The entertainment community is coming together for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) and its sixth biennial roadblock televised fundraising special, supporting urgently needed research and new treatments for cancer.
With a dazzling array of top talent, the show will air Friday, September 7 (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT / 7:00 PM CT), marking 10 years since the first telecast and 10 years of lifesaving research achievements by SU2C.
Bradley Cooper, Academy Award-nominated actor, will return as co-executive producer along with the renowned live-event producing team Done + Dusted, working again with the Stand Up To Cancer production team, after a successful partnership for the 2016 telecast.
The live telecast will broadcast from Los Angeles. As in years past, ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, along with AT&T AUDIENCE Network, Bloomberg TV, Bravo, Discovery Life, E! Entertainment, EPIX, Escape, ESPNEWS, FM, Freeform, FS2, FXM, FYI, HBO, HBO Latino, ION Television, Laff, Logo, MLB Network, MTV2, Nat Geo WILD, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, STARZ, STARZ ENCORE, STARZ ENCORE ESPAÑOL, TNT, and WGN America, are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime for the telecast, with additional networks to be announced. The entire telecast will also be available to stream live and on-demand on Hulu.
For the third time, Stand Up To Cancer Canada will simultaneously broadcast a Canada-inclusive telecast across four major English-language Canadian broadcasters: CBC, City, CTV, and Global, as well as Canadian services AMI, A.Side, BBC Earth, CHCH, CHEK, Cottage Life, Fight Network, Game TV, HIFI, Hollywood Suite, Love Nature, Makeful, NTV, OUTtv, Smithsonian Channel Canada, T+E, and YES TV, in addition to streaming live on the CBC TV App, cbc.ca/watch and CBS All Access, and available on-demand on TELUS Optik TV in Canada.
“It was truly inspiring to be part of the 2016 Stand Up To Cancer telecast and to stand beside Mitch Carbon, whose life was saved by participating in a clinical trial,” said SU2C Co-Executive Producer Bradley Cooper. “I am proud to return as co-executive producer to highlight the ten years of impact Stand Up To Cancer has made in cancer research.” Carbon, a pediatric cancer survivor, benefited from treatment he received in an SU2C-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Pediatric Cancer Dream Team clinical trial.
Hundreds of celebrities have supported the SU2C biennial telecasts over the past ten years, and names of participants as well as musical performers for the 2018 telecast will be announced in the weeks leading up to the telecast. Stars who have taken part in the previous five SU2C telecasts include Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Seth Rogen, Denzel Washington, Emma Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Ken Jeong, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Halle Berry, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba, Robert Downey, Jr., Jon Hamm, America Ferrera, Taylor Swift, Anna Kendrick, Ben Stiller, Kerry Washington, Viola Davis, Kristen Wiig, Ed Helms, Sofia Vergara, Dave Franco, Matt Bomer, and Sonequa Martin-Green. The 2016 telecast featured musical performances from Celine Dion, Charlie Puth, Alessia Cara and Gallant, as well as Dierks Bentley, who was joined by Keith Urban and Little Big Town.
Following five historic fundraising telecasts, the 2018 telecast is especially significant for SU2C, as it will commemorate ten years of raising awareness and funds for groundbreaking cancer research that is helping to save lives now.
More than $480 million has been pledged over the past ten years in support of SU2C’s innovative cancer research. Work by SU2C researchers has contributed to FDA approval of five new cancer treatments.
The organization has brought together more than 1,500 of the best scientists from over 180 leading institutions to work together on 24 of Stand Up To Cancer’s signature “Dream Teams,” among a total of 79 team science grants and awards, whose research is aimed at ending cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death worldwide. SU2C-funded researchers have planned, launched or completed more than 180 clinical trials involving over 12,000 patients.
SU2C’s vast scientific program is overseen by a blue-ribbon Scientific Advisory Committee of top researchers, and most grants are administered by SU2C’s Scientific Partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world’s first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research.
“Ten years ago, a group of women who were honestly hell-bent on making a difference in the fight against cancer came together,” said Katie Couric. “I never imagined we’d be able to look back at the past decade and see the concept of scientists working together in new ways take off as it has. We are closer than we’ve ever been to realizing a world where everyone diagnosed with cancer can be a long-term survivor. I am excited about how much more we will be able to do for patients over the next 10 years.”
