2009 Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon

[azumanga]

No one will replace him. As Jerry Lewis has said on numerous occasions, "I have been assured that there will be a cure in my lifetime!"

So therefore, they will not need a replacement for Jerry Lewis.

But what if he does die before a cure is found?

I imagine Jann Karl opening one of those smarmy profile segments like this:

"83-year old Jerry Lewis has been host of the MDA Telethon since 1966. Each and every year, he vows that a cure for Muscular Dystrophy will be found in his lifetime. But what if he dies before then? MDA Research is working on a vaccine that would keep Jerry alive for many years and years to come, until a cure for MD is found. Watch..."

 

[Mark Giardina]

No one will replace him. As Jerry Lewis has said on numerous occasions, "I have been assured that there will be a cure in my lifetime!"

So therefore, they will not need a replacement for Jerry Lewis.

But what if he does die before a cure is found?

I imagine Jann Karl opening one of those smarmy profile segments like this:

"83-year old Jerry Lewis has been host of the MDA Telethon since 1966. Each and every year, he vows that a cure for Muscular Dystrophy will be found in his lifetime. But what if he dies before then? MDA Research is working on a vaccine that would keep Jerry alive for many years and years to come, until a cure for MD is found. Watch..."

Jerry Lewis has been hosting the MDA telethon long before 1966. In fact both he and Dean Martin were co-hosts when they were still a team back in the 1950s.

As for Ryan Seacrest taking over as host of the MDA telethon when Jerry meets his maker, my feeling is that the show's audience, and donations, would decline.

I think a perfect host would be Robin Williams who is zany like Lewis plus has a large following.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

It should be pretty easy to throw the telethon on a subchannel. It doesn't need high def and if I'm not mistaken can't you carry a high def and standard def with no (or very few) isssues, CBS's rule not-with-standing

This statement brought up another question (which I would not be able to tell from the MDA telethon affiliate list on the MDA site): With 2009 being the first MDA telethon since the digital switchover, are there going to be some telethon affiliates who broadcast the Sunday night/early Monday portion on a subchannel (if the station has at least one), then the rest of the show from Labor Day morning onward on their main channel? Or in some markets, could the telethon (if not this year, perhaps even as early as next year) only be relegated to an affiliate's subchannel? (particularly if it was a CBS affiliate, which carries US Open tennis on Labor Day afternoon).