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MDA Pulling Plug on Annual Telethon

mvcg66b3r

mvcg66b3r

The Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon, a Labor Day television tradition for decades, is ending.

MDA said Friday that "the new realities of television viewing and philanthropic giving" make it the right time to end the annual event, memorably hosted for most of its life by Jerry Lewis.

The telethon ran 21 and a half hours in 2010, Lewis' last year as host, and had dwindled to a two-hour show the last two years.
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http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/...news-feed-MDA-Pulling-Plug-On-Annual-Telethon
 
Interesting...one of the concerns with charities is the cost of raising money. I imagine it costs a ton to do a 21 hour marathon. Even if the performers donate their time, there are lots of things that aren't donated. That eats into the money raised, and the percentage of actual dollars for the charity are lower.

This could have an impact on public TV, who also fundraise on the air, except for themselves.
 
The telethon ran 21 and a half hours in 2010, Lewis' last year as host, and had dwindled to a two-hour show the last two years.

That was when the telethon REALLY ended, if you ask me.
 
This is sad. I enjoyed watching the telethons, but times have changed thanks to social media and local stations moving on to better things to do with their time slots. If anything I expect MDA will turn to alternative sources for their fund raising events.
 
The end of an era for Labor Day entertainment. 300 channels on cable, social media and the US Open have seemed to kill the Labor Day telethon.
Remember, back in the 1970s cable was just starting, and many people still only had 4 channels. The only one that was on the air in the late evening or early morning before Labor Day was your local Love Network station, airing Jerry Lewis + Ed McMahon all night long. That's why Jerry Lewis had millions of viewers in the 70s and 80s. Everyone would watch for the guest stars, and the final tote.
And with $1 billion + raised on the 40+ years of the telethon, no one has found a cure yet for muscular dystrophy. That $65,031,393 (which was a record for the show) raised in 2008...I wonder how much went to big wigs pockets and how much actually went to research to help Jerry's Kids.

Labor Day (and Sunday night before labor day) will never be the same!

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
The end of an era for Labor Day entertainment. 300 channels on cable, social media and the US Open have seemed to kill the Labor Day telethon.
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Until 2010, the telethon seemed to kill the US Open on Labor Day, with preemptions on many CBS affiliates, including WREG Memphis and WFSB Hartford (whose market is right next to NYC's!). It's become moot now that the telethon's gone and the US Open is cable-only on ESPN.
 
crainbebo said:
That $65,031,393 (which was a record for the show) raised in 2008...I wonder how much went to big wigs pockets and how much actually went to research to help Jerry's Kids.
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Not big wigs. The cost of doing a 21 hour live TV show from Las Vegas involves flying talent in, putting them up in hotels, getting them around, and other incidentals like catering. The talent can donate their time and performance, but someone has to cover all the rest, and its usually the charity. Then you have all the production costs that aren't donated, such as set design, crew, getting the signal to the stations, and anything else. Put that all together, and it's at least $10 million. That eats up money from donations. It starts to get hard to justify, especially when most of the BIG money is coming from corporations, not people watching the TV show.

If it costs more to produce the show than you take in from viewers, then the decision is easy.
 
mvcg66b3r said:
Until 2010, the telethon seemed to kill the US Open on Labor Day, with preemptions on many CBS affiliates, including WREG Memphis and WFSB Hartford (whose market is right next to NYC's!). It's become moot now that the telethon's gone and the US Open is cable-only on ESPN.
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WRONG. WFSB did not pre-empt the telethon. They bought time on a a rival TV station - LIN TV's WCTX 59 in New Haven for the Tennis Tournament. And more recently the telethon moved from WFSB to Tribune's FOX 61 WTIC-TV.
 
I'll always remember the MDA telethon for one thing: the 1 hour tape delay on WGN.

Back in the early 90s, WGN would air the first two hours of the telethon live, then their 9pm Sunday newscast. At 10pm, the telethon resumed, but on a one hour delay.

I figured this out one year when I watched a Rip Torn comedy bit live Monday afternoon on my local NBC affiliate, WFIE-Evansville (which carried the show from start to finish), and again an hour later on WGN's feed on cable.
 
Tim-In-Houston said:
I'll always remember the MDA telethon for one thing: the 1 hour tape delay on WGN.

Back in the early 90s, WGN would air the first two hours of the telethon live, then their 9pm Sunday newscast. At 10pm, the telethon resumed, but on a one hour delay.

I figured this out one year when I watched a Rip Torn comedy bit live Monday afternoon on my local NBC affiliate, WFIE-Evansville (which carried the show from start to finish), and again an hour later on WGN's feed on cable.
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Didn't they also tape delay the final hours of the telethon to air a Cubs game? Or am I confusing them with WWOR and Mets games?
 
It's very possible they did that at one time or another. The 1hr delay is the one that always stuck out in my mind.

It was always interesting to see how different stations handled the telethon, in neighboring markets, via TV Guide.

As I said earlier, in the 80s and 90s WFIE-Evansville always made a big production of it, carrying the entire broadcast in full. Current Raycom sister station, KFVS-Cape Girardeau would JIP at 1030, after the news, drop out for their "The Morning Show" broadcast the next day, the rejoin at 7am though to 5pm.

IIRC, Nashville's WTVF also made a big production out of it, carrying all 21 hours.

On a related note, at one point my hometown cable company had 3 channels airing the MDA broadcast: WFIE, WGN, and WWOR.
 
Viacom did own the local cable company in Nashville in the late 70- the late 90's. During those years WTVF may have asked Viacom to black out WGN when the telethon.was on, there my have been a rule about airing the same program in the same market.
 
CDG said:
Viacom did own the local cable company in Nashville in the late 70- the late 90's. During those years WTVF may have asked Viacom to black out WGN when the telethon.was on, there my have been a rule about airing the same program in the same market.
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but why would they for a telethon?
 
If someone worked at Viacom during those years could shade some light on why WTVF was rebroadcast on WGN Channel 20 during the MDHA telethon it would be a big help. When WZTV got the MDHA telethon WGN'S coverage of the telethon was not blacked out.
 
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