This year’s New Year’s Eve Celebration might be a more sober affair if bosses at CNN gets their way, as the news network plans to restrict its anchors and correspondents from drinking alcohol on air.
The network’s New Year’s Eve coverage, which is presided over by Anderson Cooper and his co-host Andy Cohen, is known to get pretty wild and zany as it broadcasts into the early hours. This is usually fueled by booze, as in the past, the hosts have been able to enjoy a tipple or two while on the air. But that is changing.
According to Variety, while Anderson and Cohen will still be able to drink, correspondents and anchors will be required to stay sober during the broadcast. The new edict came during a town-hall discussion held Tuesday, November 15, between CNN staffers and Chris Licht, the company’s chairman and CEO. Licht apparently told employees that on-camera drinking hurt the “credibility” and “respectability” of CNN.
Responding to the news on Wednesday (November 16) night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live, Cohen yelled, “I just want you to know, Anderson and I are going to party harder than we have ever partied before on New Year’s Eve! Do you understand me?!”
Cohen’s drunken antics became quite the topic during last year’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, but the TV host is not ashamed of his behavior. “I will not be shamed for having fun on New Year’s Eve. That’s why I’m there. That’s why they bring me there,” he said on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show. “There will be no apologies for drinking on New Year’s Eve. None.”
However, he did mention one regret, and that was taking shots at ABC’s New Year’s Eve coverage. “The only thing is that I slammed the ABC broadcast, and I really like Ryan Seacrest. So that I really regret, I really do,” he said on his Radio Andy show.
CNN New Year’s Eve Celebration, December 31, CNN
