83 Million Tune in for Haiti Benefit

NEW YORK: The Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief event on Friday night, which aired across numerous networks in the U.S., attracted 83 million viewers over the course of the two-hour broadcast, as well as 5.8 million video streams over the weekend.

The benefit had a cumulative audience of more than 83 million viewers and a gross average audience of more than 24 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, and raised more than $61 million in donations from the general public. The telethon aired commercial-free on Friday night on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and The CW, as well as on CNN, BET, HBO, MTV, VH1, PBS, TNT, Showtime, AMC, CNBC, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Current TV, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Espanol, HBO Latino and others. Online and on mobile, Hope for Haiti Now attracted 1.9 million video streams during the live broadcast. Between the live broadcast and replays, meanwhile, there was a total of 5.8 million total streams throughout the weekend, including more than 150,000 mobile streams. 

Hope for Haiti Now was produced by Joel Gallen and Tenth Planet Productions, in collaboration with Viacom’s MTV Networks and George Clooney, and featured performances by Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, and a group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z and Rihanna. Funds raised will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation and the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation.