As the Couchathon has been in the news this week we’re seeing an uptick in traffic to the site so I thought a breif introduction might be in order.

1. What Was the Couchathon?

The Couchathon was a live web telethon that started on November 26, 2008. The Canadian Comedy Award winning sketch group The Imponderables agreed to sit on a couch without sleep for as long as people kept donating money to two notable Children’s charities - Sick Kids Foundation and Child’s Play. The cruel taskmasters at Rocket Ace Moving Pictures agreed to broadcast them live on the Internet. Then a veritable who’s-who of Toronto comic and musical talent came by over the course of the next 30 hours to entertain the Imps (and the home viewers). Part Jerry Lewis Telethon, part theatre of cruelty… it was truly a one-of-a-kind event.

2. How Much Did the Couchathon Raise?

Late donations (as well as some very generous sponsor contributions) continued to come in well past the end of the Couchathon broadcast (and throughout December and January). The final tally was in excess of $10,000.

3. Will the Couchathon Be Back in 2010?

There is a lot of interest in bringing back a bigger and better Couchathon in 2010. Our biggest hurdle at the moment is finding an appropriate venue. While NOW magazine was a tremendous host in 2010, the space we used was (or will shortly) be renovated into a board room. If you represent a venue with public accessibility and reasonable passerby-traffic that would be interested in hosting a madcap around-the-clock telethon for a very worthy cause we would love to hear from to you.

If you have any other questions about the Couchathon or would like to be notified when there is more information about a 2010 edition of the webithon, just drop us a note!