Billy Joel Fans Furious at CBS For Cutting 100th MSG Show Broadcast

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 one hundredth: Billy Joel at Madison Sq. Backyard – The Best Area Run of All Time.

Introduced throughout this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl and taped on March 28 throughout Joel’s one hundredth efficiency on the legendary NY city venue, the present was slated to run from 9/11 p.m. on CBS. Sadly, the community’s reside 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 minimize off for a lot of viewers to throw to the native information.

To make issues worse, in line with posts from furious viewers, the display screen went black on the worst attainable 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 minimize 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 critical. Completely pathetic resolution making, on an occasion that’s been marketed for MONTHS, and also you f–ok it up.”

At press time a spokesperson for CBS had not returned Billboard‘s request for remark in regards to the abrupt cut-away from the printed, 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 modify to kids’s film Heidi.

“CBS has been selling the Billy Joel live performance particular each two minutes for WEEKS. So what higher technique to air it than to preempt it for a half hour and the minimize him off MID-PIANO MAN? C’mon guys,” learn one other aggravated tweet. That very same fan additional defined that she’d spent “three fantastic 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 seems 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 truthful, the cut-off got here close to the tip of the ultimate verse, with only a spherical of choruses, and round a minute, left to go. Based on one report, the edit solely affected viewers within the Jap and Central time zones.

Whereas CBS has not issued an announcement thus far, one of many affected stations provided 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 will probably 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 way of November.

Try a few of the indignant tweets beneath.