Daryl Hall's Web show looks back at 2010

Celebrate New Year’s Eve in February with Daryl Hall as he revisits the highlights featuring some of the many musical guests who have appeared on the 38 previous episodes of his award-winning web series, Live from Daryl’s House, Feb. 15, exclusively at www.lfdh.com.

That’s the date of the online premiere for the two-hour Live from Daryl’s House, A New Year’s Eve Special, which garnered record ratings for WGN America in Chicago, where it first aired last Dec. 31.

The show features highlights of the previous three years of LFDH, as Daryl Hall collaborates with Rob Thomas, Neon Trees, Train, Smokey Robinson, John Oates, Todd Rundgren, Sharon Jones, Eli Reed, Patrick Stump, Toots, Fitz and the Tantrums and Jose Feliciano, typifying the show’s eclectic mix of veteran performers and the next generation of musical superstars.

When it made its broadcast premiere, Live from Daryl’s House, A New Year’s Eve Special improved ratings on WGN America 75% for the time period among adults 35+, with a whopping 102% increase for the Friday 1-3a time slot, as well as an increase of 143% in women 25-54.

“From the reactions we’ve received since the show started almost three years ago, I knew we had something unique,” said Daryl. “And the broadcast TV ratings simply bear that out. It’s very gratifying and a tribute to the many talented artists who’ve appeared on the show. If you build it, they will come.”

Tribune President of Programming Sean Compton told an audience at the recent NATPE programming convention that he was delighted with the results, pointing to Live from Daryl’s House as a prime example of what it takes for a web series to succeed on traditional TV.

“It’s an Internet show we slapped on and reached 78 million homes without much promotion,” he said. “That it did so well is a testament to the organically grown program itself. Daryl’s show makes television cool. There is a certain vibe to it that television could use more of.”

The past two years have marked a steady stream of superlatives and recognition for Live from Daryl’s House, with Hall receiving a Webby Award for Best Variety series from more than 10,000 entries at the 14th annual ceremony last summer at N.Y.’s Cipriani Wall Street.

The 38 previous episodes of Live From Daryl’s House have featured a mix of well-known performers like matchbox twenty’s Rob Thomas, Train’s Pat Monahan, Jose Feliciano, Smokey Robinson, The Doors’ Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, Toots Hibbert, Nick Lowe, K.T. Tunstall, Todd Rundgren, Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and alternative vets Guster, along with newcomers such as MySpace phenom Eric Hutchinson, Cash Money rocker Kevin Rudolf, Bay Area tunesmith Matt Nathanson, Charlottesville, VA’s rising Parachute, Chicago rock band Plain White T’s, Boston bluesman Eli “Paperboy” Reed, soul diva Sharon Jones, highly touted tunesmith Diane Birch, L.A. neo-R&B party band Fitz & the Tantrums and hot new alternative band Neon Trees.

Daryl launched the free monthly webcast in November 2007 after having the light-bulb idea of “playing with my friends and putting it up on the Internet,” and the show has since garnered acclaim from Rolling Stone, SPIN, Daily Variety, CNN, BBC, Yahoo! Music and influential blogger Bob Lefsetz, who have cited Live From Daryl’s House as a perfect example of a veteran artist reinventing himself in the digital age.