Stars come out to raise money for the victims of the major storms that hit Texas and Florida
Tonight is a worldwide telethon the one-hour special called “Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Harvey and Irma Relief.” You can see the program that begins at 8 p.m. right here and is being streamed all over the world.
George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Beyoncé, and Oprah Winfrey headline the show.
The telethon to raise money for victims of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey will air on over 17 networks, plus streaming on a number of free websites. The program will air worldwide 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET live from Nashville, New York, and Los Angeles.
The big four broadcast networks are on board with CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX all planning to air the broadcast. Joining the telethon will be 17 networks in all running the telethon, including MTV, BET, CMT, Bravo, Oxygen, Univision, HBO, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
According to our friends at TMZ the list of stars includes Al Pacino, Justin Timberlake, Travis Scott, Dave Matthews, Jon Stewart, Chris Paul, Demi Lovato, Diddy and Leo DiCaprio.
There are a few new additions will join Justin Bieber, Drake, Reese Witherspoon, Jamie Foxx, Blake Shelton, Billy Crystal, Robert De Niro, Sofia Vergara, Michael Strahan, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Dell and Verizon are underwriting the entire event so 100% of the money will go to help the hurricane victims.
Other major sponsors are Dell will match the first $10 million and Apple is pledging $5 million to the telethon.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Scooter Braun was part of the team that put this event together along with Bun B. It was Bun B who thought of the idea to have a telethon while he was thinking of ways to help his Texas community. “It just kind of came to me one morning, looking at the television, seeing what people are going through and wanting to try to put as big an effort as possible together,” he tells EW. The next step was getting in touch with people “who could get the most eyes and ears on what we were trying to get done.” Braun, who also manages Bieber, was one of those people.
“Whether they lost people or they lost homes, or whatever it may be if you can do something, you should,” Braun says. “My hope is that, with this, we inspire people in our industry and in other industries to do something also. During this time, when there’s so much division, we need to fight back with action and unity. … This is bigger than Texas, this is bigger than Florida. We want to come together as a nation and believe in that idea that we all signed up for, that when things get tough, we stick together.”