Walters, Stephanopoulos, Cuban make hurricane relief donations through ABC

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Barbara Walters, George Stephanopoulos and Mark Cuban are taking out their checkbooks for Superstorm Sandy relief on ABC’s “Day of Giving.”

ABC said Monday that Walters donated $250,000 to the American Red Cross and Stephanopoulos kicked in $50,000.

Throughout its programming Monday, the network has been urging viewers to give money to the organization to help victims of the storm, which hit New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area particularly hard.

Through late morning, ABC had raised more than $8.3 million, with the biggest gift being $3 million from the Samsung Corp. Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” made an unspecified donation. Other Disney-owned networks, like ESPN, also are participating.

NBC held a telethon on Friday for storm victims that raised nearly $23 million.