The Ed Sullivan Show
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50 free The Ed Sullivan Show trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
For 23 years, one stiff, unsmiling newspaperman decided what America watched on Sunday night. The Ed Sullivan Show put opera singers next to acrobats, comedians next to ballet dancers, and gave rock and roll some of its biggest television moments. An appearance could make a career overnight, and a falling-out with the host could end a booking for good. This quiz covers the whole run, from the 1948 debut to the 1971 cancellation: Elvis Presley's three appearances, the Beatles' record-breaking broadcasts, the songs that got performers into trouble, the puppets and novelty acts that kept coming back, and the Broadway casts that stopped by. There are also questions on Ed Sullivan himself, his newspaper years, his feuds and the theater that still carries his name. It is written for anyone who grew up watching the show, for music fans who know the famous clips, and for quiz hosts who want a round on classic television. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How did The Ed Sullivan Show's cameras famously frame Elvis Presley, but only during his third and final appearance?
From the waist up
From the waist up was a last-minute rule for that visit alone. Legend says he was always censored that way, but it never applied to his two 1956 spots.
Q 02Which band was banned from The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 after its singer kept a lyric he had promised to change?
The Doors
The Doors had been wanted for six more bookings until Jim Morrison sang the drug reference on live television. He shrugged that the band had already done the program.
Q 03Which puppet character ended his sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show by asking the host for a goodnight kiss?
Topo Gigio
Topo Gigio, a little Italian mouse, made more than fifty visits and let the famously stiff host show a softer side.
Q 04Under which title did The Ed Sullivan Show run for its first seven years, before it took its host's name?
Toast of the Town
Toast of the Town stayed the official name until 1955, though viewers had been calling the program by its host's name for years.
Q 05Which puppeteer did Ed Sullivan introduce under the wrong surname on his first visit to the show in 1966?
Jim Henson
Jim Henson was announced as Jim Newsom, yet his characters came back often, making 25 appearances before the series ended.
Q 06Which boxer was training in Miami Beach to fight Sonny Liston when the Beatles arrived for The Ed Sullivan Show?
Cassius Clay
Cassius Clay, soon to be renamed Muhammad Ali, posed for publicity photographs with the band in a boxing gym two days after the broadcast.
Q 07During the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show, an on-screen caption warned girls that which band member was married?
John Lennon
John Lennon got the caption during the ballad Till There Was You, when each member's name was laid over a close-up.
Q 08Which late-night host moved into the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1993 and taped his program there until retiring in 2015?
David Letterman
David Letterman opened his first broadcast there with spliced clips that made it look as though Ed Sullivan himself was introducing him.
Q 09Which Bill Haley hit made history on Ed Sullivan's show in 1955 as the first of its genre on national television?
Rock Around the Clock
Rock Around the Clock reached the screen that August as the first rock and roll song on a national program, more than a year before Elvis Presley first appeared on the show.
Q 10Which future comedy star wrote material for the mouse puppet on The Ed Sullivan Show early in her career?
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers wrote a football-themed routine for the puppet, one of many sketches the Italian act took from American staff writers.
Q 11Which network aired The Ed Sullivan Show in the same weekly evening slot for more than two decades?
CBS
CBS dropped the series in 1971 in a sweep of long-running programs whose audiences had grown too old for advertisers.
Q 12Which Motown trio did Ed Sullivan fondly call The Girls because he could never remember their names?
The Supremes
The Supremes sang 15 of their hit singles on the program and used a late visit to introduce Diana Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell.
Q 13Which family group sang its debut Motown single on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969 and soon topped the charts?
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 performed I Want You Back, the first of four straight number-one singles that opened the group's Motown career.
Q 21Which British actor guest-hosted Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show while its host recovered from a car crash?
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton opened the night by reading poetry and introduced four other acts before the singer appeared from a studio in Los Angeles.
Q 22Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan Show spot came from Hollywood, where he was filming which movie, his screen debut?
Love Me Tender
Love Me Tender had not yet opened, and that night he sang its title ballad on television for the first time.
Q 23Which gospel song did Elvis Presley sing to close his final Ed Sullivan Show spot, winning the host's public praise?
Peace in the Valley
Q 14Which folk singer walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963 after the network vetoed his satirical song?
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan refused to swap his song mocking the John Birch Society, and the host, who had liked it in rehearsal, publicly criticized the decision.
Q 15Which band's singer rolled his eyes at the camera on The Ed Sullivan Show while singing a censored chorus?
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones agreed to soften the title line of Let's Spend the Night Together, and Mick Jagger mugged his way through the new wording.
Q 16Which fading stage tradition of jugglers, comics and singers gave The Ed Sullivan Show its mixed-bill format?
Vaudeville
Vaudeville had been dying for a generation, and the host kept its veterans in work by booking them beside opera singers and rock bands.
Q 17Which future Monkee performed with a Broadway cast on the same Ed Sullivan Show as the Beatles' first appearance?
Davy Jones
Davy Jones, then the Artful Dodger in Oliver, watched the screaming crowd from the wings and decided he wanted that kind of fame.
Q 18Which sitcom star sang a number from Wildcat, her only Broadway musical, on The Ed Sullivan Show?
Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball sang Hey, Look Me Over with co-star Paula Stewart; illness and lukewarm reviews closed the musical after 171 performances.
Q 19What change came to The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1965, right after the Beatles' last studio appearance aired?
Full color
Full color arrived the following week. The Beatles had taped their spot a month early, just before the theater was ready for the new cameras.
Q 20What did Erich Brenn keep doing, usually to the frantic tune Sabre Dance, in his much-loved Ed Sullivan Show act?
Spinning plates
Spinning plates and glass bowls on sticks, he dashed between tables to rescue each one as it wobbled, and the routine became shorthand for multitasking.
Peace in the Valley moved the host to embrace the singer and vouch for his character on air.
Q 24Which number-one single did the Beatles play to close all three of their February 1964 Ed Sullivan Show broadcasts?
I Want to Hold Your Hand
I Want to Hold Your Hand had reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 the week before the band landed, after the label rushed its release.
Q 25Which Beatles manager traded a big fee for top billing on three Ed Sullivan Show broadcasts in 1964?
Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein wanted exposure more than money, so the band took a minimal fee in return for opening and closing each program.
Q 26At which airport did Ed Sullivan first see Beatlemania, as screaming fans greeted the band's return from Sweden?
Heathrow
Heathrow was packed with about 1,500 fans that day, and the host told his entourage it was the Elvis craze all over again.
Q 27Which drama's 1967 finale broke the television audience record the Beatles had set on The Ed Sullivan Show?
The Fugitive
The Fugitive drew the bigger crowd three years after more than 73 million people tuned in for the band's first night, when a typical edition drew about 21 million.
Q 28The Beatles taped their last Ed Sullivan Show set in 1965 on the eve of a famous concert at which ballpark?
Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium hosted the band the next night to open a two-week North American tour, and the taped set aired a month later.
Q 29Which Canadian comedy duo is credited with a record 67 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show?
Wayne and Shuster
Wayne and Shuster had a handshake understanding that their sketches, which often ran twelve minutes or more, would never be cut.
Q 30Which ventriloquist, a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show 48 times, drew his puppet Johnny's face on his own hand?
Señor Wences
Señor Wences got the idea as a schoolboy in Spain, when a punishment cleaning inkwells left ink smeared on his fist.