Update | 1:16 p.m. Eleven broadcast and cable networks will show a two-hour telethon next Friday night to benefit the victims of the Haitian earthquake, MTV Networks announced on Friday. The commercial-free telethon, called “Hope for Haiti,” will be shown starting at 8 p.m., Eastern time, on ABC, BET, CBS, CMT, CNN, CW, FOX, HBO, MTV, NBC and VH1, in addition to the MTV Networks International, CNN International and National Geographic channels, which will show it around the world.
In a telephone interview, Judy McGrath, the chairman and chief executive of MTV Networks, said planning for the telethon began somewhat spontaneously on Wednesday afternoon. “We were all stricken watching this heartbreaking event unfold,” Ms. McGrath said, “and we thought we could do something on our networks. Almost simultaneously, as we started working on this, I got a call from George Clooney.” She said Mr. Clooney also wanted to be involved in the event, having already secured about a dozen fellow celebrities to participate and offering to recruit others during the Golden Globe Awards this weekend.
The telethon will be hosted by Mr. Clooney in Los Angeles, the Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean in New York and the CNN newscaster Anderson Cooper, who will be broadcasting from Haiti. Ms. McGrath said, “We have asked virtually every exceptional A-list musician and talent you can think of to lend their help, to answer phones or give testimonials,” though an exact lineup of entertainers was not yet ready to be announced.
Donations raised during the telethon will benefit the organizations Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, Unicef and Yele Haiti Foundation.
“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel,” Ms. McGrath said. “We’re just trying to give people an opportunity to come together and step up. These organizations need money to mobilize support and we have to do it.”