Idol Gives Back was the name of a charitable campaign that spanned two episodes of American Idol during its sixth season. A second Idol Gives Back concert and fundraiser occurred on April 9, 2008, during the seventh season of the show.[1]Idol Gives Back was not held in 2009 due to the economic crisis and recession.[2] The executive producer released a statement saying that it was not the time to be asking for money from the American public. However, the fundraiser returned on April 21, 2010, during the top 7 results show of season 9.[3] It did not return in future seasons.
Details
Idol Gives Back was the result of a collaboration between American Idol creator Simon Fuller and the British writer and founder of the British Comic Relief telethons, Richard Curtis. On the March 8, 2007 American Idol results show, Ryan Seacrest announced an initiative to give back to people in poverty in both Africa and the United States (including those affected by Hurricane Katrina). For every vote cast for the April 24, 2007 broadcast, sponsors donated funds to the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund. Richard Curtis and Simon Fuller took the basic premise for the show from the UK-based annual charity event Comic Relief, and spent 12 months adapting the concept and re-shaping it for a mainstream American audience. The 2007 event was co-hosted by comedian/talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
Sponsors
2007
News Corporation pledged to donate 10 cents for every vote made to the show for the first 50 million calls, that is, up to $5 million. MySpace created a special profile page for the event in order to spread the word.[4] Donations from viewers were accepted by phone and website during the April 25, 2007 results show, in a manner similar to a telethon. Near the end of the broadcast, Seacrest announced the show raised $30 million, with the final tally coming on May 1, 2007. In total $76 million in corporate and viewer donations has been raised as a result of Idol Gives Back.[5]
In addition to public and News Corp donations, regular show sponsors and special contributors donated funds. These companies include Coca-Cola, Ford, AT&T, Allstate and ExxonMobil.
2008
The donation-per-vote model was dropped in favor of direct sponsor donations from Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Ford, iTunes, etc. and individual viewer donations made by phone and on the American Idol website. Exclusive videos of the night's performances were available for purchase on iTunes, with proceeds going towards the donation total. On the April 10, 2008 results show, Ryan Seacrest announced the running total raised to be $60 million, with the opportunity to donate still open. The final total of donations raised was $64 million.[6]
2010
The same sponsors from 2008 returned for the 2010 Idol Gives Back. The special raised $45 million with the amount expecting to rise after proceeds from iTunes sales are added.[7]
Between contestant performances, video vignettes showcasing the judges and Seacrest visiting and observing stark conditions in Africa and United States were aired. Similar vignettes were aired during the results show. For this special, the voting period was doubled to four hours following the show, rather than the usual two. In response to the anticipated call volume, each contestant was assigned two toll free numbers. Over 70 million votes were cast.
Due to the "charity" theme of the show, no contestant was eliminated on the April 25th results show. All of the votes from that week were added to the next week's votes, and the bottom two contestants were eliminated.
Top 6 Contestants - "Time to Care," an anthem written and composed specially for the occasion by Quincy Jones, who conducted the band.
Ben Stiller threatened to badly sing a rendition of Little River Band's "Reminiscing" until a total of $200,000,000,000 in donations was reached. Throughout the show, the camera cut to him continuing to sing as the goal was not reached.
Jack Black humorously performed an excerpt of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" for the judges, as Kyle Gass sat in the audience holding a rose, acting moved by the song. Randy and Paula panned his performance, with Paula mentioning that "the School of Rock called; they want their diploma back." Simon Cowell remarked that he was "better than Sanjaya." When asked by the judges, however, Seal jokingly proclaimed Black's performance the best rendition of "Kiss from a Rose" that he ever heard. Black also incorrectly identified "Kiss From a Rose" as being a song from the Batman Returns soundtrack. The track was actually featured in the third edition in the Batman series, Batman Forever.
A Simpsons animated short was aired with Bart as Ryan, Marge imitating Randy, Lisa imitating Paula, and Homer imitating Simon while listening to a much mellowed Simon Cowell's audition of "Don't Cha". It was later released on The Simpsons Movie DVD.
Other musicians, such as Pink and Gwen Stefani, were advertised and scheduled to perform on the show,[12] but neither of their performances were aired. Although their numbers were pre-taped along with the other guests', American Idol claimed they were not broadcast due to time constraints, but that their appearances will be featured in future episodes of the show.[13] Gwen Stefani sang during the season finale, however it was a performance aired via satellite,[14] and not the one she had pre-recorded for Idol Gives Back. Pink's performance was shown on one of the later episodes of the season.
Elimination
Ryan Seacrest made it seem that eventual winner Jordin Sparks was eliminated. She was then declared safe and no contestants were eliminated. Seacrest told everyone that the votes from that week and the next week would by added up and two people would go home.
Idol Gives Back 2008
The initiative returned on April 9 for a second consecutive year. The format changed slightly from 2007; the episode aired as its own special on Idol's regular Wednesday results night with an early start time of 7:30 p.m. EDT (when stations would've otherwise shown local programming), running for 152 minutes from the Kodak Theatre and the regular Idol stage. The results show aired separately that Thursday. Vignettes showing celebrities visiting impoverished areas in the United States as well as Africa were again shown in between performances. Producers hoped to exceed last year's $76 million raised. Again, proceeds went to children's charities in Africa and the United States.
Ellen DeGeneres was originally going to reprise last year's co-hosting duties but had to pull out due to "a personal production pressure" according to producer Nigel Lythgoe.[17] She still appeared during a short segment.
Performances
Idol Top 8 sang Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music" as past So You Think You Can Dance finalists performed various dance routines
In a sequel to the previous year's "Staying Alive" video, a group of celebrities lip synced to The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" during Thursday's results show.
Elimination
The top 8 results show was held on Thursday, the day after the Idol Gives Back special. Michael Johns, Syesha Mercado, and Carly Smithson were in the bottom 3. Johns had the lowest number of votes that week; Ryan Seacrest mentioned the previous "Idol Gives Back" when no contestants were eliminated (and two were being sent home the following week), but then announced that Johns was eliminated.
Idol Gives Back 2010
Idol Gives Back returned on April 21, 2010, during the Top 7 results show on season nine.
Annie Lennox was scheduled to make an appearance and perform live on the show, however, the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull which began on April 14, 2010, caused chaos across Europe with every flight being grounded. Due to this Lennox could not make it to perform but instead a video was played featuring her vocals of the song she was going to sing.
In 2010, American Idol received a nomination for the Do Something TV Show Award from the VH1Do Something Awards for its charitable work.
For the first time ever, the special ran overtime, running until 10:24 PM EDT (02:24 UTC, April 22). However, Ryan Seacrest did warn viewers at the end of the previous night's performance show that the show would run long, this time. The broadcast the night before had also run long, causing viewers to miss this warning as well.
