CBS to Rebroadcast Billy Joel Concert After ‘Timing Error’ Cut Special Short During ‘Piano Man’
In some parts of the country, Billy Joel fans never heard that “they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar.”
CBS blamed a “programming timing error” that cut short Billy Joel: The 100th – Live at Madison Square Garden in the Eastern and Central time zones Sunday night as Joel, 74, performed “Piano Man,” the final song of his set. The broadcast abruptly cut to the local news, leaving viewers in disbelief.
To make up for it, CBS says it will re-air the concert in its entirety on Friday, April 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
“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 on Monday, April 15. “We apologize to Mr. Joel, his fans, our affiliated stations, and our audience whose viewing experience was interrupted during the last song.”
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The unlucky viewers were singing along to the final verse of “Piano Man” when the disruption occurred after Joel sang the lyrics “And the piano, it sounds like a carnival / And the microphone smells like a beer.” Those words were followed by several seconds of silence before the local news began.
Fans lit up social media after the debacle, bashing CBS not just for cutting off “Piano Man” but for, they say, botching the entire special.
“You couldn’t produce a worse product than CBS just did on the Billy Joel special,” one user wrote via X. “Way too many commercials, didn’t play some of his best songs, went extremely out of order in his set list, and then cuts away to the local news in the middle of Piano Man?!?”
Another X user noted that the network “cut out Billy's duet with Sting on Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, We Didn't Start The Fire, Uptown Girl and a bunch of others. They also switched the order of songs. Terrible.”
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The broadcast itself started about half an hour late because CBS’s coverage of The Masters ran long. The concert was originally taped on March 28 to mark the 100th show in Joel’s MSG residency, which began in January 2014 and will conclude on July 25. He has performed close to 150 times at the World’s Most Famous Arena in his career.
Joel spoke with USA Today before the concert aired, saying that particular show only felt different because “there were a bunch of cameras on stage.”
“I’ve been playing Madison Square Garden since the ‘70s,” he said. “The 100 just happened to be a round number and happened to coincide with a Garden show I was already doing.”
In addition to the rebroadcast, viewers can watch the entire special now on Paramount+.
