Hope For Haiti Now a Hit

With the disaster in Haiti, people all over are working to help those in need and Hollywood is no exception. The two hour telethon, Hope for Haiti Now premiered Friday night on multiple major channels worldwide. Hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean, and Anderson Cooper with stars such as Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Rihanna and Bruce Springsteen showing their support by performing, over 24 million U.S. citizens watched the whole thing with 83 million total tuning in at various points with 5.8 million more watching online.

The telethon raised $61 million for Haiti aid. This does not include donations by corporations or donations via iTunes, which are still being calculated. To add even more to its success, the benefit album has increased dramatically in sales, so much so that many predict it climbing to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. If this does happen, it will be the first time in history that a digital-only album has topped the chart since it began 54 years ago. The album has already gained the biggest one-day album pre-order in iTunes history and has topped charts in 18 different countries. With the telethon being so successful with all proceeds going to Haiti, one has to hope that any encore they do will be just as successful.