Carol Burnett got quite the honor at the 2019 Golden Globes. Burnett is the first recipient of the Golden Globes' new television award, the Carol Burnett Award.
"I'm absolutely gobsmacked over this," Burnett, 85, told Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet before the show. "They said they were going to create a new award for television, and then they said they were going to give it to me and I was very honored, but then when they said they were going to name it after me, I was amazed. Really amazed. I guess now I'll have to keep my name."
The new Carol Burnett Award is like the film equivalent Cecile B. DeMille Award.
"Maybe they'll give it to me every year," she joked.
The pressure is off Burnett, she already knows she's taking home the award.
"I can eat in peace," she cracked.
"For more than 50 years, comedy trailblazer Carol Burnett has been breaking barriers while making us laugh," Meher Tatnam, president of The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, said in a statement. "She was the first woman to host a variety sketch show, The Carol Burnett Show. She was also the first woman to win both the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and Kennedy Center Honors. And now we add another first to her running list: the first recipient—and namesake—of the new Golden Globe top honor for achievement in television, the Carol Burnett Award. We are profoundly grateful for her contributions to the entertainment industry and honored to celebrate her legacy forever at the Golden Globes."