December 5, 2023 marked yet another milestone for clips from The Ed Sullivan Show. One year after hitting the one billion total views mark, the “really big show” has amassed more than two billion total views across all streaming channels (including YouTube, Apple Music and Facebook). The influential television variety show, which began its 75th anniversary in June, expanded its reach significantly via a global digital rights agreement between UMe and SOFA Entertainment Inc. in 2020. The library encompasses the show’s historic 23-year primetime run on CBS.
Scores of rarities were thus made available digitally for the first-time including iconic entertainers and influential figures from just about every category of cultural relevance, including music, comedy, sports, film, dance, opera and Broadway.
Sullivan invited and featured some of the earliest or first televised performances of music superstars including Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, The Band, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Jackson 5, The Mamas and The Papas, The Supremes, and The Rolling Stones. Throughout the ’60s, it was the primary address for pop artists to showcase their work.
Sullivan was the first to bring many country music performers (Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Dean, Brenda Lee, and Buck Owens) and key jazz artists Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, to national television viewers.
He invited Black artists onto his stage despite what network censors and the show’s sponsors demanded. In a segregated era when music heard on the radio was either White pop or “race” music, Sullivan was never afraid to cross racial lines. His showcasing of Motown artists developed thanks to a great relationship forged with Berry Gordy. It led to one of the most impactful partnerships in music and television history as The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, and other Motown stars became household names and music legends, in large part due to their Sullivan appearances.
The most-viewed Ed Sullivan Show clips include The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” (75M streams), Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” (62M) and “Don’t Be Cruel” (54M), Ike & Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” (48M), The Temptations & The Supremes’ medley “Get Ready/Stop! In The Name of Love/My Guy” (38M), and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” (48M streams).
The Ed Sullivan Show holds the record as the longest-running primetime variety show in television history airing every Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET on CBS from 1948-1971. Its library of 1,000 hours includes over 10,000 performances. Along with the official YouTube channel, the program continues its TV run on Decades and MeTV as well as streaming on Pluto TV, Plex and Amazon Freevee.
