Sunday night time (April 14) was slated to be a triumphant first for Billy Joel. After half a century within the music enterprise, the Piano Man was headed to prime time for his first-ever broadcast community live performance particular, The a hundredth: Billy Joel at Madison Sq. Backyard – The Biggest Enviornment Run of All Time.
Introduced throughout this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl and taped on March 28 throughout Joel’s a hundredth efficiency on the legendary NY city venue, the present was slated to run from 11th of September p.m. on CBS. Sadly, the community’s stay protection of the Masters golf match pushed again the beginning of the Joel live performance’s airing, which meant that the climactic ending of the present was reduce off for a lot of viewers to throw to the native information.
To make issues worse, in response to posts from furious viewers, the display screen went black on the worst potential time, close to the celebratory ending of Joel’s signature sing-along ballad, 1973’s “Piano Man.” “#BillyJoel #MSG #100 live performance not solely begins a half hour late, however you then reduce off the final 3-4 minutes for native information to begin at 1130?,” learn one rage-filled tweet that opened with a not well mannered, four-letter salutation to the Tiffany community. “Are you severe. Completely pathetic resolution making, on an occasion that’s been marketed for MONTHS, and also you f–okay it up.”
At press time a spokesperson for CBS had not returned Billboard‘s request for remark concerning the abrupt cut-away from the published, which some X customers in comparison with the notorious second in 1968 when NBC jumped from a nail-biter New York Jets/Oakland Raiders soccer recreation to change to youngsters’s film Heidi.
“CBS has been selling the Billy Joel live performance particular each two minutes for WEEKS. So what higher strategy to air it than to preempt it for a half hour and the reduce him off MID-PIANO MAN? C’mon guys,” learn one other irritated tweet. That very same fan additional defined that she’d spent “three great years with CBS and I really like the community dearly… however as a media skilled, I’m straight up confounded by this resolution.”
In fan video of the second, Joel is leaning into the denouement of the track, singing, “And the piano it feels like a carnival/ And the microphone smells like a beer,” amid footage of followers on the MSG present singing alongside and cheering because the display screen abruptly jumps to native information. To be honest, the cut-off got here close to the top of the ultimate verse, with only a spherical of choruses, and round a minute, left to go. In keeping with one report, the edit solely affected viewers within the Jap and Central time zones.
Whereas CBS has not issued a press release thus far, one of many affected stations supplied an apology, with 10 Tampa Bay sport director Evan Closky writing, “As a person who grew up proper subsequent to Billy Joel’s hometown, who went to The Final Play at Shea, it was my responsibility to apologize to everybody about chopping off our telecast of Billy Joel tonight. To not get into the weeds, however there was a particular report after the Masters and it wasn’t accounted for by the powers that be past this constructing.”
Joel can be again at MSG on April 26 and Might 9 for 2 extra gigs at his home-away-from-home, earlier than hitting the street this summer season for a run of baseball stadium gigs that run by means of November.
Take a look at a number of the indignant tweets beneath.
