American Idol will be honored as part of the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony for their fundraising effort titled “Idol Gives Back.”  As part of the off-air portion of the Emmy awards, the show will be honored with a special Governors award for the innovative effort that helped to raise mega-bucks for societies struggling with poverty.

The effort was billed as a star-studded, mid-season surprise by the American Idol producers and proved to be a huge success.  Co-hosted by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and comedienne and talk show hostess Ellen DeGeneres, the Idol Gives Back even ran during the April 23 and April 24 timeslots for American Idol.  During those episodes, contestants performed with and between guest acts, but no eliminations were made.

Host Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell, who showed a surprising soft side, toured areas stricken by the horrors of poverty calling on the mammoth American Idol audience, one of the largest television audiences in the world, to pitch in to help.  The results were astounding, resulting in a staggering $75 million that was distributed to various relief agencies.

American Idol producers have not commented as to whether or not the fundraiser will become part of American Idol's new season when the show returns, but it would be difficult to imagine it not being there.  The goal was to tap into the enormous popularity of the television show and see if it could be used to funnel that attention to real-world aid.

Recently, Supernatural fans used a smaller model calling on fans of the show to donate in an attempt to raise cash for a homeless shelter in Supernatural's onscreen hometown of Lawrence, Kansas.   With the success both at a grass roots level, and at the level of a megalithic hit like Idol's on air fundraising attempts, one can only imagine what good could be done if all shows made an attempt to bring some level of awareness to global problems that are within our reach to solve as a species.


- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: Reuters
(Image Courtesy of FOX)