'Idol' charity drive raises $60 mil

April 28, 2007 The "Idol Gives Back" two-night special -- airing Tuesday and Wednesday -- was the first venture by a U.S. reality show into mass fund-raising. The ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History, a coalition of dozens of nonprofit groups such as Oxfam and Save the Children, said more than 70,000 Americans joined the campaign after the show, which included an appeal by U2 frontman Bono. "The 'American Idol' format is hugely successful and they introduced starving, dying children in Africa and children struggling with poverty in the United States, and brought that to prime time television," Shriver said.

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