Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve

infobox television
show_name = Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest


caption = December 2006 photograph of Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest
format = New Year's television special
runtime =
("Primetime", 10:00–11:00 p.m.) 60 minutes
("Part One", 11:35 p.m.–1:05 a.m.) 90 minutes
("Part Two", 1:05–2:05 a.m.) 60 minutes
creator = Dick Clark
starring = Dick Clark (1972–1998; 2000–2003; 2005–present)
Regis Philbin (2004)
Ryan Seacrest (2005–present)
Marysol Castro (2005-present)
Fergie (2007–Present)
country = USA
network = NBC (1972–1973)
ABC (1974–1998; 2000–present)
location = Times Square, Manhattan, New York
Los Angeles, California
first_aired = December 31, 1972
last_aired = present
num_episodes = 35|

"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" is a television program that airs every New Year's Eve on ABC. It has been hosted by American television legend Dick Clark since its first airing on Sunday, December 31, 1972.

The program has typically consisted of live video of Dick Clark in Times Square in New York City, counting down until the New Year ball comes down. Since 2005, Ryan Seacrest has been hosting the show outdoors at Times Square while Dick Clark offers comments from a studio. After the ball drops, the focus of the program switches to pre-taped musical segments filmed in Hollywood. The special is live in the Eastern Standard Time zone, and it is delayed for the other time zones so that they can ring in the new year with Clark when midnight strikes in their area.

It first aired on NBC in 1972 and 1973, then it moved to ABC in 1974 and has aired there every year since, except on New Year's Eve before 2000. In the three and a half decades it has been on the air, the show has become a mainstay in American New Year's celebrations. Watching the ball drop on Clark's show is considered an annual cultural tradition for the New Year's holiday.

Since Sunday, December 31, 2000, a pre-show, "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve" has aired live from 10:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The hour-long program features live reports on the festivities in Times Square, as well as various performances. From 11:00 to 11:35 p.m. ET/PT, the show pauses for local newscasts from ABC's affiliates (stations in Central and Mountain Time Zones may have additional local programming before the show resumes at 11:30 PM local time).

History

Before Dick Clark, Guy Lombardo started hosting consecutive New Year's Eve shows from 1956 to 1976 on CBS. This originated from Lombardo's 1928 CBS Radio telecast where for a time he even split hosting duties by broadcasting on CBS before and NBC after midnight. Lombardo would host 48 straight New Year's Eve broadcasts until his death in 1977, and famously performed "Auld Lang Syne" by his Royal Canadians. [cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/cl-et-channel25dec25,1,3316140.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews|title=Past, Present, and...Future?|accessdate=2007-01-01] [cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20011226guy1226p6.asp|title=Next week to be 25th New Year's Eve without Guy Lombardo|accessdate=2007-01-01]

In the 1970s, CBS' big band music skewed an older generation, so Dick Clark started his telecast in 1972 to compete. Not long ago, Clark recalled how he let everyone know his special was going to have a different approach: cquote|Guy was the only choice for the older generation. That's why we put "Rockin"' in the title. It wasn't the Waldorf-Astoria with the people dancing cheek-to-jowl in their tuxedos and funny hats.

The first show, "Three Dog Night's Year's Rockin' Eve 1973", on NBC, was hosted by Three Dog Night and also featured Blood, Sweat & Tears, Helen Reddy and Al Green.

The second show, "New Year's Rockin' Eve 1974", also on NBC, was hosted by comedian George Carlin and featured The Pointer Sisters, Billy Preston, Linda Ronstadt and Tower Of Power.

"ABC 2000 Today"

"New Year's Rockin' Eve" was not broadcast from Friday, December 31, 1999 leading into Saturday, January 1, 2000 due to "ABC 2000 Today", coverage of the millennium from ABC News hosted by Peter Jennings. The special was broadcast live throughout the country. However, Dick Clark was part of the broadcast, and along with ABC's Jack Ford, reported on the events in Times Square when it was time for New York City, Washington, and the rest of the east coast to ring in the new year.

Clark was given his usual honor of counting down the seconds remaining until the new millennium began, doing so with Ford, since the latter had been assigned to Times Square during the broadcast. Since the broadcast was live for the entire country at 12 a.m. EST, only East Coast viewers celebrated midnight with Dick Clark. At midnight for the other time zones, Dick Clark's countdown and the ball drop was not replayed. Instead, countdowns for other cities were shown live at their respective midnights. Because of "ABC 2000 Today", Clark's role was limited.

2002

Throughout that show, there were segments of people saying, "Happy New Year, America" in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. (Coincidentally, "Happy New Year, America" was also the name of CBS's New Year's Eve special from two years after Guy Lombardo's death until the network dropped New Year's Eve programming in 1995.)

2005

Regis Philbin hosted the Friday, December 31, 2004 broadcast because Clark was in the hospital with a stroke, marking the second time Clark could not host his New Year's Eve broadcast.

During this edition of "New Year's Rockin' Eve", when the countdown for the final seconds of 2004 began rolling, host Regis Philbin said it was the first time he has ever hosted a New Year's Eve special on live television and that it surprised him to see over a million people cheering and dancing in their audience with their hats, noise makers, and confetti, directly in his sight. He offered a short speech consisting of well wishes for Dick Clark and quickly made one final New Year's resolution when the ball began to drop.

During CNN's New Year's Eve special, hosted by Anderson Cooper and broadcast around the world on both CNN & CNN International, revelers in Times Square told CNN's Jason Carroll that Philbin was "all right" filling in for Clark. [ [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/31/se.01.html CNN.com - Transcripts ] ]

2006

In August 2005, it was announced that "American Idol"'s Ryan Seacrest would become the executive producer and co-host with Clark. It was also announced that Seacrest will eventually become sole host should Clark be unable to continue with the program. Seacrest, who had hosted Fox's New Year coverage in 2005, switched places with Philbin, who moved over to Fox for 2006.

