This was posted on Tuesday, September 5, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Celebrity telethons are a natural way to raise money after a major disaster.
George Clooney, Beyonce and Oprah Winfrey are among the A listers lending their names to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. The one-hour special called "Hand in Hand" is set to air at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, September 12 on all four major broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, along with CMT.
This will force NBC to push back "America's Got Talent" by an hour. "Midnight, Texas" will probably be pre-empted at 10 p.m. The other networks had scheduled re-runs anyway.
Others committed to appear include Jamie Foxx, Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Seacrest, Rob Lowe, Matt Lauer, Matthew McConaughey, Kelly Rowland, Blake Shelton and Michael Strahan.
The telethon was spearheaded by Houston native rapper Bun B and SB Projects founder and former Atlantan Scooter Braun
Proceeds will be split among United Way of Greater Houston, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, Direct Relief, Feeding Texas and The Mayor’s Fund for Hurricane Harvey Relief (administered by the Greater Houston Community Fund) through the Hand in Hand Hurricane Relief Fund managed by Comic Relief USA.
The Hurricane Katrina telethon in 2005 raised $30 million. It was also the time Kanye West infamously said "George Bush doesn't care about black people" while a befuddled Mike Myers looked on.
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