Billy Joel ‘Wasn’t Surprised’ His CBS Special Was Cut Off
Billy Joel made headlines back in April when his CBS special, The 100th — Live at Madison Square Garden, was cut short. This led to a massive outcry from fans, but for Joel, he wasn’t very fazed by it.
In a new interview with Variety, Joel touched on the moment saying, “I wasn’t surprised that it got cut off short because I’ve always kind of been cut short by TV.”
The Piano Man noted how appearing and performing on television has always been one of his least favorite things. His reasoning for this is being “camera-shy” and not feeling very “rock ‘n’ roll” due to being stuck at a piano and not being able to move around. He added that it makes him feel like a “geek.”
Joel also hasn’t been a fan of the way music is presented on television, because the most attention is on the visual and not necessarily the sound.
“If you’re looking at a television set, you’ll see a big screen and a little tiny speaker and that should tell you enough about where their priorities are,” Joel said.
How Was the Billy Joel Concert Special Cut Short?
As previously reported, the Billy Joel concert special was set to air on CBS from 9 PM – 11 PM EST. However, the conclusion of The Masters golf tournament pushed the special back. To make matters even worse, the live sports event led to Joel’s special being cut off at 11 PM in order for local news to air on schedule.
Again, the cut came during the special’s final song, which was “Piano Man.” This understandably made fans very upset. Below is one example of the feed which shows how abruptly the special was cut off. It’s still amazing that CBS allowed this to even happen.
After this truly remarkable error, fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustrations about the sudden ending. IDK whose decision it was to cut off the end of the #BillyJoel concert for local news (AFTER starting 30 min late!) but it's unacceptable. #BillyJoel100 is an iconic moment in history, & all we wanted to do was "forget about life for a while" & you destroyed it. @CBS @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/ugcEyLmuGL
Following the uproar, Joel’s social media channels shared a statement from CBS. It began, “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.”
CBS’s statement concluded, “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.”