On Saturday, December 31, 2005, Dick Clark appeared on "Rockin' Eve 2006" in a slightly smaller studio role along with Seacrest and correspondent Marysol Castro in Times Square, and Hilary Duff in Hollywood. During the program, Clark remained behind a desk, and was only shown in limited segments. His speech was slower and deeper, and he appeared to have limited use of his right arm. However, he seemed to be completely in control of his faculties, making comments on how great the evening was going in Times Square. During the show, Clark said:

Before counting down to 2006, he mentioned he "wouldn't have missed this [the telecast] for the world." Clark's countdown, however, was ahead of the actual time and in fact with three seconds still remaining on the clock Clark had already finished his countdown, declaring "Happy 2006!" with the crowd at Times Square still counting down the remaining two seconds.

Reaction to Clark's appearance was mixed, as reported by CNN. While some TV critics (including Tom Shales of "The Washington Post", in an interview with the CBS Radio Network) felt he was not in good enough shape to do the broadcast, stroke survivors and many of Clark's fans praised the emcee for being a role model for people dealing with post-stroke recovery. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/04/dick.clark.ap/index.html] Dead link|date=March 2008]

One of the performances on the 2006 special was from Mariah Carey, who sang some of her hits from her #1 album "The Emancipation of Mimi" directly from Times Square.

2007

For the Sunday, December 31, 2006 show leading into Monday, January 1, 2007, Christina Aguilera performed "Candyman," which was a track from her newest album, and her 2003 single "Fighter" live in Times Square moments before midnight. RBD performed three songs, "Tu amor", "Wanna Play", and "Ser o parecer". It was the first time a Spanish-speaking group performed a song in Spanish on the broadcast. Meat Loaf also performed a shortened version of his song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" with Aspen Miller (who has been signed to be the lead female singer on his "Bat out of Hell III" tour.

Dick Clark returned to hosting the show once again, the second time after recovering from his stroke. At first, Clark's countdown was again slightly off from the actual time, however, by 11:59:55 p.m. to 12:00:00 a.m., Clark was exactly accurate in his count, forcing himself to skip the number "10" in order to keep up with the actual time in the last seconds. Shortly after midnight, Clark was seen in a heartfelt moment with host Ryan Seacrest, as Seacrest thanked him for his commitment to the show over the years and his continued willingness to be a part of the event. After that, they went on to share a few jokes, and then Seacrest picked up hosting duties for the remainder of the show.

Afterwards Rihanna hosted the remainder of the events in New York, while Fergie hosted the events in Hollywood. Though with majority of the "Part 2" segment taking place in Hollywood, one might assume Fergie were the host and Rihanna the co-host.

2008

For "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2008", the Monday, December 31, 2007 show leading into 2008, Ryan Seacrest remained co-host along with Dick Clark, whose voice had improved greatly since the previous year. This was Dick Clark's third year back on the broadcast after his stroke. Fergie again hosted the west coast party in Hollywood. During the ball drop at midnight, Dick Clark remained on time throughout the countdown, but he skipped "1" in order to have time to say "Happy new year!" After midnight, Ryan Seacrest joined Dick Clark in the studio for another moment (as with the past few years) in which Clark and Seacrest thanked each other for their commitment to the event. After that, Seacrest was handed hosting duties until 1 a.m. Eastern time. After 1 a.m., Fergie was handed hosting duty.
Miley Cyrus was next up. She sang her songs "Start All Over" and "G.N.O. (Girl's Night Out)". Later, she also sang one of her Hannah Montana songs, "We Got the Party" as a duet with the Jonas Brothers. The Jonas Brothers performed their singles "Hold On" and "SOS" Carrie Underwood was the main performer and sang a medley of "Flat On The Floor", "All-American Girl", and "Before He Cheats".

At the Hollywood party singers Plain White T's, Fergie, Sean Kingston, Natasha Beddingfield, Taylor Swift, will.i.am, and OneRepublic performed songs.

2009

The Wednesday, December 31, 2008 show leading into Thursday, January 1 2009 will have a slight name change to reflect both hosts of the show -- "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest". [cite web|url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=780996|title=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "NBC utilizing all resources for 24-hour Olympics coverage"|accessdate=2008-08-07]

In popular culture

* An episode ("The One with the Routine") of "Friends" featured Monica and Ross, Joey and his beautiful female roommate dancing in one of the pre-taped segments of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve".
* The Will Smith song "Will 2K" contains the line "Dick Clark holdin' it down" despite the fact that ironically, due to the previously-mentioned ABC News coverage, Dick Clark was unable to host that year.
* In the series pilot of "Futurama" ("Space Pilot 3000"), Dick Clark’s head, which has been preserved in a jar, hosts "New Year's Rockin' Eve 3000".
* In "When Harry Met Sally", Harry thinks to himself that it won't be so bad spending New Year's alone because there's "Dick Clark, that's tradition".
* In an episode of "Mad About You", Dick Clark is at his home deciding to opt out of that year's celebration. He later regrets not hosting that year's telecast when Paul Buchman causes the men to tangle and stop the ball during the countdown. In the credits for the episode, Dick Clark vows to his wife to come back and host the next year as well as bring back "American Bandstand".Episode|date=June 2007
* In the January 1, 2001 comic strip of Penny Arcade, Gabe calls an automated customer service machine complaining that "your dumb cable is out, and I can't watch Dick Clark get his mack on." [ [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/01/01 Penny Arcade! - happy new year ] ]
* In the episode ("The Countdown") of "The O.C." both Kirsten and Seth mention being home on New Year's Eve to watch Dick Clark and the ball drop, "two images that should not be used in the same sentence."

References

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