On Tuesday, March 27, ABC premieres the highly anticipated revival of classic sitcom Roseanne. If it seems like it’s been a long time since Roseanne ended, it’s because it has. In the current landscape of TV revivals, Roseanne sports one of the longest gaps between original series and revival, at nearly 21 years. Still, judging by the level of hype circulating around the revival, fans are just as eager to hang out with the Conners now as they were back then.
On the other hand, a lot has recently been made of the potentially controversial fact that Roseanne season 10 is set to address America’s political divide head on, with Roseanne being a Donald Trump supporter and her sister Jackie having voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Lots of fans have made it known that they would rather not mix their sitcoms with politics, but according to advance reviews, the political stuff goes away after the first episode. In other words, those put off by the idea of the Conners getting political won’t have to deal with it for long. For those looking to tune in to Roseanne’s big two-episode premiere live, there are a variety of ways available to do so, detailed below.
In the United States: The most obvious way to watch Roseanne live in the U.S. is to watch it on ABC. That doesn’t mean those without cable or the ability to receive local channels over the air are out of luck though, as there are several avenues one can use to access ABC via the internet. DirectTV Now, PlayStation Vue, Youtube TV, and Hulu Live all offer ABC as part of their standard internet-based TV packages, which range in price between $30 and $40 per month. Sling TV also offers ABC as a $5 add-on to its $20 Sling Orange service tier. In addition, most of the aforementioned streaming services offer a free trial, allowing you to sample how things work without committing to a monthly package. For those who’d prefer to watch on-demand instead of live, Hulu’s standard non-live subscription offering (starting at $8 per month) provides next day access to ABC shows. ABC also has a dedicated on-demand app, but fully accessing its offerings requires a cable company login.
In Canada: Roseanne airs live each Tuesday on CTV in Canada, at the same time it airs in the U.S. Like ABC, CTV is an over the air channel, and might be able to be picked up by an antenna, depending on one’s location. Sadly, Canada’s dearth of online TV services that are independent of cable basically gives Roseanne fans up north no other legal options to watch the new episodes if they don’t have cable and can’t get CTV over the air. To add insult to injury, not even an iTunes season pass is available. CTV does offer some on-demand programming free via its website - its unclear at present if Roseanne will be one of those shows - but to get full access to everything, a cable company login is once again required.
In the United Kingdom: Surprisingly enough, Roseanne’s revival currently doesn’t have a UK broadcast home, and it’s unknown when fans across the pond will get to watch the series. While Roseanne is indeed a very American show, it’s hard to imagine that there aren’t at least some UK viewers who would like to spend some quality time with Roseanne, Dan, and the rest.
It’ll soon be time to head back to Lanford, Illinois, gather around the dinner table, and have some laughs with the Conner clan. If season 10 does well, one wonders if another batch of episodes will end up being in the cards.
More: Roseanne Revival Character Guide: How Everybody’s Changed
