Dolly Parton Tribute Ratings Soar, With ABC’s ‘9 to 5’ Rebroadcast Drawing Its Biggest Audience in Years

Television networks rarely coordinate this quickly or this extensively to honor a single public figure, but the outpouring following Dolly Parton’s death has proven just how deeply her legacy resonates across generations and platforms. What began as a series of hastily assembled tribute specials has turned into one of the biggest collective broadcast moments of the year.

Parton died of cancer on August 25 at the age of 80, and within hours, all four major broadcast networks had scrambled to put together tribute programming honoring her decades-long career. That immediate response has continued paying off in the ratings well over a week later, with a follow-up wave of specials over the weekend drawing some of the strongest broadcast numbers seen in years.

Among the standout performers was ABC’s decision to air a rebroadcast of the 1980 film “9 to 5” on Sunday, August 30, a rarity in itself given how uncommon it’s become for broadcast networks to air films that old. The airing averaged 4.275 million viewers in live-plus-same-day ratings, making it the most-watched film on a broadcast network in more than three and a half years, dating back to December 2022, and the most-watched film on ABC specifically in nearly six years, since 2020’s airing of “The Sound of Music.”

That same Sunday, ABC also rebroadcast “Dolly Parton: An American Original,” which pulled in an additional 3.566 million viewers. Over on CBS, buoyed by a strong lead-in from “60 Minutes,” the network’s “Entertainment Tonight” special “Remembering Dolly: A Rhinestone Life” averaged 5.326 million viewers, hosted by “ET” anchors Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner and featuring interviews and tributes from figures including Dionne Warwick, Melissa Etheridge, Diane Warren, Debbie Allen and Jennifer Nettles.

That Sunday programming followed an even faster initial response the night Parton’s death was announced. ABC News’ special edition of “20/20,” titled “Dolly Parton: An American Original,” aired that same evening hosted by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, drawing 4.05 million total viewers and marking the strongest non-sports 10 p.m. broadcast telecast on any network in three months. CBS’s own same-night special, “Dolly Parton: An American Icon,” hosted by Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil, pulled in an even larger 6.2 million same-day viewers.

The wave of tribute viewership wasn’t limited to traditional broadcast ratings, either. “9 to 5,” which marked Parton’s feature film acting debut alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, quickly climbed to the top of streaming charts as well, sitting at number one on JustWatch’s daily U.S. streaming rankings within a day of her death and holding that position for a second straight day.

That resurgence was aided in part by Philo opening up free streaming access to the film that week as its own tribute gesture. The film, which originally grossed 103 million dollars at the box office upon its 1980 release, remains one of Parton’s most beloved big-screen roles, alongside later films like “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Steel Magnolias.”

Disney also reported that its own “20/20” tribute special ranked as the most-viewed title across both Disney+ and Hulu once it landed on those streaming platforms the day after its broadcast premiere. Between the surge in linear ratings and the parallel streaming resurgence for her film catalog, the response underscores just how far Parton’s cultural footprint extended beyond music alone.

With multiple networks continuing to program additional tribute content in the days following her death, the sustained viewership numbers suggest audiences are still actively seeking ways to celebrate and revisit Parton’s decades-spanning career.

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