Kevin Hart will help relaunch Jerry Lewis MDA telethon in October

The Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon is coming back after a five-year hiatus, and Kevin Hart will help relaunch what had been a Labor Day tradition starring Jerry Lewis for more than four decades.

The actor/comedian will host the MDA Kevin Hart Kids Telethon during a two-hour special at 8 p.m. Oct. 24, the MDA said Wednesday in a news release. The virtual telethon will benefit MDA and Hart’s Help From the Hart Charity. He will be joined by celebrities including Jack Black, Usain Bolt, Josh Gad, Michael B. Jordan, Eva Longoria and Jillian Mercado.

Hart’s charity organization focuses on social, education and health efforts in underserved communities, providing scholarships and vocational training, The New York Times reported.

“This is an incredible opportunity to bring the work of Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association forward,” Hart said in a statement. “I’m honored to collaborate with MDA and my organization, to educate and entertain the public about the need to support people with disabilities and disadvantages, because we are all in this together. I can’t wait to have an incredible night for two critically important causes that are in urgent need of funding and hope.”

Streaming partners have yet to be announced, Entertainment Weekly reported.

Viewers will have access to an overtime show that will air outtakes and content from the making of the telethon, the MDA said in its news release.

Lewis hosted the telethon during Labor Day weekend, with the comedian/filmmaker hosting celebrities and raising more than $2 billion. Lewis, who died in 2017, hosted his final telethon in 2010, Rolling Stone reported. Despite efforts to keep the telethon going, the MDA announced its cancellation before the 2015 event, the Times reported.

Nigel Lythgoe, Jann Carl, Alison Sweeney and Nancy O’Dell hosted the telethon after Lewis left, the Times reported.

Lewis and his comedy partner at the time, singer Dean Martin, co-hosted the first MDA telethon in New York City in 1956, according to the MDA website. The pair hosted telethons in 1957 and 1959, and in 1966, the first MDA Jerry Lewis Telethon was aired in New York by one station. It was such a hit that MDA selected Labor Day weekend for future telethons, with Lewis seeking money to help “Jerry’s Kids.”

Hart has starred in films like “Jumanji: The Next Level. ” He has hosted the MTV Video Music Awards, the MTV Movie Awards and the BET Awards, the Times reported.

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