New Carol Burnett Special in May!!!!

[I Love Carol Burnett!]

Great News for all us Carol Burnett Fans!

May Sweeps Special Set for Burnett
Classic Cast Will Reunite

By James Hibberd

Carol Burnett, whose November 2001 reunion special on CBS drew nearly 30 million viewers, will reunite with castmates from her classic sketch comedy show for a CBS special tentatively slated to air during May sweeps.

The previous reunion special, "The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers," was the fourth most-watched program of 2001 and was nominated for three Emmy Awards. Its performance sparked a spate of nostalgic network projects. The new program, titled "The Carol Burnett Show: Let's Bump Up the Lights," will feature memorable moments from the audience question-and-answer segments that used to begin Ms. Burnett's show, which ran on CBS from 1967 to 1979.

"This is taking the funniest bits of the Q&As and reliving them," said executive producer Marty Tudor. "It's hysterical stuff. It's Carol essentially ad-libbing, and it really portrays her genius."

Familiar Faces

Ms. Burnett, who is also an executive producer, will host the special along with former co-stars Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway and Lyle Waggoner.

Ms. Burnett said she had the idea for the program after hearing complaints from viewers about the Q&A segments being trimmed in the show's syndicated run.

"I thought it might be kind of fun to see if we could put together a different kind of clip show instead of blooper and greatest moments, which has been done," Ms. Burnett said. "It could get wild. You never knew what anybody was going to say."

The Q&As, Ms. Burnett said, were entirely unscripted. Looking back at the early ones, she said, "They were really kind of awkward."

"At first I was terrified that they wouldn't raise their hands," she said. "And then I was terrified when they did." #

[Pavan]

THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: LET’S BUMP UP THE LIGHTS:

Legendary variety show star Carol Burnett reunites with Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner for THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: LET’S BUMP UP THE LIGHTS, a new entertainment special to be broadcast Wednesday, May 5 (10:00-11:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. In the special, the illustrious cast comes together before an audience to introduce never-before-seen clips from the spontaneous and hilarious moments that were seen at the beginning of every The Carol Burnett Show -- where Carol and the gang answered questions from the studio audience.

The question and answer segments featured Carol as herself, not as a character, as she answered the no-holds-barred questions from audience members. Always impromptu and spur-of-the-moment, the segments showed Carol at her creative and improvisational best. Questions were also often asked of fellow cast members Harvey, Tim, Vicki and Lyle who joined Carol on stage to respond.

Viewers will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite clips by telephone or the Internet. Carol will announce the top three clips on CBS News’ The Early Show (7:00-9:00AM, ET/PT) the morning after the broadcast.

The Carol Burnett Show premiered on the Network in 1967 and ran for 11 fun-filled seasons. It was the longest-running comedy-variety show in television history. Each week, Burnett and her cohorts brought their special brand of humor and magic to television audiences across the country.

Carol Burnett’s last Network special, The Carol Burnett Show: Showstoppers, which was broadcast on Nov. 26, 2001, averaged 18.9/29 in households and 29.80 million viewers. It was CBS's best performance in the time period with non-sports programming since March 23, 1992 in households and since Sept. 16, 1991 in viewers. It was the most-watched entertainment special (excluding awards programming) of the 2001-2002 season.

The original series is currently enjoying rerun status on the cable network TV Land, also owned by Viacom.

THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: LET’S BUMP UP THE LIGHTS is being produced by Tudor Television, Inc. in association with CBS Productions. Carol Burnett and Martin Tudor are the executive producers. Ken and Mitzie Welch are the supervising producers and writers. Neil Steinberg is the producer and Steve Purcell is the director.

[I Love Carol Burnett!]

Thanks for more info where can we vote for our favorite clips and when can we start?

[Redhead]

pavanbadal , would you mind if I post your news alert on my board? And may I ask if you have the link from where you got this at. I like to post the link as well.