Inside American Idol’s “Idol Gives Back” show.

Many stars showed up as guests and performers at this years ‘Idol Gives Back‘ taping this past Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.  Follow the cut to check out a recap of what you can expect to see on Wednesdays show.  The nights biggest ovation was for Brad Pitt, who was being recognized by Idol for his Hurricane Katrina relief efforts that have helped many families in New Orleans find new homes.  The applause for Pitt taking the stage was so loud that for minutes he was unable to even speak to the packed crowd. Another charitable donation that deserves a round of applause is from Idol host Ryan Seacrest.  Seacrest has pledged his entire paycheck from the evenings episode to the charity. After him and judge Simon Cowell visited Africa last year, Seacrest has been very interested in giving to people who are less fortunate than himself.  (It’s estimated that he makes about 12 million per season for his hosting duties on AI alone.)  The Annual charity show, which raised more than 75 million dollars  for charities inside and outside of the US, hoped that they could reach the 100 million mark and beat last years amount during this years show, in which they surpassed greatly  by the single donation of 200 million dollars that was pledged by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who joined the show via video tape during the telecast.   But what would an Episode of American Idol be without some musical performances? The show opened up with the current Idol contestants singing Rihanna‘s new dance anthem “Don’t Stop the Music“,  but they were also joined by other performers such as 2005’s Idol champ; Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, (who admitted in an interview that she thought it was a great idea for the show, although she has never seen American Idol before.  Really Miley? Really???) John Ledgend, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Fergie, and Gloria Estefan who took the stage at the Kodak to perform some of their hits. As for the non hits, Desperate Housewives resident skeleton Terri Hatcher got up on stage and sang a few bars…. this we can not wait to see.      Other celebs who pop up during the telecast are; Presidential hopefuls John McCain, Hilary Clinton, and Barack Obama, who all appeared via video tape from their campaigns,  Jimmy Kimmel, who takes a shot at Simon Cowell for the size of his.. (well just watch and see!) Also appearing is Robin Williams, who performs a comedy bit that calls out Paula Abdul for something we’ve all thought before, and Forest Whitaker, who tells of a trip to Africa.     Tune in to  see all these stars and many more as Idol Gives Back is set to air at 9PM EST. on Wednesday April 9th on FOX.  Be sure not to miss it!