Hope for Haiti Telethon on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, HBO, MTV, VH1, and CMT

By Ally Matteodo

The Hope for Haiti Telethon represented not only Best TV Show of the Week, but an important television event.  This program aired at 8:00 p.m. ET on January 22, and was shown on all of the major broadcast networks and many cable channels as well. Wyclef Jean, a Haitian-born entertainer, spearheaded the show from New York, and actor George Clooney hosted the Los Angeles segment.  CNN anchor Anderson Cooper brought live footage to the program from Haiti.  Countless celebrities took phone calls for donations, and heart-felt, moving songs were performed by a myriad of musicians and singers.  The funds raised by the program went to Jean’s Yele Haiti Foundation, in addition to UNICEF, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, and the Red Cross.  This program aired commercial-free, and in between the musical performances and live footage from Haiti, cameras captured a couple of phone calls fielded by celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, and Julia Roberts.  Several stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Halle Berry, also filled segments in between songs with tales of inspiration from Haiti.

After the disastrous earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, which has claimed over 150,000 lives, the impetus for the international community to aid this already poor and struggling nation became an absolute necessity.  The Hope for Haiti Telethon, initiated by a call from Wyclef Jean to George Clooney, was hugely successful in collecting donations, in part because of the celebrities and ordinary people who have rallied behind the Haitian relief efforts.  The musical performances of the evening included Alicia Keyes, “Send Me an Angel,” Coldplay’s “A Message 2010,” Bruce Springsteen’s “We Shall Overcome,” Stevie Wonder’s “A Time to Love,” and “Bridge over Troubled Waters,” Shakira’s “I”ll Stand by You,” John Legend’s “Motherless Child,” Mary J. Blige’s “Hard Times Come Again No More,” Taylor Swift’s “Breathless,” Christina Aguillera’s “Life Me Up,” Sting’s “Driven to Tears,” Beyonce’s “Halo,” Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and Keith Urban’s “Lean on Me,” Madonna’s “Life a Prayer,” Justin Timberlake’s “Hallelujah,” Jennifer Hudson’s “Let it Be,” Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Bono’s “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour),” and Dave Matthew with Neil Young’s “Alone and Forsaken.”  All of these performances were beautiful and moving in a way that is difficult to capture through words alone.  The night ended with Wyclef Jean’s spirited singing, starting out with “Rivers of Babylon’ and then moving into a traditional Creole song called “Yele.”  After so much pain and suffering, it appears that a disaster of 7.0 magnitude was required to gain the international community’s attention.  Yet hopefully now, with help from all of us, a better and stronger Haiti can be built.    

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