Carol Burnett Shares Memorable Moment With Kelly Clarkson While Performing Duet With Her Iconic TV Sign-Off

May 01, 2023

Carol Burnett is a much-loved singer, actress, and comedian that's brought a ray of sunshine and laughter onto our screens for nearly 70 years. Incredibly, she's still going strong, even as she marked her 90th birthday at the end of April 2023. 

Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, in San Antonio, Texas, but later moved to Los Angeles to live with her grandmother in Hollywood, where she attended Hollywood High School. She went on to study at UCLA, which is where she found her love for performance, and the rest, as they say, is history. Burnett got the acting bug and made her way to New York City after graduation, where she secured her breakout role as the evil queen in the musical fairytale production, "Once Upon a Mattress."

Around the same time, she became a regular player on television's "The Garry Moore Show," which led to her first Emmy Award win. Within a few years, Burnett started her own show, "The Carol Burnett Show," which was a variety show with vaudeville roots and featured dancing, singing and comedy sketches. It aired on CBS from 1967 to 1978 and was incredibly popular. 

And 45 years later, the comedy icon sang perhaps one of the most iconic sign-off songs in television history – “So Long.” But it wasn’t for her show; it was on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” with the Grammy and Emmy-winning artist. 

The two shared a very special moment together that would have any other talk show host envious because of how historic it was for Burnett to sing the famous song again after many years had passed. 

"The Carol Burnett Show" was airing at the peak of Burnett's career when she began her family with TV producer Joe Hamilton. The show earned various accolades and achievements in television back then, including 25 Primetime Emmy Awards, and has been ranked by TV Guide as the No. 17 on the 60th Greatest Shows of All Time. Time Magazine also included the variety/sketch show in their list of 100 Best TV Shows of All Time. 

After the show bid its final goodbye on the airwaves, the show has been revived for quite some time in the past, with several syndicated reruns happening. However, TV specials saw Burnett returning to her show several times. 

In 1993, “The Carol Burnett Show: A Reunion” aired, which featured the best moments of the show from its 1967 to 1978 run. In 2001, “The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers” broadcasted never before seen bloopers and footage from the sketch series. 

Three years later, “The Carol Burnett Show: Let's Bump Up the Lights” hit television as it featured clips of Burnett and her recorded audience warmups where she would humorously and seriously answer questions from the studio audience back on the episodes that aired before. 

The last show was in 2017, “The Carol Burnett Show: 50th Anniversary Special,” which saw some of the best highlights and moments in the show. The reunion special included various celebrities who reminisced with Burnett in live and recorded footage. 

Because of his great work in comedy due to her outstanding contribution to comedy and television, Burnett received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in October 2013.

Apart from the star-studded guests and hilarious skits, what made the show iconic was Burnett’s sign-off song which has become a household song for many throughout the decades. 

More than four decades later, since the show last aired, its famous closing theme song, “So Long,” has been immortalized in a new moment with Kelly Clarkson at her very own “The Kelly Clarkson” show. Burnett, who celebrated her 90th Birthday on April 26, 2023, looked well at 90 years old.

During the segment, Clarkson and Burnett had a very special duet that many hosts or artists would dream of doing. Performing “So Long,” the closing theme song that Burnett used to sing before she closed the show.

“I'm so glad we had this time together. Just to have a laugh or sing a song. Seems we just get started, and before you know it. Comes the time we have to say, ‘So long,’” Clarkson and Burnett sang, as the latter tugged her ear as she did every time back then.

Apparently, the ear tugging was a special mannerism the TV icon had developed was a silent message for her beloved grandmother who had raised her, signifying that she thought of her at that moment, which she continued and became a tradition even after her death.

After their short duet, Clarkson hugged Burnett, to which she told the host that she was a “doll.”

Fans were smitten with the trip back to memory lane that the two had brought, taking to YouTube to share their praises.  

“Imagine if they did this at the end of the episode instead Kelly’s usual sign-off, but I still love this!” a fan suggested. 

“This was so sweet, I actually got choked up. Looked like Carol just wanted to sit back and watch Kelly sing. Lol We know Carol, we do the same thing she’s amazing,” another shared. 

“I cried, I love them both! I still watch Carol Burnett re-runs. She looks amazing,” someone said. 

Are you a fan of Carol Burnett? Are you familiar with the song “So Long”? What can you say about her duet with Kelly Clarkson? Let us know, and pass this on to your family, friends, and other Carol Burnett fans!