Anchors spotlight cancer in multinetwork special

It takes a special event to bring all three weeknight broadcast news anchors together.

As in its inaugural edition two years ago, "Stand Up to Cancer" remains such an occasion. The hourlong, celebrity-filled program combining information on the disease with appeals for donations to fund research will involve ABC's Diane Sawyer, CBS' Katie Couric and NBC's Brian Williams when all of their networks air it simultaneously - along with many other television outlets, including Fox, Showtime and HBO - Friday, Sept. 10.

Among the many other personalities slated to take part are Michael C. Hall of Showtime's "Dexter," who was treated successfully for Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier this year, and Laura Linney of the same network's "The Big C" (in which she plays a cancer patient). Christina Applegate, Lance Armstrong, Fran Drescher, Elizabeth Edwards and Maura Tierney are others on the roster who have had firsthand experiences with cancer.

Late in the week, it was announced that George Clooney, Will Smith and Gwyneth Paltrow will join as well.

Performers will include Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Neil Diamond, The Edge, Herbie Hancock, Lady Antebellum and Leona Lewis. Queen Latifah, Martina McBride and Stevie Wonder were among those already announced.

Clooney, in particular, is a fundraising heavyweight. At Sunday's Emmy Awards, he accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for efforts on behalf of victims of this year's earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the Sept. 11 attacks.

With the first telecast, the Stand Up to Cancer movement (or SU2C) raised more than $100 million. From the start, Couric has been at the forefront of the Entertainment Industry Foundation-backed initiative, largely in memory of two of her loved ones: her attorney husband, Jay Monahan, who died of colon cancer, and her sister Emily Couric, the Virginia state senator claimed by pancreatic cancer.

"If you had any concept of what goes into putting together an event like this, you'd be absolutely astounded that we could do it even every two years," Couric says. "It requires so much work ... not only producing the show but also encouraging various networks and cable outlets to carry it again. There's also getting corporate sponsors, distributing the money we've raised so far and keeping tabs on the progress that's been made. I'm thrilled that we're able to do this again."

(A continual website is maintained at both www.standup2cancer.org and www.su2c.org.)

Williams also knows the impact of cancer only too well: He lost his mother to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and his sister to breast cancer.

"I'm not at all the catalyst for doing this, but I went back to (the special's organizers) six months ago and asked, 'Are we ever going to do this again?' However much the traditional three broadcast networks have the power to focus people's attention and bring viewers together on a single night, we sure hope to do that."

For Sawyer, this year's "Stand Up to Cancer" is her first, since her evening anchor predecessor Charles Gibson represented ABC's news division on the 2008 special (as did breast cancer survivor Robin Roberts of "Good Morning America," who will participate again this time).

"We all love the idea of linking arms across networks," Sawyer says. "There are some things that break down all walls, divides and distinctions, and we do this together because it can be done, and it does work."

The initial "Stand Up to Cancer" was "pretty overwhelming," Couric recalls. "I've never seen so many famous people on one stage. Every time you turned around, there was another familiar face, but what was really wonderful was that everybody was there for a common cause ... hokey as that sounds. I remember feeling very inspired to see cancer survivors like Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge performing."

This time, "Stand Up to Cancer" also will benefit from related efforts by Major League Baseball, the CBS series "Survivor" (led by past winner Ethan Zohn, who overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma), and a coalition of young stars including "High School Musical" alums Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.

Long an advocate of colonoscopies, prompted by the loss of her husband, Couric maintains she feels "a real responsibility" to bring the latest information on cancer research to the masses.

"I really care about medical issues and medical reporting," she says, "and cancer obviously is a big part of that."

• Daily Herald News Services contributed to this report.