The MDA folks are saying they raised $61.5 million yesterday with a six-hour telethon sans Jerry Lewis. Years ago when I worked on a different telethon, I learned that the "take" is not necessarily a real number; that the organizers can find a way to put almost any number within reason up there on the final tote board. They can, for example, throw in money that has been pledged to the charity, not necessarily via the telethon. I'm not saying any particular telethon's announced gross is bogus. Just that there is a certain amount of wiggle room.
Last year with a telethon with Jerry that ran more than twenty hours in some markets, they raised $2.6 million less. Assuming both numbers are equally accurate and/or measured by the same rules, that would make this year's quite a success. I wonder if in light of that, any charity anywhere will even consider a telethon longer than six hours in the future. The Chabad Telethon, which is on Sunday, September 25, will be three hours. Those used to be six but when they cut it to three a year or two ago, the same thing happened. They collected a little more money in a lot less airtime.
I was a bit amazed to hear that MDA had raised that much moola this year. I heard so many people lament how dreadful it was that Jerry was ousted, how there was no point in watching the telethon if Jerry wasn't there, etc. But then I realized: Most of those folks probably wouldn't have donated or even watched if he was there. If there'd been no controversy and if Jerry Lewis had just hosted as he always does, the tune-in probably would have been about the same…maybe less.
For a week or two now, Jerry and his spokespersons have been saying that he'd hold a big press conference the day after the telethon because he had "a lot to say." I don't know if that was ever going to actually happen but one suspects it's a bit less likely because the telethon didn't flop, at least in a monetary sense, without him. Then again, a lot of what makes Jerry Jerry is that he doesn't always do what you'd imagine a person would do. Or should do.