Telethon planned in NYC for Hurricane Sandy relief

The lights are still out in much of lower Manhattan but the city that never sleeps is ready to get back to work. As commuters waited on impossibly long bus lines and sat in hours of traffic this morning, officials at NBC were busy planning the upcoming Hurricane Sandy relief telethon. Tomorrow NBCUniversal cable channels and networks will be airing a one hour telethon “Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together” hosted by Matt Lauer of the “Today” show. Already scheduled to perform are pop star and “The Voice” judge Christina Aguilera, New Jersey natives Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen and a man whose music is practically synonymous with the Big Apple, Mr. Billy Joel. Sting, Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams are also scheduled to appear.

Tune into Bravo, MSNC, Syfy, USA, Style, E!, CNBC, NBC, or G4 at 8 PM tomorrow night, the telethon will also be streamed live on NBC.com. All money raised during the telethon will be donated to the American Red Cross.

The entertainment community is also showing their support for Sandy victims by getting back to business as usual in Manhattan.  For two days after the hurricane both Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman recorded their late night shows in front of an empty theater while ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ cancelled their recordings all together. Last night that changed however when David Letterman made a guest appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Kimmel, a Brooklyn native, is on the east coast to do some out of town shows and is recording out of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. While most film production is still shut down around the city, including the sets of “30 Rock”, “Law & Order: SVU” and “Deception” many Broadway shows reopened yesterday even offering discounts for those that could make it to the theater.