The present should go on … however not each New Year’s Eve broadcast has gone easily for Ryan Seacrest.
“We have three live countdowns in this show, which I never thought was even possible when I first started,” Seacrest solely instructed Us Weekly in December 2022. “But we’ve got [broadcasts in] Puerto Rico, Times Square and New Orleans, and we’ve also added another party on the West Coast. It’ll be L.A. as we always have a Disneyland [portion].”
Seacrest has helmed Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve since 2005, succeeding Clark himself. (Clark died in 2012.)
“I was a kid watching this show, watching other people do the things that I get a chance to do every day. Wanting to do it,” the American Idol host added to Us in 2022 of taking on the reins. “And I feel like I’ve gotta prove that I’m worthy [of] doing it every single time. I think that is part of what keeps it exciting for me too.”
Ryan Seacrest Through the Years
Media royalty. Ryan Seacrest has dominated the leisure trade for greater than 20 years — each in entrance of and behind the digital camera. Born in Atlanta in 1974, the Emmy-winning producer started his first radio internship whereas nonetheless in highschool. After graduating, he studied journalism on the University of Georgia, however he dropped out […]
While Seacrest has turn into one of many prime New Year’s Eve broadcasters, he’s not the one one ringing within the new yr dwell from Times Square in New York City. Fellow TV hosts Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper emcee CNN’s programming only a few “blocks away.”
Cohen has regularly gone toe-to-toe on air with Seacrest’s Rockin’ Eve — however it’s all in jest. “[We are] trying to have a good time and convey that sort of fun,” Seacrest harassed to Us. “[Andy is] a really good friend.”
Count down Seacrest’s most memorable — and dramatic — moments from Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve via the years:
2010
Jenny McCarthy joined Seacrest’s Rockin’ Eve group in New York, beginning a brand new custom the place she kissed a good-looking stranger within the crowd when the clock turned midnight. McCarthy continued her custom till she married Donnie Wahlberg in 2014. Since then, Wahlberg’s been her designated midnight kiss.
2015
After Taylor Swift carried out in the course of the dwell present, Seacrest gallantly let her borrow his jacket. Swift, nevertheless, wasn’t positive what the host was doing. “Are you stripping? This is a family show. This is inappropriate,” she quipped on the time.
Seacrest later instructed Us that lending Swift his coat triggered technical points.
“When I was with Taylor Swift one year, it was cold, so I gave her my coat after she’d just performed and I realized all of my communication equipment was attached to it,” he mentioned in 2022. “So, I couldn’t really communicate with anybody in the production, which I didn’t think about prior.”
2016
The subsequent yr, Seacrest obtained “stuck in an elevator” when he was making an attempt to make his manner up the legendary New Year’s ball.
“That was a little stressful because they tell you to remain calm and it’s almost impossible,” he recalled to Us in 2022. “There are [also other] things that happen along the way that come together in the final seconds. [For example], performers who are not ready, but we try to make things up to say in the interim so that it looks like we’re on schedule.”
2016
Mariah Carey closed out Rockin Eve with a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” and a medley of her greatest hits. She strutted across the stage earlier than stopping, taking out her earpiece and retorted, “I’m trying to be a good sport here.” Carey later alleged that there have been technical points.
Seacrest denied that Carey had been set as much as fail.
“When it was happening, it was hard for me to see and hear because we’re in Times Square and there was a lot going on,” he mentioned on Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live in January 2017. “I had to be told that something was going on and then try to find a monitor to react to. So I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, actually.”
He added on the time: “That crew, that team, that staff is the best in the business. They put on the biggest live music events and they know what they’re doing. I know how good they are at their jobs. My reaction was, ‘She was working with the best.’ I find it hard to believe they made big mistakes that bad.”
2020
Seacrest welcomed Post Malone as a particular visitor, later speculating that that rapper had been overserved.
“Probably quite a few [stars have been drunk on the show]. I think Post Malone was definitely enjoying himself before he went out,” Seacrest theorized to Entertainment Weekly in December 2022. “But it’s amazing, artists can still hit their marks, they can do their songs while drinking.”
2020
When Cyndi Lauper carried out a medley of her greatest hits, she left followers totally confused after her glam group ran on stage to take away her scarf.
“I’m on camera, I’m on camera,” Lauper insisted.
2020
Later that night time, Jennifer Lopez additionally took the Rockin’ Eve stage to carry out. Dressed in a silver jumpsuit, Lopez notably accomplished a knee slide on the finish of her set however had an excessive amount of energy and bumped into the digital camera.
2021
Cohen and Seacrest’s New Year’s feud started in December 2021 when a drunken Cohen known as out Seacrest.
“If you look behind me, you’ll see Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers performing. I’m sorry but if you’re watching ABC, you’re watching nothing,” Cohen quipped of the Rockin Eve broadcast.
Cohen has since apologized for his remarks with CNN barring him and Cooper from consuming on air.
2022
The subsequent yr, Seacrest claimed that Cohen purposely ignored him in the course of the present.
“It was funny because my big stage was right in front of Anderson and Andy,” Seacrest mentioned throughout a January 2023 episode of Live With Kelly and Ryan. “When I was not working, I was trying to get their attention. … I just wanted to wave and say high. They have a great show. And Anderson, [is] the best. He turns around and he says, ‘Have a good show.’ Very nice. Andy did not turn around.”
Cohen later asserted that he didn’t see Seacrest, saying he “would have” waved again if he had seen an interplay between Seacrest and Cooper.
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