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'Tribute to Heroes'
Fundraiser airing across networks and cable
By Elizabeth White
TV networks are setting aside their regular programming once again tonight, in order to show an unprecedented cooperative event in the entertainment industry, a two-hour commercial-free telethon, "America: A Tribute to Heroes," which will raise money for the relief effort following the terrorist attacks.
Funded by the Big Four networks and with the talent performing for free, the telethon will be shown on all seven broadcast networks, PBS, both Spanish-language broadcast networks and 16 cable networks.
The cable networks so far involved are BET, Comedy Central, Court TV, Discovery, E!, Fox Family, FX, HBO, Lifetime, MTV, Showtime, Sundance Channel, TLC, TNN, TNT and VH1.
Additionally the event will be carried on more than 8,000 radio outlets, including Westwood One and Clear Channel affiliates, and various web outlets, including the event’s own website.
Networks have cooperated to produce and share programming in the past, such as in a 1942 Christmas Eve special that ran on CBS’s and NBC’s radio networks, but nothing has come close to the size, scale and speed of "A Tribute to Heroes."
Details on the format of the telethon are sketchy, but the scheduled stars include A-list movie stars like Tom Cruise, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro and Julia Roberts and television stars like Calista Flockhart, Ray Romano and Kelsey Grammer.
Musical guests range from Bruce Springsteen and U2 to the Dixie Chicks and Alicia Keyes. Joel Gallen, former producer of the MTV Movie Awards, is running the event.
The exact beneficiary of the funds raised will be named during the telethon.
Although the special pushes back scheduled premieres–a second time for the WB’s shows–most feel the telethon has no real downside.
"It is such a socially responsible thing to do," says Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming services at Carat.
"It’s important for them that they do this, and it’s important to the public. There’s a somber mood. The networks have taken that pulse and realized they had to get onboard."
The telethon also serves as a way for the TV networks to ease back into their normal business, entertaining people, without simply jumping back into the normally frenzied fall season.
"It’s had everyone almost frozen. Maybe this is a way to start getting back. It’s on all the networks, so there’s nothing competitive about it. And maybe this is a way to make a transition, a way to make the shifting gears seem less abrupt," says Brill.
"Before the networks can start on their new season, they need to give something to the public, something for them to do."
The telethon will air live in Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones beginning at 9 p.m. ET, and run tape-delayed on the West Coast at 9 p.m. PT.
September 21, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Elizabeth White is a staff writer for Media Life.
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