Carol Burnett may be 84-years-old, but the comedic actress proved on Sunday that she’s still got it.
The evening’s “Carol Burnett 50th Anniversary Special” scored a whopping 15.4 million “live” viewers on-average for CBS — and that was while competing directly against NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which is TV’s No. 1 show.
Yeah, that’s pretty damn good. As a matter of fact, the funnywoman’s two-hour golden anniversary presentation actually drew broadcast’s biggest audience for a non-sports special since February’s Oscars. Take a bow, Tiffany Network.
While the Burnett special nipped at the NBC audience-tally’s heels during the overlapping Philadelphia Eagles-Seattle Seahawks game, the two telecasts were nowhere near each other in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic. How is that possible? It’s quite simple, really: Mostly older people watched the 8-10 p.m. Burnett special.
Relax, we’ve got data to back that up.
The average age of a viewer for the special was 64.7 years young, per Nielsen — so, just shy of retirement. Still, CBS got a lot of baby boomers, and they’ve got a lot of money. In other words, no one is complaining over there — certainly not 68-year-old CBS boss Les Moonves.