Saturday 19 March 2011

£74 million raised on Red Nose Day

Fantastic! £74,360,207 is the highest fundraising total ever in the 23 year history of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day. That may not be the final tally, however, because donations are still flowing in.

Google News tracks how many "news" items mentioning a particular phrase ("Red Nose Day") are on the Web and from how many different sources. At left is the graph from 11 am on March 19, the day after Red Nose Day. Last night's BBC special clearly generated a lot of news items, just as it pushed the day's fundraising total much higher.

In a day and night of fun, one of the most hilarious bits was this inspired spoof of Downton Abbey. Well done, Comic Relief. And well done, everyone who participated and donated to the worthy causes supported by Comic Relief!