Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve
The annual ABC New Year's Eve special from Times Square.
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve is an annual New Year's Eve television special broadcast by ABC, primarily from Times Square in New York City. Created by Dick Clark as a youthful alternative to Guy Lombardo's CBS specials, it first aired on December 31, 1972, and has since become the highest-rated New Year's Eve special on American television. Since 2008, the program has been billed as Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
Quick Facts
- Creator
- Dick Clark
- Presenter
- Three Dog Night
- George Carlin
- Dick Clark
- Ryan Seacrest
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Episodes
- 53
- Executive producers
- Ryan Seacrest
- Allen Shapiro
- Mike Mahan
- Barry Adelman
- Mark Bracco
- Producer
- Larry Klein
- Location
- Times Square, New York City, New York (live segments); various locations (pre-recorded concert segments)
Facts from the source article.
Format
The special is primarily broadcast from Times Square in New York City, covering the New Year's Eve festivities and culminating with the ball drop approaching midnight ET. Musical performances are featured throughout; most are pre-recorded from a Los Angeles studio and currently billed as the "Billboard Hollywood Party." The special has also included live headlining performances from a Times Square stage and occasionally from other U.S. cities. Since 2005, Ryan Seacrest has hosted the live show outside in Times Square, joined by a celebrity correspondent. Until his death, Dick Clark hosted limited segments from Times Square Studios, including the countdown, after which he traditionally kissed his wife Kari Wigton at midnight. Since the 2000–01 edition, the special begins with a prime-time segment, initially at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT and extended to 8:00 p.m. starting with the 2011–12 edition. From 2011–12 to 2013–14, the first part featured retrospective countdowns using archive footage. After a 30-minute break for late local programming, the second block begins at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (previously 11:30 p.m. until 2021–22), covering midnight celebrations in the Atlantic Time Zone from Puerto Rico at 10:59 p.m. ET and the Eastern Time Zone ball drop at 11:59 p.m. ET. From 2016–17 through 2022–23, the late-night block also featured coverage from New Orleans' Jackson Square fleur-de-lis drop at midnight CT; a Central Time segment from Chicago was introduced for the 2025–26 edition.
History
Dick Clark, known for hosting American Bandstand on ABC, believed Lombardo's specials were outdated and did not appeal to younger viewers. Clark decided to produce a more youthful New Year's Eve special, naming it New Year's Rockin' Eve to emphasize the contrast with Lombardo's formal atmosphere. The first edition aired on NBC on December 31, 1972, titled Three Dog Night's New Year's Rockin' Eve, hosted by the band Three Dog Night, with pre-recorded performances from the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, and Clark reporting live from Times Square. After three editions on NBC, the program moved to ABC for the 1974–75 season, with Clark assuming the host role. Clark hosted annually through 2004; after suffering a stroke in December 2004, Regis Philbin served as guest host. Ryan Seacrest began hosting and executive producing the following year, with Clark making limited appearances until his death in 2012. Seacrest has hosted solo since the 2012–13 edition, joined by various guest correspondents; since the 2023–24 edition, Rita Ora has served as a Times Square correspondent and Jeannie Mai has hosted the Los Angeles concert segments.
Depictions in other media
As New Year's Rockin' Eve became an annual mainstay in American pop culture, Dick Clark made appearances in other television series and films referencing his role. In The Simpsons 1999 Halloween special "Treehouse of Horror X," Clark cameoed hosting a New Year's Eve event in Springfield; the Y2K bug caused him to melt and reveal he was a robot. Clark later said the episode received the biggest response of anything he had ever done. He also appeared in the pilot episode of Futurama, "Space Pilot 3000," as a head preserved in a jar hosting New Year's Rockin' Eve 3000. In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, footage of Clark from the first two editions of the special was edited together and appeared on a television in a bar and when Jenny left her home during a New Year's Eve scene set in 1972. The special itself was the subject of a 1999 episode of Friends, "The One with the Routine," in which Janine invites Joey, Ross, and Monica to attend an in-universe taping as audience members. In the last 1995 episode of Mad About You, "New Year's Eve," the 1996 ball drop gets stuck due to tangled lines; Clark appears in a cameo from his living room lamenting that he missed the unique occurrence on the one time he decided to stay home, although in reality he did host the 1996 edition.
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