Where is Carol Burnett now: 93 and a graceful goodbye

If you grew up in the seventies, she was in your living room on Saturday nights. Tugging her ear to say hello to her grandmother, letting out the Tarzan yell mid-sketch, and wearing a dress made of curtains to parody Gone with the Wind. Eleven years on the air, and half the country laughed with her every week.

Carol Burnett is 93. And she is not done working.

The queen of Saturday night

The Carol Burnett Show ran from 1967 to 1978: eleven seasons in which she became the first woman to host a comedy-variety show on American television. The show won 25 Emmy Awards and made stars of her castmates —Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman.

Think about it: in 1967, a woman headlining a sketch show, conducting the orchestra of laughter every week. Today that sounds normal. Back then it was a revolution in a wig.

The awards that bear her name

The résumé does not fit in one trophy case: seven Emmy Awards, seven Golden Globes, one Tony and one Grammy. In 2019, the Golden Globes created an honorary award that bears her name —the Carol Burnett Award— for outstanding contributions to television. She was its first recipient.

Having an award named after you is the industry's way of saying: "we no longer measure you, we cite you."

The "last hurrah"

Recent years brought a second on-camera spring: in 2022 she played Marion on Better Call Saul, and then came Norma Dellacorte on Palm Royale, the Apple TV+ series, earning an Emmy nomination for comedy supporting actress at 91 —the oldest in that category—. Season 2 aired in 2025.

It was in November 2025, promoting that season with Extra, that she said it: this will likely be her "last hurrah" as an actress. "Unless something just unbelievable comes up," she added. And she looked happy: "I couldn't be happier," she said of working with Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern and Allison Janney. They were, she confessed, her new best friends.

In April 2026, at the TCM Classic Film Festival, she gave People the most honest reason in the world: "I'm really not a fan anymore of getting up at the crack of dawn and putting on makeup and all of that."

Note the manner: no bitterness, no fight with age. Simply: 5 a.m. call times and the makeup chair no longer appeal to her. Whose would they?

Behind the cameras

But leaving the camera is not leaving the business. She told The Hollywood Reporter she is already working with Katie O'Connell Marsh, a Palm Royale producer: "we've written a couple of things" —a series and a film on the way— and that she much prefers being behind the scenes now: no makeup, dark glasses and a baseball cap, let's go to work.

And there is a wink for the fans: she said she might do "a bit" on Pluribus, Vince Gilligan's new series —"we're thinking about it," she said—. She is a declared fan of its star, Rhea Seehorn. At 93, she is still first in line for the premieres.

What you can see from the outside

This series' question is not gossip. It is what she did right.

And let me be honest with you: nobody has the recipe for reaching 93 like this. Genes, luck and a good doctor weigh enormously. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Just look at what is visible.

Three things, that's it. Three, because lists of ten are for people selling courses.

First: leaving on time, gracefully. Leaving the camera at 93, at a high point, without anyone having to ask her to go. Leaving well is also a way of taking care of yourself.

Second: laughing at herself. Her comedy always started with her: the tugged ear, the Tarzan yell, the curtain dress. Laughing at yourself is the cheapest exercise there is, and she has practiced it since 1967.

Third: working with people she loves. Her "new best friends" at 92. Decades of friendships in the business. None of this is done alone.

And this part is serious: none of this is medical advice, and she has never said you should live the way she does. Every body is different. But leaving on time, laughing at yourself, and having your people close… that has never hurt anyone.