The Jerry Lewis Telethon will be no more

They'll cram all the Jerry-ness into a six hour special next year:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_en_tv/us_mda_telethon

Not surprising news. Stations no longer want to clear 21 hours, and some have been delegating big parts of the telethon to secondary cable channels.

Jerry has scaled back greatly anyway and the overnight hours were carried by the co-hosts. The bizarro Jerry craziness that used to hit around 4 a.m. has been missing for a long time.

 

Plus, how much longer can Jerry keep doing this? His health has been an issue. I'm surprised the telethon has been going for this many years.

 

Can't wait to see the advertising for this.

"Check out the new and improved Jerry Lewis Telethon! Less time means more fun! Woo!"

 

It's the end of an era. Used to be you could count on three or four honest-to-goodness telethons (as in overnight, not some glorified three-hour call-in thing). Now there are none that I know of. Maybe it was inevitable, but it's still a real shame. I do still think Justin Timberlake would have been the perfect heir apparent to Jerry.

 

Why is ot a shame?

Jerry Lewis is getting older and winding down. So will the Telethon.

In all the years with all the money spent, what progress has been made in treating this genetic disorder?

 

Not many things on TV have been a part of my entire life. I figured they would end it with one last shebang. Oddly, some of the best parts of recent years was when they re-ran "classic" moments from the telethon's heyday overnight.
It will always be the king, though the Children's Miracle Network telethons were pretty decent, also liked the Cerebral Palsy ones, Lou Rawls UNCF shows and didn't Pat Boone host an Easter Seals show? Honorable mention to the Chabad telethon in L.A. Caught it on a trip south one year.

 

Quite a bit, actually. And remember that some of the money goes to providing equipment and services to those who need them.

 

take the lights down and well done, Jerry! now go on and start slapping down those ho's Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton...

 

Does any channel still show the burning Yule Log on Christmas Day?

 

Jerry knew it was over last month, he could barely get though his last number...

 

WGN shows two-hour blocks of the log.

 

Joey Hetherton and Lola Falana weep. Now, can we get Dick Clark to stop appearing on New Year's eve?