Dolly Parton in an ABC special from 2023.
Photo by Larry McCormack/ABC
Upon her death last week at age 80, Dolly Parton was seemingly one of the few people in the United States who was almost universally liked. There’s some support for that in, of all places, the primetime Nielsen charts for the week.
ABC, CBS and NBC all aired specials looking back at Parton’s remarkable life and career in the days after her death, and ABC also used its Wonderful World of Disney movie spot on Sunday to show her in 9 to 5, which came out in 1980. All four of those finished in the top 10 primetime shows for the week.
That’s kind of remarkable. A prominent celebrity’s death usually brings about that kind of network coverage — but it’s rare that even one, let alone three plus a movie starring that person, would climb that high in the ratings.
It’s Labor Day weekend, so I’m not going to keep this relatively short and just get to the charts. But here’s one of my favorite Dolly songs. Enjoy, and enjoy the long weekend.
The top network and cable shows for last week are below, followed by the top 10 sports telecasts.