At least one auld acquaintance won’t be present for CNN‘s annual coverage of the nation’s New Year’s Eve festivities.
Sara Sidner and Cari Champion will take over the Warner Bros. Discovery network’s wee-hours broadcast on New Year’s Eve, holding forth during a slot that for years served as a showcase for raucous antics from Don Lemon. Lemon and CNN parted ways earlier this year after management tried to move him from a prominent primetime show to the network’s morning program.
Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen will return as hosts of CNN’s main coverage of the evening. The broadcast will feature performances by Enrique Iglesias, Maroon 5, Jonas Brothers, Flo Rida, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker and Rod Stewart and live interviews with Patti Labelle, Jeremy Renner, Neil Patrick Harris, Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers.
Will alcohol be served? Imbibing has been key to the event since Cohen joined CNN’s end-of-the-year antics in 2017. Last year, however, under former chief Chris Licht, the network issued an edict that drinking on camera would not be allowed. When it comes to 2023, says a network spokesperson, “Inquiring minds will need to tune in!”
Cooper has led coverage of New Year’s Eve for CNN for more than 17 years, taking the assignment initially as a way to help viewers who may be ambivalent about the holiday. New Year’s Eve is often “too difficult, too stressful to go out. There’s something mildly depressing about it. It often ends badly for a lot of people,” Cooper told Variety in 2020. But the Times Square broadcast, he believes, can help audiences celebrate without risking a bad night. “It’s two people standing out in the cold and rain and watching things happen. Funny things happen, and plenty of things happen, and that’s it. It’s a fun night out, and that’s really all you can seek for New Year’s Eve.”
More to come…