Dolly Parton’s death on August 25 at age 80 set off a wave of tribute programming across broadcast television, and the numbers show just how many people tuned in to remember her. According to a report from Variety, tribute specials on ABC, CBS, NBC and The CW all posted strong ratings in the days following her passing, even though late August is typically a slow stretch for television viewership.
The most striking number belongs to ABC, which aired a rerun of the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, starring Parton alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, on Sunday, August 30. The broadcast averaged 4.275 million viewers in live plus same day ratings, making it the most-watched movie on a broadcast network in more than three and a half years, since December 2022. It was also the most-watched film to air on ABC in nearly six years, dating back to a December 2020 broadcast of The Sound of Music.
On the day Parton died, ABC News aired a special edition of 20/20 titled Dolly Parton: An American Original, hosted by World News Tonight anchor David Muir. That special averaged 4.051 million total viewers, putting it at number one in its 10 p.m. time slot and ahead of a competing special on CBS in the same hour. It marked the best non-sports telecast at 10 p.m. in three months. Once multiplatform viewing on Disney+, Hulu and other digital outlets is factored in, the special’s audience grew to 6.556 million, and it became the most-viewed title on Disney+ and Hulu on its first full day of streaming.
CBS News countered that same night with A CBS News Special: Dolly Parton, An American Idol, anchored by Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Anthony Mason, which averaged 2.085 million viewers. NBC followed two days later on Wednesday, August 26, with Dolly: An NBC News Special, anchored by Lester Holt, which drew 3.952 million viewers initially and has since climbed to 4.5 million once Peacock streams are included. That same evening, The CW ran an encore of its special Dolly Parton: Here I Am, which pulled in 1.299 million viewers, a notably large audience for the smaller network.
The following Sunday, ABC rebroadcast An American Original for an additional 3.566 million viewers, while CBS closed out the week with an Entertainment Tonight special called Remembering Dolly: A Rhinestone Life, boosted by a lead-in from 60 Minutes. Hosted by ET anchors Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner, the special averaged 5.326 million viewers and featured Parton’s first interview with the show back in 1982 through her final conversation with the program, along with tributes from Dionne Warwick, Melissa Etheridge, Diane Warren, Debbie Allen and Jennifer Nettles, among others.
The ripple effect even reached the nightly news. On the day of Parton’s death, World News Tonight with David Muir averaged 9.2 million viewers, and the broadcast went on to post its largest weekly audience in five months.