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Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve is a television program, which airs every New Year's Eve on ABC. It has been hosted by Dick Clark since its first airing on December 31, 1972, also titled Three Dog Night's New Years’ Rockin Eve 1973 (named after the headliner that year, Three Dog Night).
The program has typically consisted of live remotes of Dick Clark in Times Square in New York City, counting down until the New Year ball comes down. After the ball drops, the focus of the program switches to pre-taped musical segments taped in Hollywood. The special is live in the Eastern Standard Time zone, and it is delayed for the other three time zones so that they can ring in the New Year with Clark when midnight strikes in their area.
The special was not broadcast in 1999 because ABC 2000 Today, ABC News's coverage of the millennium, hosted by Peter Jennings, 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, and the rest of the east coast to ring in the new year. Mr. Ford had been assigned to Times Square during the broadcast.
The 2005 New Year's special
Regis Philbin hosted the 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, Philbin was so surprised to see millions of United States citizens cheering for the new year to be rang in and dancing in their audience podiums with their hats, noise makers and confetti, that since it was the first time he has ever hosted a New Year's Eve special on live television, he proclaimed a speech in his remembrance and quickly made one final New Year's resolution when the ball began dropping.
During CNN's New Year's Eve special, hosted by Anderson Cooper, revelers in Times Square told CNN's Jason Carroll that Philbin was all right filling in for Clark, even though they had Cooper and Carroll.
The 2006 New Year's special
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 succeed Clark and become sole host, but not when.
Dick Clark appeared on Rockin' Eve 2006 in a slightly smaller studio role along with Seacrest (in Times Square), Hilary Duff (in Hollywood) and correspondent Marysol Castro. During the program, Clark remained behind a desk, and was only shown in limited segments. However, his speech was slower and deeper,and appeared to have limited use of his right arm. On the other hand, he seemed to be completely in control of his faculties, making comments on how great the evening was going in Times Square.
On-air, Clark said, "Last year I had a stroke. It left me in bad shape. I had to teach myself how to walk and talk again. It's been a long, hard fight. My speech is not perfect but I'm getting there." But, before counting down to 2006, he mentioned he "wouldn't have missed this [the telecast for the world."
For the first time ever, there was a musical performance as part of the show, this year's performance was from Mariah Carey, who sang her hits from her #1 Album The Emancipation of Mimi directly from Times Square.
Reaction to Clark's appearance was mixed, reported CNN.com. 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.*
Dick Clark's future as host
Currently, it is not known how much longer Clark can carry on the role of host of this program due to the effects of his 2004 stroke, nor when Seacrest will take over.
External links
1970s TV shows in the United States | 1980s TV shows in the United States | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | Television specials | New Year celebrations
"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve"