[Stooky Bill]

Surely fundraising though has always been about doing something out of the norm to raise money, which a telethon absolutely is.

Telethons existed to fill time during which people were asked to phone in and pledge money, and to give them plenty of time to do so. A lot of the content of Children in Need in the old days was about that mechanism of raising money - talking to the phone operators, listing which banks to go to, addresses of where to send your money etc.
That's all gone now. It's just text an amount to this number.

Why have a single 8 hours of TV when they can promote that text number during documentaries and other specials over the course of a few weeks? It gets a wider range of viewers. They still get viral clips and talking points, it just doesn't all happen on the same night.

Stand Up To Cancer on Channel 4 does the same thing just over a longer period and arguably a lot better - lots of special entertainment programmes over months