3 Televised Benefit Concerts for Victims Are Announced

Horrified by the mounting toll of Hurricane Katrina, an array of musicians and prominent entertainers are jumping to participate in a series of relief concerts that will benefit victims in the devastated Gulf Coast region.

But the efforts have been less unified than Hollywood’s response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when dozens of stars participated in a single two-hour telethon that ran simultaneously on all the broadcast television networks and more than 31 cable channels. That event, which drew close to 90 million viewers, raised more than $100 million for victims.

This time, NBC Universal and Viacom Inc. announced plans Wednesday to televise separate benefit concerts in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, ABC, CBS and Fox are putting together their own event for early next week, according to officials at the networks, which NBC said it would gladly participate in too.

The first benefit is scheduled to be held Friday night, when NBC hosts “A Concert for Hurricane Relief,” featuring artists with ties to the region. The hour-long telethon will air live at 8 p.m. EDT (and tape-delayed at 8 p.m. on the West Coast) on NBC and its sister cable channels MSNBC and CNBC.

NBC announced the event hours before Viacom sent out a news release with details about its own benefit concert, scheduled to air Sept. 10 on three of its cable channels: MTV, VH1 and CMT, a country music channel.

Representatives of the various companies attributed the separate events to efforts to put together fundraisers quickly to help the victims.

NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said other networks were welcome to participate in Friday’s concert and broadcast a feed of the event.

“The more money, the more efforts, the more benefits for the victims,” Marks said. “This is no way an exclusionary event. It’s about charity and helping people.”

The network organized the benefit after musician Harry Connick Jr., who has family in Louisiana who were affected by the storm, called NBC Universal Chief Executive Bob Wright and NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker on Tuesday and asked if they could assemble a concert to assist the victims.

In January, a similar two-hour concert organized by NBC to raise money for victims of the tsunami in southeast Asia brought in estimated pledges of $18.3 million for the American Red Cross International Response Fund.

Friday’s concert -- which will feature musicians Connick, Tim McGraw and Wynton Marsalis, along with actor Leonardo DiCaprio -- will be hosted by “Today” co-host Matt Lauer from NBC’s New York studios in Rockefeller Plaza. Money raised during the telethon will go the American Red Cross.

“I am heartbroken by the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in my home state,” McGraw, born in Delhi, La., said in a statement.

The Viacom-sponsored event, which will also benefit the American Red Cross and other relief organizations, will include live performances by artists such as Ludacris, Green Day, Usher, Alicia Keys and the Dave Matthews Band in cities across the country. The length of the concert and time had yet to be determined.

Dubbing the concert the “first stage” of an ongoing campaign to help those devastated by the hurricane, Viacom also donated $1 million to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Effort

Meanwhile, BET -- another Viacom property -- is broadcasting a telethon Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. EDT that will feature celebrities such as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, rapper Master P and jazz artist Marsalis. The telethon will air tape-delayed at 7:30 p.m. on the West Coast.

Also on Wednesday, the Walt Disney Co. announced that it would make a $2.5-million donation to relief and rebuilding efforts, and Oscar winner Morgan Freeman announced that he would launch an auction to raise funds for hurricane victims.

Times staff writer Scott Collins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.