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42nd annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon to air tonight

J

Jul

Guest
Comic legend Jerry Lewis joins friends and entertainers this Labor Day weekend for his 42nd annual Telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Originating from the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas, the live show will air for 21 and 1/2 hours, beginning at 9 p.m. EDT, Sunday, Sept. 2, and will be shown on some 190 “Love Network” stations nationwide. Check http://www.mda.org for stations and start times. For mroe info: http://mda.org/
 
I just started watching WGN's telethon, which began at 11PM ET -- is the telethon in HDTV this year? The reason being is that Jerry looks a little squished, and, in the opening, the logo and the co-host's names run off the screen in standard analog.
 
I almost forget it was on tonight...I just thought about it on my way home this afternoon. It didn't get any promotion of any kind, at least here in La-la land.
 
A lot of Stations out there are cutting back on the MDA telethon coverage because Some of these networks they're affiliated with must honor their committments to the networks' programming. (Like KPRC in Houston & KXAS in Dallas-Both NBC Stations) NBC has live golf coverage-for 4 hours starting at 2/1C; And WGN-A Chicago station plans to interrupt The Jerry Lewis Telethon for a Chicago Cubs Ballgame today at 3PM CT. Another factor is financial stability-KPRC ended their MDA coverage for now at 12 Midnight last night, and They used the window to show Informercials with Air Supply & Peter Fonda-promoting a collection of Soft Rock & Classic Hits from The '60s & '70s

As long as Post-Newsweek continues to run KPRC into the ground, It will continue to cut back the MDA Labor Day Telethon. Some stations also plan to carry the telethon starting as late as 9:00 AM Today; Other stations are using their HD or Digital Cable channels to carry the telethon while they show baseball & golf. Another platform these stations they're using is watching it online at their websites or at MDA's website at www.MDAUSA.org.

In this day of age, A lot of people even stop giving to The MDA because they have better things to do with their own money, And giving it to bums on the streets in the richest neighborhoods is NOT one of them.
 
WPHL Channel 17 which is a Tribune O and O starting airing the telethon at 11 PM ET last night. Our Philly coverage of the telethon will end at 7 PM ET tonight.
 
WGN interrupting the telethon to show baseball has happened as far back as I can remember. In 2003, I remember a VERY important Cubs-Cardinals game got rain-delayed for hours. The umpires wouldn't call the game being so late in the season with playoff implications, and wanted to restart the game as soon as the weather broke even a little, so WGN had to stick with the local segment of the telethon for much longer than normal instead of throwing it back to the national feed.

WTVG here in Toledo (ABC O&O) seems to be showing the telethon in it's entirety. I do know that when I got TV from Rockford for two years, WREX (NBC affil) carried the telethon for only a few hours on Monday afternoon/evening.
 
In Las Vegas, KLAS-TV 8, a CBS affiliate, used to carry the telethon for as long as I can remember....going back to the late 70's. But due to their commitment to CBS's coverage of the US Open Tennis tournament, the telethon got preempted to the cable-only feed of LV1, channel 19, the all-news channel on Cox Cable that KLAS co-manages.

So this year, the telethon has switched to the ABC affiliate, KTNV-TV 13...and they are staying live with it for the entire telethon.
 
WUPA (CW) Atlanta is airing it nonstop from 9PM-7PM.

Interesting note: One of the hosts, Ken Cook, is chief meterologist at Fox O&O WAGA. WAGA aired the MDA telethon for over 20 years until 1998, when it moved to WUPA after WAGA had a preemption scare in 1997 involving the Children's Miracle Network telethon, which involved game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals not airing in Atlanta. WAGA has never preempted the network (except for Falcons games) after that incident.
 
KML-224 said:
WTIC-TV (FOX) channel 61 of Hartford didn't even show the first 1 hour and 45 minutes. Shame! :(
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I thought WFSB aired the telethon. Guess they don't anymore because the US Open is on CBS.
 
Here in Fairbanks, KATN-2 used to show the entire telethon from beginning to end; this was until 1995, months before new ownership forced the station to drop their secondary NBC affiliation and become a full-time ABC affiliate along with their sister stations in Anchorage (KIMO) and Juneau (KJUD).

KTVF-11 took over the telethon in 1996 (months after they dropped CBS for NBC; CBS returned full-time on a new station, Channel 13), but for their first one, they didn't air it until 9:00 am Monday morning!!!! Thankfully, there was good ol' WGN for our fix.

But I'm more interested about the toteboards on the LOCAL portions; we already know what WGN's is like, but what about the others (LCD, LED, eggcrates, monitors)? Ours has been the same since the '80s: The one in which you place the number discs into those tiny little holes from right to left.

Jonathan Allen
 
Ken said:
I thought WFSB aired the telethon. Guess they don't anymore because the US Open is on CBS.
Click to expand...

WFSB hasn't aired it in years. And when they used to air it, the US Open got bounced to what was then CT-20 WTXX the UPN station LMA'd by FOX 61. When WTXX switched to WB and WB-59 became WCTX UPN they became the home of the US Open from CBS. WCTX is owned by LIN-TV ABC affiliate WTNH. FOX-61 of course now owns WTXX CW-20 outright.
 
WPVI channel 6 in Philadelphia carried the telethon for how many years before WPHL-TV took over?
 
70sdj said:
What about Casey Kasum on the telethon. Is he sick?
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I don't think Casey was involved in the national telethon the last few years, other than reminders that American Express (this year, Chase) will donate an extra $5 for donatiosn on their cards.

I'm not sure, but I think Casey is the local co-host of the Los Angeles telethon on KCAL.
 
azumanga said:
70sdj said:
What about Casey Kasum on the telethon. Is he sick?
Click to expand...

I don't think Casey was involved in the national telethon the last few years, other than reminders that American Express (this year, Chase) will donate an extra $5 for donatiosn on their cards.

I'm not sure, but I think Casey is the local co-host of the Los Angeles telethon on KCAL.
Click to expand...

You're correct...Casey is serving as one of the hosts of the KCAL local portion of the telethon.
 
The telethon ended at 6PM ET (earlier than usual), when Jerry sung his song, "You'll Never Walk Alone" (which was suggested by one of Jerry's Kids in 1964 as "their song"). After this, WFTS in Tampa Bay had a brief final segment summing up the final local tote, before going to news. The final national on-air tote (excluding those who end the telethon later than 6PM ET) was over $63 million, again fulfilling Jerry's "$1 more" promise.

As for ending the telethon at 6PM -- remember when the telethon used to end at 6:30PM ET?
 
Telethon has aired on my local CBS for the past few years and they have always aired tennis on their digital sub-channel. This year, however, they cut out of the telethon when tennis started and aired it on both stations (TV listings show the station airing the entire telethon as usual). As soon as the telethon was over, they rejoined Jerry at 6 pm, right in mid-song before going into 60 min. of local coverage. And they still managed to break a record locally. It just makes you wonder if the network had something to do with this.
 
I was watching a bit of the telethon on WWOR "My 9" (via DISH Network) when they cut to local coverage. One of the pledged donations was from Fruitland Park, Florida!
It's pretty obvious it was a fellow DISH Network subscriber. ;D
 
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