It brings grown men to their knees and robs children of their childhoods.  It’s cancer, and for the second time in broadcast history, it will bring three rival TV networks together for one amazing evening.

The event, Stand Up To Cancer, will air simultaneously and commercial-free on September 5th at 8:00 p.m. on all three national networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC. The goal is to raise funds to fight the disease as well as to educate the public about cancer‘s myriad symptoms and the latest medical advances created to fight it.

The last time the networks joined forces in this way was in 2001, when some 31 broadcast and cable TV networks aired a program to raise money for victims of the September 11th attacks.

Similar to the September 11th program, many Hollywood A-listers have signed on to work the phone banks, give speeches, and present testimonials: Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron, Lance Armstrong, Jennifer Aniston, Homer and Marge Simpson, Scarlet Johansson, and Christina Applegate.

Applegate, who was diagnosed earlier this month with breast cancer, announced on Good Morning America the other day that she elected to have a double mastectomy, as her mother battled breast cancer and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.

“I just wanted to kind of be rid of it,” she said. “So this was the choice I made, and it was a tough one.”

The special will also include a new song, Just Stand Up, which features Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Rihanna, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, Melissa Etheridge, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield, Keyshia Cole, Ciara, Leona Lewis, LeAnn Rimes, and Carrie Underwood. All sales of the star-studded single will benefit cancer research.

Hosting this special event will be news anchors from each of the three networks: NBC‘s Brian Williams, ABC’s Charles Gibson, and CBS’s Katie Couric.

For Couric, who helped create the Stand Up To Cancer event, cancer fund raising is an intimately personal goal. Couric’s husband Jay was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 1997, when he was 41-years old, and lost his battle nine months later. Jay’s mother succumbed to ovarian cancer shortly after he passed away, then Couric’s sister Emily lost her battle with pancreatic cancer about six years ago.

After years of taking on colon cancer, Couric and the Stand Up To Cancer team are now taking on all the disease’s 200 forms through this massive fund-raising effort.

“I think everyone is really excited about the potential that’s really within our grasp. We just need the money to fund the ideas and move the science forward,” said Couric.

Before the show airs, however, anyone whose life has been touched by cancer can join the Stand Up To Cancer community through its multiplatform presence on the web. Highlights include: SUTV: with video segments featuring the cast of The Daily Show, as well as Larry David and the moving SU2C PSA, directed by David Fincher; The Constellation: where, for a dollar donation or more, users can launch a star in honor of anyone who has received a cancer diagnosis; The Stand: an interactive Facebook application illustrating how we are all connected by this disease.

Now for the cold hard facts about cancer:

Every day, cancer kills 1,500 Americans — one person every minute. This year, more than 550,000 Americans and six million people worldwide will succumb to this vicious disease. One out of three women and one in every two men will be diagnosed in their lifetimes. With advances in technology and research, scientists are close to pushing cancer from a disease that all too often takes lives to one people largely triumph over.

So on September 5th, gather with your loved ones, watch this historical event, and donate whatever you can.

This is where the end of cancer will begin…

(Stand Up To Cancer will air Friday, September 5th at 8:00 pm on all three broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC.)

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