Posted on 04/15/2024 6:22:42 AM PDT by FLNittany
Sunday night (April 14) was slated to be a triumphant first for Billy Joel. After half a century in the music business, the Piano Man was headed to prime time for his first-ever broadcast network concert special, The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time.
Announced during this year’s Super Bowl and taped on March 28 during Joel’s 100th consecutive performance at the legendary New York city venue, the show was slated to run from 9-11 p.m. on CBS. Unfortunately, the network’s live coverage of the Masters golf tournament pushed back the start of the Joel concert’s airing, which meant that the climactic ending of the show was cut off for many viewers to throw to the local news.
To make matters worse, according to posts from livid viewers, the screen went black at the worst possible time, near the celebratory ending of Joel’s signature sing-along ballad, 1973’s “Piano Man.” “#BillyJoel #MSG #100 concert not only starts a half hour late, but then you cut off the last 3-4 minutes for local news to start at 1130?,” read one rage-filled tweet that opened with a not polite, four-letter salutation to the Tiffany network. “Are you serious. Absolutely pathetic decision making, on an event that’s been advertised for MONTHS, and you f–k it up.”
At press time a spokesperson for CBS had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment about the abrupt cut-away from the broadcast, which some X users compared to the infamous moment in 1968 when NBC jumped from a nail-biter New York Jets/Oakland Raiders football game to switch to children’s movie Heidi.
“CBS has been promoting the Billy Joel concert special every two minutes for WEEKS. So what better way to air it than to preempt it for a half hour and the cut him off MID-PIANO MAN? C’mon guys,” read another annoyed tweet. That same fan further explained that she’d spent “three wonderful years with CBS and I love the network dearly… but as a media professional, I am straight up confounded by this decision.”
In fan video of the moment, Joel is leaning into the denouement of the song, singing, “And the piano it sounds like a carnival/ And the microphone smells like a beer,” amid footage of fans at the MSG show singing along and cheering as the screen abruptly jumps to local news. To be fair, the cut-off came near the end of the final verse, with just a round of choruses, and around a minute, left to go. According to one report, the edit only affected viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones.
While CBS has not issued a statement so far, one of the affected stations offered an apology, with 10 Tampa Bay sport director Evan Closky writing, “As a man who grew up right next to Billy Joel’s hometown, who went to The Last Play at Shea, it was my duty to apologize to everyone about cutting off our telecast of Billy Joel tonight. Not to get into the weeds, but there was a special report after the Masters and it wasn’t accounted for by the powers that be beyond this building.”
Joel will be back at MSG on April 26 and May 9 for two more gigs at his home-away-from-home, before hitting the road this summer for a run of baseball stadium gigs that run through November.
I'm not feelin' too good myself
Everything on CBS was shifted because the damned GOLF GAME went past the timeline schedule!........................
Great song. Ironically, his signature tune was not a huge hit as a single when it was originally released.
“ I’m not feelin’ too good myself”
…and I heard Elvis is dead…
Just have some of Jeremiah’s wine. I hear it’s mighty fine...............
I’m surprised Billy can stay awake that long
Billy Joel? I never got how that was considered rock and roll
cbs apparently doesn’t understand their long-standing contract with Augusta National. That can explain the late start.
What can’t be explained is not delaying local news for a few minutes to finish the finale of the freaking concert.
I hope you didn’t hit a lot of Traffic on the way to work today.
The article says 100th consecutive performance. What does that even mean? Is it the only place he performs?
The fans failed to achieve a New York state of mind.
This brouhaha is so 1992.
You can go on the Internet and stream any one of hundreds of Billy Joel concerts, archived back to when he was first starting out.
Funny aside...
Dave Mason wrote “Feelin’ Alright?” in 1968. He reformed a band in 2020 he named “Dave Mason and the Quarantines.” LOL.
They all moved to Florida.
Billy included.
Don’t blame CBS, it was a decision of the local stations to switch to their “if it bleeds it leads” late news programs.
New Years Eve 1999 I spent a ton of money for tickets to a Billy Joel concert. Worst concert, performance, sound, vocals, etc. etc. He was terrible and clearly did not give a crap. I don’t think I have cared about his crap music since that night — what a let down.
“The article says 100th consecutive performance. What does that even mean? Is it the only place he performs?”
I actually watched 3/4th of the show and can answer your question.
Apparently BJ has been preforming at MSG approximately one (or more times) a month for about a decade, hence his 100th performance.
I was quite shocked that they cut off piano man at the end!
I cannot think of the last time I watched something on C BS...they screwed it up to be sure.
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