12-12-12, the concert benefitting the victims of Hurricane Sandy, aired on a variety of networks on Wednesday. The telecast was long, spanning over 4 and a half hours, and packing in as many big musical names as possible, including acts as varied as Adam Sandler, Billy Joel, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and Paul McCartney with Nirvana. Those were enough big names to draw over 19.3 million viewers in the United States across the night.
According to Deadline, 12-12-12 aired on 15 different networks in the United States, with most of the networks peaking with around 5.2 million viewers. Overall, however, the concert was made available in markets across the world, and was the most highly distributed musical event, ever.
It’s no wonder 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy did so well on the viewer front. The night had a few highlights, including Roger Waters and Eddie Vedder singing Pink Floyd’s famous track, “Comfortably Numb.” Adam Sandler sang an oddball rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” that later earned a little bit of controversy, and Paul McCartney and Nirvana sang “Cut me Some Slack.” You can catch a few of these musical moments, here.
Considering 12-12-12 and its more famous sister, the Concert for New York, were precipitated by tragedies, it’s hard to root for another mega concert with this wide of an appeal, but if it does come along, we’ll all be lucky to get an event as touching and enjoyable as this.
