‘Black-ish’ Creator Kenya Barris Leaving ABC Studios

Kenya Barris (Credit: Deposit Photos)

Kenya Barris is leaving network TV amid reports he’s on his way to Netflix.

The Black-ish creator announced Friday he’s ending his longtime partnership with ABC Studios, the network’s production arm.

“I’m very grateful to Patrick Moran and his team at ABC Studios, who have supported me every step of the way as I created the worlds of black-ish, grown-ish, and now Besties,” Barris said in a statement to the media.

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Barris will officially depart ABC Studios in August, although his deal wasn’t set to expire until 2021, according to Variety.

He will reportedly step down as showrunner of Black-ish for the sitcom’s upcoming fifth season.

Barris also created Black-ish spinoff Grown-ish, and he has a deal to produce a new Freeform comedy titled Besties. He will reportedly keep an executive producer title on all of his ABC-Freeform shows.

The Hollywood producer had been rumored to be unhappy with ABC since March when the network opted not to air an episode of Black-ish about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem.

Last month during an industry symposium, Barris criticized ABC brass for rebooting Roseanne and giving star Roseanne Barr a platform on primetime television.

“You hired a monster and then you asked why the monster was killing villagers,” Barris said about Barr’s May tweet comparing former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett to an ape.

He also revealed he was so furious about the disgraced comedian’s social media post that he told ABC executives he would go public if they didn’t do something about Barr.

“I was literally coming out of the show and I was like f— this,” he said. “I was going to go crazy. I was going to call my agent and go on (CNN’s) Don Lemon and other shows.”

However, he said he changed his mind when ABC brass announced that same day that they were canceling Roseanne.