Idol Gives Back
INGO | |
| Purpose | Raising money for underprivileged children worldwide. |
|---|---|
Official language | English |
Parent organization | American Idol |
| Website | http://www.americanidol.com |
Idol Gives Back was the name of a charitable campaign that spanned two episodes of It did not return in future seasons.
Details
Idol Gives Back was the result of a collaboration between
Sponsors
2007
In addition to public and News Corp donations, regular show sponsors and special contributors donated funds. These companies include
.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]
Charities
The Charity Projects Entertainment Fund distributes the money raised to
Idol Gives Back 2007
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.
The results show was broadcast from two locations—the regular American Idol stage and
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.
Performers
The performers included:[10]
- "
- 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.
- West Side Story)
- I'll Stand By You" in Africa, which was used as soundtrack for a video vignette.
- 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.
- Fergie - performs her fourth single (fan favorite) song, "Big Girls Don't Cry", from her debut album The Dutchess.
- My Wish"
- Numerous actors and celebrities The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" in a humorous music video.
- Josh Groban backed by the African Children's Choir - "You Raise Me Up"
- Kelly Clarkson with Jeff Beck - Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain"
- 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.
- Celine Dion duet with Elvis Presley (together on stage with use of rotoscoping) - "If I Can Dream"[11]
- Bridge Over Troubled Water"
- Top 6 Contestants - "American Prayer"
- Green Day - "Working Class Hero"
Missing performers
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.
The following celebrities appeared or performed on the 2008 show, as well as the following results show:
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
- Charlie Wilsonperformed "Can't Say Goodbye"
- Teri Hatcher (of Desperate Housewives) performed Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" with Band from TV
- Miley Cyrus performed "Good and Broken".
- Fergie performed her single "Finally" with John Legend playing the piano
- Heart performed "Barracuda" and were joined by Fergie
- Annie Lennox played the piano and performed "Many Rivers to Cross"
- Carrie Underwood sang George Michael's "Praying for Time"
- Chris Brown in "No Air" and presented Platinum awards for sales "Tattoo" and "No Air" (over 1,000,000 units each) and Gold award for the Jordin Sparksalbum (over 500,000 units).
- So You Think You Can Dance finalists and professional dancer Fabienne Liechti
- Idol Top 8 performed "Seasons of Love" from the musical RENT
- Miley Cyrus performed once more, singing "See You Again"
- Daughtry performed "What About Now" in a video of their trip to Uganda
- Mariah Carey performed "Fly Like a Bird" with Randy Jackson on bass guitar
- The Top 8 closed the show with the Christian anthem "So You Think You Can Dance finalists and professional dancer Fabienne Liechti
- 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.
President
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
Elimination
Tim Urban was eliminated. Aaron Kelly and Casey James were in the bottom three.[18]
Overtime broadcast
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.
U.S. Nielsen ratings
| Episode Number |
Year | Airdate | Rating | Share | 18-49 rating/share |
Viewers (millions) |
Rank (timeslot) |
Rank (night) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2007 | April 25, 2007 | 15.4 | 24 | 10.0/26 | 26.40 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2008 | April 9, 2008 | 10.3 | 16 | 6.6/18 | 17.60 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 2010 | April 21, 2010 | 10.4 | 18[19] | 5.8/17 | 18.40 | 1 | 1 |
References
- ^ ""Idol Gives Back" Returns This Season!". americanidol.com.
- ^ American Idol Shelves "Give Back" Show for 2009 Season Archived 2011-06-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ 'Idol Gives Back' will return to 'American Idol' on April 21
- ^ MySpace:Idol Gives Back
- ^ Kaufman, Gil (April 7, 2008). "'Idol Gives Back': Where Did Last Year's $76 Million Go". Mtv. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
- ^ "'American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" charity special raises $45 million". Realitytvworld.com. April 26, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
- ^ ‘Idol Gives Back’ raises $45 million for charity
- ^ a b American Idol News Blog, "$60 Million and Counting!"
- ^ Idol Charities Still Waiting For Funds Archived 2008-09-01 at the Wayback Machine, The NonProfit Times, 2008-06-01
- ^ Gallo, Phil (April 26, 2007). "American Idol: Idol Gives Back Concert Review". Variety.
- ^ "Elvis on 'Idol:' How It Was Done" from ABC News, accessed April 27, 2007.
- ^ MTV News, "Gwen Stefani, Pink, Borat Team Up For 'Idol' Charity Special"
- ^ ""Gwen and Pink get the boot from "Idol Gives Back""". Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2007-05-21.
- ^ CNN.com, "And the 'American Idol' winner is ..."
- ^ All made special guest appearances, promoting viewiers to donate
- ^ CTV.ca | Presidential hopefuls among 'Idol Gives Back' stars
- ^ "Mariah Duets with Marvin Gaye? Ellen Out? "Idol Gives Back" Updates". Archived from the original on 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
- ^ The results are in ... and guess who's safe?
- ^ TV ratings: 'Idol Gives Back' dominates Wednesday