More than 83 million people tuned in Friday night for at least a portion of the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, which aired commercial-free on dozens of networks. The fundraising effort, spearheaded by actor George Clooney and MTV Networks, had an average audience of more than 24 million viewers and pulled in at least $61 million in pledges from the general public to help survivors of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake that rocked Haiti.
Organizers on Monday were still tabulating additional donations made by corporations and large private donors, as well as proceeds from an album of the telethon's live performances sold on iTunes.
One of the few networks that didn't carry the telethon was Fox News. The counterprogramming strategy paid off, ratings-wise: Between 8 and 10 p.m. EST, the cable channel averaged 3.8 million viewers with its regular lineup of "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity." CNN, whose anchor Anderson Cooper provided live reports from Port-au-Prince for the telethon, drew 1.19 million viewers for its airing of the fundraiser, while MSNBC logged 468,000.
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