ABC Entertainment President On Diversity and Competing With Netflix

After an unexpectedly high-profile year abc entertainment president channing dungey speaks about diversity, streaming and keeping the peace betweens how runners and executives.

- Nicole Laporte

Channing Dungey entered the spotlight this past May when she abruptly canceled ABC’s wildly successful reboot of Roseanne after its star tweeted an offensive slur about former Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett. The incident drew attention to Dungey and the network at a critical juncture: It’s fending off streaming giants like Netflix—which recently poached two of ABC’s top show runners, Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal) and Kenya Barris (Black-ish)—while attempting to attract new viewers.

You renewed Roseanne earlier this year, canceled it following racist tweets from Roseanne Barr, and then quickly green-lighted a spin-off. Do you have any regrets?

When we first thought about rebooting Roseanne, it was for all the right reasons. We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion [at ABC], and we try to walk that walk both on-screen and behind the cameras. But when I looked at our slate of programming, particularly in the wake of the 2016 election, I realized that one audience that we were really not serving was working-class Americans. [After we canceled the show], the only thing keeping me up at night was thinking about the cast and crew—and the writing staff that had come back to play in that sandbox and tell those great stories—and feeling disappointed that it wasn’t going to be able to continue. So I was really elated that it was able to come back together [with the Roseanne spin-off, The Conners].

Are you more cautious now about vetting talent?