NBC Universal is hastily organizing a one-hour telethon Friday to raise money for victims of the storm that has battered the East Coast.
NBC Universal is hastily organizing a one-hour telethon Friday to
raise money for victims of the storm that has battered the East Coast.
Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together,
airing live (with no audience) from Rockefeller Center Friday at 8
ET/tape-delayed PT, will feature a mix of electric and acoustic
performances by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Billy Joel, Jon
Bon Jovi, Sting, Mary J. Blige and Christina Aguilera. Some have ties
to the New York and New Jersey areas hit hardest by the storm.
Appearances by Kevin Bacon, James Gandolfini, Jon Stewart, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon and news anchor Brian Williams are planned.
Today's
Matt Lauer, who is hosting the broadcast, said in an interview that a
Tuesday tour of a neighborhood in Rockaway Beach, Queens, after seven
hours on the air, made him urge NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke to
orchestrate the event.
That neighborhood lost 50 first responders
in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; two months later, an American
Airlines jet crashed there; now it's suffering again.
"I came
back and said, 'We've got to do something quickly here,'" Lauer says. "I
feared facing a period next week where the focus would be blurred.
We've got an election coming up, and I feared people affected by this
would be pushed to the side."
His first call to Burke came
Wednesday at 6:45 a.m.; by 4 p.m., artists led by Bon Jovi had already
committed. Williams personally called Springsteen, who's on tour. Both
singers are from areas of the Jersey shore that suffered the worst
damage.
Unlike many TV rivals, "we're a very New York-centered
media company," Burke says, "and you can't live in New York without
being struck by what a big thing this is."
Burke hopes to raise
"tens of millions of dollars" for relief efforts. NBC backed a similar
2005 telethon, also hosted by Lauer, after Hurricane Katrina, raising
$40 million. A post-9/11 telethon arranged by George Clooney, which
aired on all the major networks, raised an estimated $200 million.
Friday's
special will air on WTLV-NBC 12, its owned cable networks including USA, Bravo,
Syfy, E! and MSNBC, and on HBO, Discovery Fit & Health and
Velocity, as well as Sirius XM Radio. It will also be streamed live on nbc.com and on firstcoastnews.com.
Lauer says the special will include footage of the affected areas to help spark donations to www.redcross.org
or (800) RED-CROSS. "But what's going to be most compelling is not me
asking people to pick up the phone, but watching Bruce Springsteen and
Jon Bon Jovi and Billy Joel playing their hearts out," he says.
Will Springsteen play 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy), a 1973 song about a girl and the boardwalk? Lauer wouldn't say. But "the songs are going to be instantly recognizable."
Among
other efforts, Disney ABC is donating $2 million to relief efforts and
has designated Monday as a "day of giving" across its news and
entertainment programming, which will encourage viewers to donate.
Viacom, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Studios, is donating
$1 million.
USA Today