text: By 1971, the show's ratings had plummeted. In an effort to refresh the CBS lineup, CBS cancelled the program in March 1971, along with some of its other long-running shows throughout the 1970–1971 season (later known as the rural purge). Angered, Sullivan refused to host three more months of scheduled shows. They were replaced by reruns, and a final program without him aired in June. He remained with the network in various other capacities and hosted a 25th anniversary special in June 1973.
  In early September 1974, Sullivan was diagnosed with an advanced stage of esophageal cancer. Doctors gave him very little time to live, and the family chose to keep the diagnosis secret from him. Sullivan, a lifelong smoker, believed his ailment to be yet another complication from a long-standing battle with gastric ulcers. Sullivan died on October 13, 1974, at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. His funeral was attended by 2,000 people at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, on a cold, rainy day. Sullivan is interred in a crypt at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
  Sullivan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd. In 1985, Sullivan was welcomed to the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
  Cited sources
  Leonard, John, The Ed Sullivan Age, American Heritage, May/June 1997, Volume 48, Issue 3
  Nachman, Gerald, Ed Sullivan, December 18, 2006.
  Barthelme, Donald, "And Now Let's Hear It for the Ed Sullivan Show!" in Guilty Pleasures'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974