The Ed Sullivan Show: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

From 1949 until its cancelation in 1971, The Ed Sullivan Show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. E.T., and is one of the few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades. (During its first season, it ran from 9–10 p.m. E.T.) Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; opera singers, popular artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologues from plays, and circus acts were regularly featured. The format was essentially the same as vaudeville, and although vaudeville had died a generation earlier, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show.

Series details

• Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
• Format: Variety
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 1948-06-20
• Final broadcast date listed: 1971-03-28
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: CBS
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 23759
• IMDb ID: tt0040053
• TVDB ID: 70897

Cast and credited roles

• Ed Sullivan — Presenter

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1948-06-20; final listed air date 1948-06-20.
• Season 2: premiered 1949-09-18; final listed air date 1949-09-18.
• Season 8: premiered 1954-11-07; final listed air date 1954-11-07.
• Season 9: premiered 1955-09-25; final listed air date 1956-09-16.
• Season 10: premiered 1956-09-23; final listed air date 1957-09-15.
• Season 11: premiered 1957-09-22; final listed air date 1958-09-07.
• Season 12: premiered 1958-09-14; final listed air date 1959-09-13.
• Season 13: premiered 1959-09-20; final listed air date 1960-09-11.
• Season 14: premiered 1960-09-25; final listed air date 1961-07-30.
• Season 15: premiered 1961-09-17; final listed air date 1962-08-19.
• Season 16: premiered 1962-09-30; final listed air date 1963-08-18.
• Season 17: premiered 1963-09-29; final listed air date 1964-09-06.
• Season 18: premiered 1964-09-27; final listed air date 1965-08-29.
• Season 19: premiered 1965-09-12; final listed air date 1966-08-07.
• Season 20: premiered 1966-09-11; final listed air date 1967-06-25.
• Season 21: premiered 1967-09-10; final listed air date 1968-06-09.
• Season 22: premiered 1968-09-29; final listed air date 1969-08-31.
• Season 23: premiered 1969-09-28; final listed air date 1970-06-14.
• Season 24: premiered 1970-09-20; final listed air date 1971-03-28.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Ed Sullivan Show on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.