On this day in 1948, The Toast of the Town, which would become the Ed Sullivan Show, premiered on CBS-TV

Producer Marlo Lewis had convinced executives at television network CBS to hire host and ex-newspaperman Ed Sullivan for a Sunday night variety show that he was planning titled The Toast of the Town. The show would premiere at 9pm on the 20^th of June and changed to an 8pm timeslot in it’s second season, which it would keep for over two decades until the show ended in 1971. Much of the programs audience referred to it as “The Ed Sullivan Show” and in 1955 the name was officially changed.

The premiere episode featured up and coming stars Dean Martin and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II who were previewing the score to their new show South Pacific.  The host himself was often described as wooden, awkward, and fumbling, though these qualities only seemed to endear him to the public. Sullivan grew to have a keen understanding of the demographics that watched his show, as well as the cultural phenomenons that would bring in a wider audience.

The Toast of the Town and The Ed Sullivan Show would become known for the wide range of musical guests the show hosted. It is widely credited with launching the US career of The Beatles when they appeared on three consecutive shows. Other notable guests included Elvis Presley, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five and many more.  These guests increasingly grew the popularity of the show amongst the teenage crowd, with the Sunday night viewing becoming a rite of passage for many.

In the late 1960s, Sullvian claimed that the shows popularity was waning, and that viewers were only watching for the best and brightest stars that appeared. Reports also showed that the audience was getting older, with younger viewers moving away from the program. This demographic was considered undesirable by CBS and in 1971, the decision was made to cancel the show, with the final episode appearing on March the 28th.