Three TV networks, cancer research advocates and more than 60 celebrities from music, sports, TV and film made history Friday night with a live telethon that aired simultaneously on NBC, ABC and CBS.

Jack Black, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry and Keanu Reeves -- along with presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama --were among the stars participating in "Stand Up to Cancer," an hourlong, commercial-free fundraising show spearheaded by entertainment-industry heavyweights whose lives have been touched by the disease.

Network news anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams emceed the program, discussing advances in research and telling heartwrenching tales of those struggling with the disease.

Cancer survivors Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards kicked off the program with statistics: Cancer kills 550,000 Americans and six million people worldwide each year.

The special was spearheaded by "Spider-Man" trilogy producer Laura Ziskin, who has been battling cancer since 2004; former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing, who established a foundation for cancer research and awareness; and Couric, who lost her husband, Jay Monahan, to the disease in 1998.

The show featured musical performances by James Taylor and Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban and Monica Mancini, Melissa Etheridge with Sugarland, BeBe Winans and Jason Mraz. It also featured a performance by more than a dozen divas -- including Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige and Rihanna -- who sang their new charity song, "Just Stand Up," via video from the Fashion Rocks show in New York.