Let’s agree that New Year’s Eve is pretty much the worst.
Between the social pressure to make fancy plans and the exorbitant expenses and the usually frigid temperatures, there’s a blessed relief in just staying home to watch the ball drop from NYC’s Times Square live on TV. But from 1956 to 1971, viewers had exactly one viable option: New Year’s Eve with Guy Lombardo on CBS, which annually culminated with the bandleader and his Royal Canadians performing “Auld Lang Syne” in the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. A classy tradition? Sure. But the show wasn’t exactly, well, rockin’.
Then came the 1970s and Dick Clark.
The congenial American Bandstand host and producer — who first did a NYE special in 1959, out of Philadelphia for his teen viewers — pitched himself as a hipper (read: younger) alternative to Lombardo’s program. And on December 31, 1972, Three Dog Night’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1973 made its debut. Clark himself was perched in Times Square and reported from the scene; Three Dog Night (“Joy to the World”) co-hosted and did the music; Billy Preston and Helen Reddy supplied pre-recorded performances. Success! The show soon changed its name to New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and became a cultural staple, referenced in everything from The Simpsons to When Harry Met Sally . . . “I work real hard,” Clark told the Television Academy in 1999. “But the key is, it’s very nice to be welcomed into people’s celebrations.” And though Clark died in 2012 — and many competitors have popped up in the interim — his TV party is still going strong and bigger than ever.
Ryan Seacrest is now doing the hosting duties, and everyone from Taylor Swift to Paul Anka have performed in front of the NYC revelers. For the 2026 edition, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC will feature the likes of Mariah Carey, 50 Cent, Chappell Roan and Demi Lovato with live segments from Chicago, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. (The American Idol host and singer Rita Ora will be holding down the freezing fort in Times Square.) And because some things never change, we’ll all still hear “Auld Lang Syne” as the clock strikes 12 and the ball drops atop One Times Square on Broadway. Lombardo would be proud.
Before the countdown begins, let’s run the numbers on the cool granddaddy of New Year’s Eve shows.
Total Emmy nominations: 0
Number of years the show did not feature either Clark or Seacrest: 1 (Regis Philbin subbed in 2004 after Clark suffered a stroke.)
Number of different titles over the decades: 5, including Chicago’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve
Years the show has aired on ABC: 50 (it was on NBC for its first two years)
Performers on that first ABC show in 1974 who’d later be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: 3 (Chicago, The Doobie Brothers and The Beach Boys)
Number of times the Village People have performed “YMCA:” 2 (1979, 1992)
American Idol alums who have performed: 4 (Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert and Carrie Underwood)
Number of U.S. Presidents who have appeared: 1 (President-elect Joe Biden in 2020)
Number of times the rock group The Presidents of the United States of America have appeared: 1 (in 1996)
Cast members from The Dukes of Hazzard series who appeared: 1 (John Schneider in 1979)
Cast members from The Dukes of Hazzard movie who appeared: 1 (Jessica Simpson in 2001)
Years that Jenny McCarthy served as a Times Square co-host: 10 (2010-19)
Years that Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas served as the L.A. co-host: 11 (2007-16)
Number of co-hosts who’d go on to co-host their own rival NYE shows: 1 (Steve Harvey, in 1994)
Year that ABC News preempted the show: 1999 (In honor of the millennium, the network aired the all-day event, ABC 2000 Today; Clark still reported from Times Square)
Year the show expanded into prime time: 2000
Fictional year that an animated Clark hosted the show, as seen in the pilot episode of Futurama in 1999: 3000
Total number of viewers who tuned in at midnight in 2025: 29 million
Cities showcased in that 2024-25 show: 6 (NYC, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Sydney, London)
Estimated number of people crammed into Times Square every year: 1 million, per NYC.Gov
Estimated number of nude attendees who crashed Clark’s Times Square segments in 1996: 30
Coldest temperature recorded in Times Square at midnight since 1972: 9 degrees from 2017-18
Warmest temperature recorded in Times Square at midnight since 1972: 58 degrees from 1972-73
Number of Waterford crystals in the 2026 ball that will drop at midnight on January 1: 5,280
Year of Lombardo’s death: 1977, at age 75
Year of Clark’s death: 2012, at age 82
Friends' "The One With the Routine" / NBC
Length of Ross and Monica’s dance that they performed on the set of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in the 1999 Friends episode “The One with the Routine”: 34 glorious seconds
