CBS Sets Entertainment Tonight Primetime Special Remembering Dolly: A Rhinestone Life
CBS will air an Entertainment Tonight primetime special honouring Dolly Parton this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. Titled "Remembering Dolly: A Rhinestone Life," the tribute brings together decades of archival interviews and fresh testimonials from artists who have crossed paths with Parton across her long career. Deadline first reported the special on 27 August 2026.
Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner, the current hosting pair for Entertainment Tonight, will lead the broadcast. The CBS TV schedule lists the special in the 8:00 p.m. ET slot with a TV-14-LSV rating — meaning it may contain coarse language, sexual situations and violence, in the system US networks use to flag content for viewers. CBS Schedule
The special draws on Entertainment Tonight's own vault. Parton's first appearance on the show, dating back to 1982, is among the archived interviews set to be featured, alongside other segments pulled from years of coverage. New tributes will come from Dionne Warwick, Melissa Etheridge, Diane Warren, Debbie Allen and Jennifer Nettles, each offering their own reflections on Parton's life and music. Deadline
Parton has been a fixture of American television for decades, and the ET archive gives this special a deep bench of material to work from — every era of her career, from the early country hits through the Hollywood years and beyond, has been documented by the show at one point or another.
A separate Parton documentary, "Dolly Parton: Here I Am," aired on The CW on 20 April 2025 at 7:00 p.m., described on Paramount Press Express as a landmark film charting her life and music. Paramount Press Express That was a different project on a different network, but it speaks to the enduring appetite for Parton stories on screen.
For viewers, Sunday's special is a chance to see Parton's journey assembled in one place, with voices from across the music and entertainment world weighing in. No streaming availability has been announced; the broadcast is set for CBS on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
