Michael Jackson’s Memorial will be held on today live at The Staples Center in Los Angeles and is expected to be the most watched event in history.
Among the stars signed on to perform in a celebration of the singer’s life and career are Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Kobe Bryant, Smokey Robinson, Brooke Shields, Jennifer Hudson, Lionel Richie, Usher and John Mayer. There is expected to be an estimated 500,000 or so outside of The Staples Center who also want to celebrate the life of the pop star.
Most of the major broadcast networks will cover the memorial live, as will the cable news nets and MTV, VH1, BET and TV One.
AEG has arraigned for the memorial to be broadcast live on 88 theaters across the country, including Mann 6 in Los Angeles and Jackson’s home state of Indiana.
E! plans to cover the service and devote a full day of programming to Jackson. MTV will have a special day called “Michael Jackson Television” on Aug. 1, for the channel’s 28th anniversary.
Many news-based and streaming video sites will be airing the Michael Jackson memorial live at 10am PST on Tuesday.
CBSNews.com, which is owned by CNET parent CBS, plans to stream video provided by Los Angeles-based CBS station KCBS, as well as other sources. TV.com , also a CBS property, plans to stream the CBSNews.com content as well.
CNN plans to stream the memorial service with hosts Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Don Lemon, and Soledad O’Brien.
ABCNews.com plans to stream live with commentary from Charles Gibson.
Fox News‘ live stream will be hosted by Shepard Smith, with from Greta Van Susteren and Megyn Kelly providing live reports from the scene.
Video and social networking
Hulu, which by nature of being one of the most popular video Web sites may be one of the best-prepared sites to handle the load, plans to stream the Fox News feed.
MySpace members will have access to a live stream provided by entertainment company AEG, which owns the Staples Center and was underwriting the planned Jackson tour.
Facebook members will have access to CNN Live feed thanks to a partnership with the TV news channel.
All of the networks will pre-empt their regularly scheduled programming with coverage of The Michael Jackson Memorial. Most will air coverage of news and events related to Michael Jackson all day.