The 73-story U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles will be among the buildings nationwide to be lit in red Thursday evening in connection with Red Nose Day, an annual charity campaign to help end child poverty.
NBC is devoting its entire prime-time lineup to programming to support the cause, now in its third year in the U.S.
“Celebrity Ninja Warrior for Red Nose Day” will air at 8 p.m., with “Dancing with the Stars” dancer Derek Hough, actor Stephen Amell and “Today” West Coast anchor Natalie Morales among the participants in the series’ first celebrity edition.
“Running Wild with Bear Grylls for Red Nose Day” airs at 9 p.m. with Oscar-winning Julia Roberts joining Grylls on a trip to Kenya.
The Red Nose Day Special” airs at 10 p.m., hosted by comedian Chris Hardwick from Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. It will air live in the Eastern and Central time zones and on a delayed basis in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
The special includes visits by Roberts to Africa and actor Paul Rudd to rural Maine to show children who have benefited from Red Nose Day funds and a reunion sequel to the 2003 romantic comedy “Love Actually.”
Ben Affleck, Jack Black, Orlando Bloom, Bryan Cranston, Mindy Kaling, Matt Lauer, Rachel McAdams, Seth Meyers, Al Roker, Ben Stiller and the cast of NBC’s critically acclaimed hit drama “This Is Us” are set to appear in the special.
Red Nose Day raised more than $60 million in its first two years in the U.S., organizers said. The campaign asks the public to wear Red Noses, available at Walgreens and Duane Reade stores, organize fundraisers and make donations.
The first Red Nose Day was held in the United Kingdom in 1988 and has raised more than $1 billion. The U.S. campaign is run by the nonprofit organization Comic Relief Inc. and the British effort by its independent sister organization Comic Relief UK.
More information is available at rednoseday.org.
