April music festival Coachella may be postponed due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, but some of music’s biggest acts are still getting together this spring. James Corden is slated to host HomeFest, a special of his currently on-hiatus talk show The Late Late Show, with several of your favourite stars in attendance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Guests on the program will attend this virtual music festival from all around the world — meaning you don’t need to buy a beaded tank top or use a potentially sketchy portable loo to enjoy their performances.
And the lineup is good. Billie Eilish and Finneas will join virtually from Los Angeles, as will John Legend. Dua Lipa will appear from London, Andrea Bocelli will call in from Italy, and K-Pop band BTS will perform from South Korea.
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Corden will host the show from his garage, something that executive producers Ben Winston and Rob Crabbe admitted to THR “far from perfect,” but was what was necessary to “put on the best show” possible at the moment.
In addition to the musical performances, HomeFest will share public health guidelines about the coronavirus pandemic and encourage viewers to donate to the CDC Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's work, and Feed the Children.
Eilish will also participate in a benefit concert hosted by Elton John, along with Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, the Backstreet Boys, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Tim McGraw. The proceeds from the concert, which will air on Fox on March 29, will go to Feeding America and First Responders Children's Foundation.
This isn’t the first late night program to pivot in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which is drastically shifting how all of Hollywood operates for the time being. In the early days of coronavirus concern, many shows filmed episodes sans studio audience, only to find that even the mere act of producing a series put people at risk for spreading the virus.
Now, hosts are finding new ways of regrouping. Samantha Bee took her talk show Full Frontal to the woods this week in order for her to exemplify social distancing. Other hosts, like Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, are recording digital segments for their audience that can be mixed in with clips from previous show episodes. Andy Cohen planned to go on with his Bravo series Watch What Happens Live via teleconferencing, but had to nix those plans once he tested positive for the coronavirus.
HomeFest will air in the US on CBS on March 30.
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