“We are so grateful to the scores of broadcast and cable networks that continue to stand with us,” said Sherry Lansing, the former chair and current member of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) board and a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer. “Their support is a springboard that helps SU2C engage major donors as well as countless individuals who give what they can to help stop cancer in its tracks.”
In addition to Couric and Lansing, current members of the SU2C Council of Founders and Advisors (CFA) include Lisa Paulsen, Rusty Robertson, Sue Schwartz, Pamela Oas Williams, Ellen Ziffren, and Kathleen Lobb. The late Noreen Fraser and the late Laura Ziskin, who executive-produced both the 2008 and 2010 telecasts, were also SU2C co-founders. SU2C was formally launched on May 27, 2008. Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N., has served as SU2C’s president since 2011.
“The Done + Dusted family is super thrilled to partner once again with our friends at Stand Up To Cancer and our amazing co-executive producer, Bradley Cooper. The SU2C roadblock is the biggest of its kind and is a remarkable platform for bringing together the worlds of science and entertainment in a harmonious collaboration to spread the message and raise funds for groundbreaking cancer research. I was truly humbled by my involvement two years ago. Watch the show and get engaged,” said Hamish Hamilton, director and executive producer at Done + Dusted. Hamilton directed the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show starring Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and many others, and has received two BAFTA Awards, a Peabody Award, and both Grammy and Emmy Award nominations.
In the U.S., one in two men and one in three women are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. More than 1,700,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer and over 600,000 people will die from cancer in 2018.
“Stand Up To Cancer continues to represent the best dollar spent on cancer research in this country,” said Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., the MIT molecular biologist who is chairman of the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee. “The teamwork and collaboration that characterizes SU2C research is critical to our efforts to change cancer as we know it.” Sharp received the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology in 1993 for his discoveries about RNA.
“We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to harness the resources of the whole entertainment community to generate support for our scientists’ innovative research, in order to get new treatments to the patients who so desperately need them,” said SU2C President and CEO Sung Poblete, Ph.D., R.N.
The previous five SU2C telecasts took place on Sept. 5, 2008, Sept. 10, 2010, Sept. 7, 2012, Sept. 5, 2014 and Sept. 9, 2016 and were made available to more than 190 countries. The Canada-inclusive SU2C telecasts aired in 2014 and 2016.
In the United States, AACR is responsible for administering the grants and providing scientific oversight in conjunction with the SU2C Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). In addition to Dr. Sharp, as chair, the SAC is led by Vice Chairs Raymond N. DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., dean, College of Medicine, and professor, Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston; Lee J. Helman, M.D., professor, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and director, Cancer Research Program, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles; Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D., professor emeritus of systems biology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey; and William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore. In Canada, the AACR International-Canada serves as the official Scientific Partner of Stand Up To Cancer Canada, which launched in 2014. The SU2C Canada Scientific Advisory Committee is co-chaired by Alan Bernstein O.C., O.Ont., Ph.D., FRSC president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and Dr. Sharp.
As SU2C’s founding donor, Major League Baseball has continued to annually provide both financial support and countless opportunities to build the Stand Up To Cancer movement by encouraging fans worldwide to get involved, most notably through its two largest global events – the MLB All-Star Game and the World Series. In addition to MLB, SU2C’s “Luminary” donors include Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, and Mastercard. “Visionary” donors include CVS Health, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research. Additional major donors and collaborators include American Airlines, American Cancer Society, Merck, Rally Health, Inc., St. Baldrick’s Foundation, and Van Andel Research Institute. Other key supporters and collaborators include American Lung Association’s LUNG FORCE, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Farrah Fawcett Foundation, Laura Ziskin Family Trust, LUNGevity Foundation, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and international collaborator Cancer Research UK.
The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) are actively collaborating with SU2C Canada. CCS is also a collaborator in the inaugural Stand Up To Cancer Canada – Canadian Cancer Society Breast Cancer Dream Team, along with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Collaborators in the inaugural Stand Up To Cancer Canada Cancer Stem Cell Dream Team include CIHR; Cancer Stem Cell Consortium; Genome Canada, and OICR. AstraZeneca Canada and MasterCard are the first corporate supporters of SU2C Canada.
