A Holiday Tradition That’s Branched Out

For the third consecutive year, NBC will use the lighting of the world’s most famous Christmas tree at New York’s Rockefeller Center as the centerpiece of a prime-time special.

“Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” airing tonight at 8, will feature performances by Marc Anthony, 98 Degrees, Natalie Cole, Destiny’s Child and Wendie Malick of “Just Shoot Me.”

Also participating on the hourlong show will be the Radio City Rockettes and Olympic ice skating champion Tara Lipinski. “The Today Show’s” Al Roker (a last-minute replacement for “The West Wing’s” Allison Janney, who had to pull out because of a scheduling conflict) will host the event with Ann Curry.

This year marks the 68th lighting of the tree, a tradition that began in the Great Depression during the construction of the Rockefeller Center complex. The first televised tree lighting was in 1951 on “The Kate Smith Show.” From 1953 to ‘55, the beloved children’s series “The Howdy Doody Show” presented the annual ceremony. For years, the event was telecast locally on WNBC-TV in New York.

Curt Sharp, vice president of alternative programs and specials at NBC Entertainment, discussed “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” recently from New York.

Question: When did the Christmas tree arrive at Rockefeller Center?

Answer: They started about [two weeks ago], bringing the tree in. It takes them a couple of weeks to put this thing together.

Q: What type of tree is it?

A: It’s a Norway Spruce tree and weighs about 7 tons. It’s huge. It’s over 80 feet high. I believe it came from upstate New York. It has 30,000 bulbs on it, which is about 5 miles of lights.

Q: Who is going to light the tree?

A: We will have our host and some of the talent from the show flip the switch and do kind of a closing goodbye number as the tree lights come on.

Q: Why did NBC decide to nationally telecast the lighting of the Christmas tree?

A: It’s a holiday tradition and a recognizable place that certainly a big part of the country is familiar with. Because the show had done very well [locally] on WNBC, it made sense to bring this to the network and put together a general entertainment music variety show that could really celebrate the holiday. I think the talent that we feature within the show plays on a broad scale and a national level.

Q: What makes this event unique among the other holiday musical specials?

A: When you look at holiday specials, and there are a lot of musical performances that come out between the week of Thanksgiving and the first week of December, this is one that really takes place around an event. The tree helps it showcase an event and provides a platform for this musical talent and the other celebrities. . . .

For the musical talent, it really provides them a showcase to do something that they normally don’t do when they are out on the road in concert, because they can perform holiday numbers.

When you think about how many holiday events take place around the country at this time of the year, the two that really come to mind as being traditional celebrations are the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the lighting at Rockefeller Center.

Q: Do you have any contingency plans for the weather? Or does the show go on no matter what happens?

A: [It goes on] rain or shine. It’s been very cold [the last two years], but I think we have been lucky with weather.

* “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” airs tonight at 8 on NBC. The network has rated it TV-G.