Following the death of Guy Lombardo and the decline of CBS's specials, "New Year's Rockin' Eve" grew in popularity and became ingrained in pop culture—even prompting Clark himself to make appearances on other programs in parodies of his role. To this day, "New Year's Rockin' Eve" has consistently remained the highest-rated New Year's Eve special broadcast by the United States' major television networks; its 2012 edition peaked at 22.6 million home viewers—not including viewers watching from public locations, which were not measured by Nielsen at the time.