HOLLYWOOD - How does the most popular new TV show in America get canceled in a matter of hours?

On Tuesday we found out. All it takes is a few derogatory tweets by a star, in this case Roseanne Barr, and a few conference calls by network executives.

Executives at ABC and its parent company, Disney, decided early in the day to pull the plug on "Roseanne."

The view inside Disney, sources told CNN, was that Tuesday was the third or fourth time when Barr's tweets had presented a problem for ABC. This controversy was by far the worst yet.

Tuesday's racist and bizarre tweets were "unsurvivable," one of the sources said. "Enough was enough."

Barr was informed by phone ahead of time. But other "Roseanne" producers and cast members only found out about the decision when ABC issued a terse statement shortly before 11 a.m. Pacific time.

Inside ABC, there's now a sense of pride in how quickly this controversy was contained -- but there are lingering questions about why the network got back in business with Barr to begin with.

Story Date: May 30, 2018