Hello, everybody. Friday night was the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon to benefit the earthquake relief effort, broadcast on various networks around the world. This was George Clooney's fourth multi-network telethon after "America: A Tribute to Heroes" following 9/11, "Tsunami Aid" (which was only on the NBC Universal networks), and "Shelter from the Storm" after Hurricane Katrina. The broadcast originated from Los Angeles, New York, and London.

Armed with performances by Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Beyonce, and Justin Timberlake among others, 100 celebrities such as Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Mel Gibson, Reese Witherspoon, Taylor Lautner, the Jonas Brothers, Alec Baldwin, Dwayne Johnson, Alyssa Milano, Ray Romano, Tyler Perry, Drew Carey, the original cast of "High School Musical" (Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale), "American Idol" runners-up David Archuleta and Katharine McPhee, Marisa Tomei, Selena Gomez, and dozens others manned the phone bank in L.A. taking donations and engaging in a little chit-chat with them. Of course many of us took the alternate method of giving by texting GIVE to 50555 ($10 would be added to mobile bill) or by heading to hopeforhaitinow.org. Me? I did the latter and donated $35, because I would be caught dead calling or texting in my donation.

Oh yeah, there were also appearances by Halle Berry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Chris Rock, Sexiest Woman of 2001 winner Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, President Bill Clinton, Tom Hanks (fresh off on Conan O'Brien's last "Tonight Show", which I'll get to later) and more including CNN's Anderson Cooper in Haiti and Wyclef Jean in New York.

The telethon benefited Oxfam America, the Red Cross, UNICEF, Partners in Health, United Nations World Food Programme, Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation; 100% of the proceeds would be split among those organizations.

While we were Tweeting what's been going on on the broadcast so far, we've noticed some no-shows on the star-studded phone bank. Among them: Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, anybody from "Glee", Courteney Cox, Lucy Liu (who is a UNICEF ambassador), and Kate Walsh. I guess they were all busy or there was only 100 slots to fill. And while Lautner was on the phones in L.A. and Robert Pattinson appeared from London, their fellow "Twilight" co-star Kristen Stewart is at the Sundance Film Festival. Fergie was also in "Nine" with Kidman and Cruz, but she and the rest of the Black Eyed Peas are in Europe. Oh yeah...where are Mr. and Mrs. Twitter (aka Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore)? I guess they stayed home as well.

So far, over $57 million was raised after Friday, and the number may increase to $100 million within the next few days.

By the way...in Canada prior to this, they had a one-hour "Canada for Haiti" telethon featuring famous Canuck celebs like William Shatner, Rachel McAdams, James Cameron, Wayne Gretzky, Pamela Anderson, Alex Trebek, Barenaked Ladies, Sarah MacLachlan and many others including who is probably the most popular Canadian at the moment...Justin Bieber. Sorry, no sign of Avril Lavigne, Elisha Cuthbert, Shenae Grimes, Neve Campbell, or even Bret "Hitman" Hart there.

Now like I said, the Haiti telethon is the brainchild of Clooney and it is happening closer to the 25th anniversary of "We Are The World"; Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie are planning a remake to benefit Haiti.

But in my lifetime, this is the fifth multi-network television event I've been watching. Almost 20 years ago in April 1990, the major broadcast and cable networks aired "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" with Bugs Bunny, the Muppet Babies, the Smurfs, and other Saturday morning cartoon stars to raise awareness about drug prevention. And looking back at it being on all those channels, this was a very big deal.

As I said a few paragraphs before, Hanks appeared at the telethon just shortly after doing the last "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" across town. Conan also on Friday wrapped up his tumultuous seven-month run as host of NBC's late night flagship after receiving a lot of hush money to get out of dodge: around $30 million.

I pretty much knew all along that Conan's brand of humor that worked at 12:30 wouldn't work at 11:30, though in the last few days, ratings for his show were up 50% over David Letterman. Now comes a couple weeks of reruns and then the Winter Olympics before Jay Leno returns back home to 11:30 and it'll once again be "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" with possibly the old logo and theme music returning.

And last but not least...if you look back at Julianna Margulies' Golden Globe speech, she thanked CBS "for believing in the 10:00 drama." Of course comedy at 10:00 with Leno didn't work, but drama and in most areas news at 10:00 have worked.

Just ask ITV (and the BBC) in Britain, the CBC in Canada with "The National", and dozens of Fox, CW, and independent stations. Their 10:00 newscasts, whether they are a half-hour or an hour, have been pulling in impressive ratings opposite the network dramas for many, many years. The reasons are simple: one, they have been cash cows for the stations and two, the public -- especially schoolchildren -- wanted their news in primetime before calling it a night.

I don't watch much TV as opposed to 10 or 20 years ago (thanks, "Jersey Shore" and other reality shows out there!), but I prefer my late news at 10:00 myself. It's just that KATN is the only place here in Fairbanks for it once again now that Leno will be done at 10:00 before heading back where he belongs on March 1. So long and stay strong.