After weeks of promoting Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden, when the special aired Sunday night, CBS cut the program short by several minutes.
Fans were not happy, prompting the network to apologize and announce they would re-air the special in its entirety.
The program marked Joel’s record-setting 100th show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Excited fans who had tuned in Sunday, April 14 began the night upset after the special was delayed 30 minutes due to the 2024 Masters Tournament running overtime.
Then fans dealt with numerous commercials and an “extremely out of order” set list.
But the icing on the cake was when fans in the Eastern and Central time zones saw the special abruptly end in the middle of Joel’s iconic “Piano Man.”
“Just an absolute disaster by CBS tonight producing the Billy Joel concert. Ineptitude at its finest. Start it late and cut it off early. Just horrible. #BillyJoel100,” an angry viewer wrote.
“@CBS You just might to re-schedule Billy Joel’s concert that your affiliates cut short to go to local late night news. We fans are not happy. And there are a lot of TV, etc viewing options other than you….You need to bring him back,” wrote another.
“WTF — CBS New York of all places!!😠… You cut off the ending of the Billy Joel 100th show right at the ending of Piano Man!! Where’s the end of the show??” yet another dissatisfied fan wrote.
CBS was forced to apologize following the botched special.
“A network programming timing error ended last night’s Billy Joel special approximately two minutes early in the Eastern and Central Time Zones,” CBS said in a statement according to Deadline. “We apologize to Mr. Joel, his fans, our affiliated stations, and our audience whose viewing experience was interrupted during the last song.”
The network will re-air the special Friday, April 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.
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