Friday, March 29, 2024

TV Ratings: Carol Burnett, 84, Scores Football Sized Ratings with 50th Anniversary Special

Share

Broadcast TV roared back to life last night with huge ratings for the nostalgia-oriented.

The 50th anniversary special for “The Carol Burnett Show” scored 15.2 million viewers.  She did numbers as good as NFL Football. The show was so well produced and had just the right guests– Harry Connick Jr., Bernadette Peter, etc — that you couldn’t not watch it even if it was corny.

“Burnett” followed a big “60 Minutes” 50th anniversary with 11.3 million viewers. “60 Minutes” featured everyone who’d ever hosted a segment except for Charlie Rose. He was erased from the history. They even included Dan Rather! And Katie Couric!

Carol Burnett has been a class act for decades. How nice to see her looking so great, and thriving despite al her personal losses. It was a little unnerving to see Lionel Waggoner so aged, he was so robust as a young man. Harvey Korman is much missed. But I wonder where Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence were?

Tomorrow we’ll get the Sunday cable numbers for “Curb Your Enthusiasm” with Lin Manuel Miranda. It was a classic, a great episode featuring the musical “Fatwa!” It all ends badly, course. Kudos to Larry and his team!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
spot_img

Read more

In Other News