Shakira Performs at Live Earth: Image credit: APLive Earth officially set the record for the most simultaneous concert viewers at 30 million streams on MSN on Saturday. It was the largest global entertainment event in history with an estimated 2 billion attending the events on 7 continents and 10,000 affiliated events. Having the technology of live streaming video has allowed the event to be easily accessible to people who can choose to watch the different concerts online as well as watch it at a later time at http://liveearth.msn.com.

According to Nielsen ratings, however, the three-hour special on NBC only received 2.7 million viewers and was the least-watched U.S. program on Saturday night. A total of 19 million people watched at least 6 minutes on NBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Sundance Channel, Bravo, MSNBC, and Universal HD. The event also occurred during the July 4th weekend, when most people usually aren't watching TV.

There has been skepticism about the event and its performers as it required many artists to fly to the events, some in private jets, and could have created more CO2 as a result of the concert. Al Gore has defended the cause as a start of a 3-5 year program with a message that reached out to 2 billion people across the world. While some celebrities such as Sting and Cameron Diaz take active participation in helping with the efforts, others may not. Madonna and Black Eyed Peas both performed new songs that they wrote for the event. The goal is that with the help of the celebrities, more people will be aware of the issues and even the celebrities that attended and performed at Live Earth learned a lot about the issues. Whether or not, the concert really made a difference is really hard to judge. What are your thoughts?

Sources:
Newsday.com
Foxnews.com