CBS Cut Billy Joel's 100th MSG Show Broadcast During 'Piano Man'

CBS cut Billy Joel's 100th Madison Square Garden residency show broadcast during his performance of the song "Piano Man," and fans are furious at the network over it.

Joel's 100th residency concert at the New York City venue on March 28 was filmed for the special, and it aired on the channel last night (April 14). Dubbed The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time, it was the iconic musician's first-ever broadcast concert special.

According to Billboard, the two-hour special was set to start on CBS at 9PM ET, but was delayed due to their live coverage of the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. As a result, the network cut the end of Joel's performance to switch back to local news coverage at 11PM.

CBS Cut the Special During "Piano Man"

The airing apparently ended during Joel's performance of perhaps his biggest song ever, "Piano Man." Setlist.fm notes that he played an additional five songs afterward as part of his encore, so viewers also missed out on "We Didn't Start the Fire," "Uptown Girl," "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," "Big Shot" and "You May Be Right."

As seen in a video uploaded to YouTube below, Joel was in the middle of singing one of the final verses of the song when the screen went black.

Then, the news came on.

UPDATE: CBS has apologized for the abbreviated broadcast, which they say ended two minutes early due to a "programming timing error." It will re-air on April 19 at 9PM ET.

CBS Cut Billy Joel's 100th Madison Square Garden Show Broadcast During "Piano Man"

Fans React to the Special Being Cut Short

Many viewers of the special were understandably upset over the way it ended, taking to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their frustrations at the network.

"You couldn’t produce a worse product than CBS just did on the Billy Joel special. Way too many commercials, didn’t play some of his best songs, went extremely out of order in his setlist, and then cuts away to the local news in the middle of 'Piano Man'?!? A total flop by CBS," one person wrote.

"After CBS making the Billy Joel televised concert late because of golf, the local news just cut off 'PIANO MAN'!!!! I cannot even!!! You had three minutes. That’s it!! I sat through two hours and you cut off his signature song!" another individual shared.

... Even a dog was offended.

"WTF! CBS cuts off Billy Joel singing 'Piano Man'! Mom's pissed."

There are many, many other similar posts to these, expressing the same sentiment.

Joel's Residency Continues Later This Month

The Piano Man's next gig at MSG is set for Friday, April 26, and is currently sold out. He has a handful of other residency shows slated throughout the rest of 2024, with shows at other baseball stadiums around the country scheduled in between.

See all of his upcoming shows on his website.