After 11 seasons on the air, The Carol Burnett Show wrapped its iconic run on March 29, 1978.
The CBS sketch comedy aired its series finale after its star, Carol Burnett, made history as the first woman to host a variety TV show. The award-winning series ended after 279 episodes, airing for nearly 11 years from September 1967 to March 1978.
Throughout its run, The Carol Burnett Show won 25 Emmy Awards and was nominated 70 times. Its accolades included three trophies for outstanding variety series, acting awards for Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, and recognition for writing, directing, music, choreography and editing.
In addition to Burnett, now 92, the cast included Lawrence, Korman, Conway, Lyle Waggoner and Dick Van Dyke.
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During a 2012 interview with CBS This Morning, Burnett revealed that her variety show only came to be because of her “strange contract.”
“Within the first five years, there was a clause that said, if I wanted to—not if the network wanted—it was bizarre, that I could push that button and they would have to put us on the air for 30 one-hour variety shows, pay or play,” she recalled at the time. “I thought, ‘I’m not a host of [a] variety show—I don’t know if I could ever do that.’”
At the end of the fifth year of her contract, Burnett and her then-husband, Joe Hamilton, decided to inform CBS they wanted to do a variety show, which she claimed the network had “forgotten” was an option. Once executives realized the clause really existed, they tried to talk her out of the idea.
“[A CBS executive] said, ‘You know, Carol, it’s a man’s game. Variety is a man’s game. It’s Jackie Gleason. … It’s Milton Berle, it’s Dean Martin.’ He said, ‘We’ve got this great sitcom for you called Here’s Agnes.’ You can just picture it,” she remembered. “I said, ‘I don’t want to be Agnes. I want to have a variety show with music and sketches and guest stars and a rep company,’ and they had to put us on the air. If I hadn’t pushed that button, it wouldn’t have happened.”
The Carol Burnett Show became a trailblazing hit in the world of TV comedy. More than a decade after the show began, Burnett ended it on her own terms.
“Ratings do not have a thing to do with my decision,” she insisted at the time, per MeTV. “They have been much lower before. And CBS picked the show up for a 12th year. … But it’s classier to leave before you’re asked to go. I’m proud of our show. Now is the time to put it to bed.”
While the moment signaled the closing of a major chapter in Burnett’s life and career, she expressed her gratitude for the journey.
“Nothing ever remains the same,” she said. “But a good time was had by all in those 11 years.”
In the decades that followed, Burnett appeared in films such as 1982’s Annie, returned to Broadway, helmed TV specials with the likes of Julie Andrews and Whoopi Goldberg, starred on the NBC comedy series Carol & Company from 1990 to 1991 and guest-starred on shows such as Mad About You. She also returned for a brief Carol Burnett Show revival in 1991. Today, Burnett is still acting, most recently appearing in the Apple TV series Palm Royale from 2024 to 2026.
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