Winner 1959

The Ed Sullivan Show

CBS Television

Television Contribution to International Understanding: With his Invitation To Moscow program of September 27, 1959, neatly timed to coincide with Khrushchev’s visit to America, and before that with the Spoleto Festival of July 19, 1959, Ed Sullivan turned his long-time top TV Sunday night vaudeville show into an imaginative and successful bid for better international relations. Not only in America was the reaction immediate and heartening. Russians and Italians as well cheered Sullivan, his producer, Bob Precht, and his American casts and crews. The Peabody Board applauds Ed Sullivan’s showmanship and acute awareness of the role prime-time television can play in promoting international goodwill, and presents a second Peabody Award to The Ed Sullivan Show, CBS. In 1956 it was for entertainment. This time, contribution to international understanding.