CBS has officially released a statement on Monday (April 15) after Billy Joel’s long-awaited concert special, The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time, was cut off during the end of Joel’s iconic ballad, “Piano Man.”
In the statement shared with Billboard, a spokesperson for CBS explained the mix-up, writing “A network programming timing error ended last night’s Billy Joel special approximately two minutes early in the Eastern and Central Time Zones. We apologize to Mr. Joel, his fans, our affiliated stations, and our audience whose viewing experience was interrupted during the last song. Due to the overwhelming demand from his legion of fans, BILLY JOEL: THE 100TH – LIVE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN will be rebroadcast in its entirety on CBS on April 19th at 9:00PM ET/PT.”
Viewers throughout the Eastern and Central Time Zones had the broadcast of the Billy Joel concert cut off, mid-Piano Man.
Evidently, CBS was no longer in the mood for a melody. pic.twitter.com/bVlcIReRXn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 15, 2024
According to viewers, the show was originally slated to run from 9-11 p.m. on CBS, but the network’s live coverage of the Masters golf tournament pushed back the start of the Joel concert’s airing about half an hour, which meant that the climactic ending of the show was cut off for many viewers to throw to the local news. As a result, for many fans, the screen went black during 1973’s “Piano Man.”
Just as Billy was launching into the finale of the two hour show — the last verse of “Piano Man” with all of Madison Square Garden singing along — the screen went black.
When it recovered, it wasn’t Joel taking a bow with his band for what had been a remarkable, Emmy worthy special. No, it was the local news anchor (and not Dana Tyler).
CBS paid a fortune to put this show on two weeks ago the Garden, and this was how it ended.
