Carol Burnett “Bombed” When She Appeared On ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ With Elvis Presley: “It Was Awful”

Carol Burnett is looking back on the time she “bombed” on The Ed Sullivan Show. But, fortunately for the comedian, no one likely noticed seeing as she appeared on the same episode of Elvis Presley.

During Tuesday night’s (March 26) broadcast of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Burnett — who was promoting her new Apple TV+ series Palm Royale — and Colbert discussed the iconic stars who previously graced The Ed Sullivan Show studio, which is now home to Colbert’s talk show.

Burnett — who appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show seven times — remembered the time she and Presley were booked for the same night.

“Well, I was on when Elvis was on, when he was in the army. They did a whole big thing when he was in the army on the stage,” she recalled. “And they put me on first. Nobody wanted to see me. I mean it was Elvis, ‘Where the hell is Elvis?'”

Burnett admitted that she “bombed” her performance, adding, “It was terrible. It was awful.”

But every cloud has a silver lining. When Colbert asked if she got to spend some time with Presley, she said, “Yes, I met him. He was very sweet and I got his autograph for my kid sister.”

The King of Rock also inspired a song Burnett sang about former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called “I Made A Fool Of Myself Over John Foster Dulles.”

“John Foster Dulles in the 50s was our secretary of state, aptly named,” she told Colbert. “He was so dull, there was nothing there. I remember he wore this overcoat and his hat and never smiled or anything.”

She continued, “I was doing a special material song that a friend of mine wrote called ‘I Made A Fool Of Myself Over John Foster Dulles.’ Everybody was going crazy over Elvis so he wrote this song about this young girl going crazy over John Foster Dulles.”

After Burnett sang it on The Jack Paar Show, she said Dulles’ press advisor called in and requested that she go on the show and sing it again so the secretary of state could see it. She remembered, “All hell broke loose. It was front-page news. ‘Who is this girl singing about the secretary of state?'”

A week later, Burnett said she was watching Meet the Press when a reporter asked Dulles about the song.

“The guy said, ‘Mr. Dulles, would you tell us what’s going on between you and this girl that sings that love song?'” she explained. “He said, ‘I make it a policy never to discuss matters of the heart in public.'”

Check out Burnett’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert above.