwise the world will make it for you, and that’s never good.”

A brief clip from his interview with Oprah can be viewed below. Within the clip, Iger briefly dishes one of the keys to his success with Disney.

As those who followed the drama surrounding Roseanne Barr know, fans have pretty mixed feelings about the reboot continuing without her. While some are just thrilled to continue watching the Conners family, others take issue with the series continuing without Roseanne.

New episodes of The Conners airs on Tuesday night. Those without cable can catch the episode the following day on Hulu or via the ABC streaming app.

Allie Johnson

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