Telethon Audience Is Bigger Than Bush’s

A telethon by the ambassadors of pop culture drew more viewers than President Bush’s speech to Congress during which he declared war on terrorism. An estimated 89 million viewers tuned in at some point to Friday night’s “America: A Tribute to Heroes.” That is 7 million more than tuned in to Bush’s address the night before and nearly 5 million more than watched the 2001 Super Bowl.

Telethon organizers said they will not release estimates of the money raised until Monday, but actor Dennis Franz of ABC’s “NYPD Blue” appeared on CNN late Friday night after participating in the event and said preliminary estimates exceeded $110 million.

The effort to tally contributions is complicated by the fact that phone banks, staffed by as many as 20,000 volunteer operators, were spread over half a dozen locations around the country. Other pledges came in, and continue to come in, to the Internet site, https://www.tributetoheroes.org. Some contributions have been mailed, and those may not arrive for days.

Phone lines were jammed early in the evening, with some viewers reporting that they waited up to two hours--as long as the show itself--to get through. A telethon spokeswoman said she heard that there were 300,000 phone calls in the first 15 minutes.

The commercial-free, two-hour event broadcast from London, New York and Los Angeles was carried on 30 national broadcast and cable television networks and 8,000 radio stations.

It aired live to the Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones and was on a tape delay from 9 to 11 p.m. in the Pacific time zone.

It aired in more than 200 countries as well. During any one minute in the broadcast, 59.3 million people were tuned in.

Television wasn’t the only way to experience the unique event. “Around 400,000 people watched the Webcast around the world,” said Jackson Holtz, a spokesman for Yahoo.com, which provided the technical platform to put the telethon on the Internet. “It certainly is one of our biggest Webcasts.”

The evening’s star power was blinding, but the tone was restrained. A-list stars such as Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Muhammad Ali stood in front of tiers of candles and spoke directly to the cameras; there was no audience in the sound stage. Singers, who performed without introduction, included Neil Young, Sting, U2, Bruce Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks and Enrique Iglesias.

“It meant a lot to me that they took the time,” said Cathy Jones, a 19-year-old student at Furman University in South Carolina who tuned in with three of her friends. “This is what they do. This is what they’re best at. They came together, the same way the fire department or the police department came together to use their skills to fix the situation.”

When much of TV had returned to regular programming, Jones added that it was reassuring to see that not everyone had “moved on.” Clint Eastwood’s monologue was especially touching, she said, as was Bruce Springsteen’s rendition of “My City of Ruins,” which opened the program.

“That song, it acknowledges a loss,” she said, “but it is still hoping for something better. He sings, ‘Come on, rise up.’ And that’s what we need to do.”

Some of the entertainers opened their pocketbooks as well. Julia Roberts, a New Yorker, donated $1 million to the September 11 Fund of the United Way, and another $1 million to the Red Cross.

Reports have circulated about additional benefit concerts in the future. Paul McCartney announced Saturday that he will stage a benefit concert in New York next month to raise money for local firefighters.

“America: A Tribute to Heroes” came together in less than a week, so no contracts were negotiated for future broadcast or recording rights. It is possible, though, that videos, DVDs or CDs of the telethon may be released.