Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin will co-host CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast from Times Square, the network has announced. Fomer ‘N Sync performer Lance Bass will join the broadcast as a correspondent from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Other CNNers on the broadcast: Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, Gary Tuchman, Ed Henry, and John Zarrella.
The special airs 11pm to 12:30amET and a special AC360 “All the Best, All the Worst of 2009” will lead-in starting at 10pmET. Press release after the jump.
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Anderson Cooper Hosts New Year’s Eve Coverage Live from Times Square
Kathy Griffin Teams with Cooper as Co-host
Anderson Cooper will host CNN’s live coverage of the New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City’s Times Square on Thursday, Dec. 31, from 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. (ET). For “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin,” which will air in HD, CNN anchors and correspondents will provide reports from celebrations across the country and around the world.
Entertainer Lance Bass will also be part of the show this year, joining Cooper and Griffin from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. CNN anchor Don Lemon will report from the crowd in Times Square along with CNNMoney.com’s Poppy Harlow. Correspondent Gary Tuchman will report live from New York City’s Central Park for the annual Midnight Run. Senior White House correspondent Ed Henry will report from Honolulu and correspondent John Zarrella from Key West, Florida. The show will simulcast on CNN International.
Leading up to “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin” will be “All the Best, All the Worst of 2009”, an Anderson Cooper 360° special which will air at 10pm ET. The special will count down to the new year by reviewing the old one with humor, insight, and fun. CNN correspondent Tom Foreman will shine a spotlight on the highlights and lowlights of the past twelve months in politics, pop culture, the economy, entertainment, and much more. Joining Foreman will be a lineup including: host of “The Joy Behar Show” on HLN and co-host of ABC’s The View” Joy Behar; economist and actor, Ben Stein; MTV’s Sway Calloway; AC360’s own Jack Gray; Time Magazine and LA Times columnist, Joel Stein; comedian and actress, Margaret Cho; the Daily Beast’s Tina Brown; and conservative author and strategist, Leslie Sanchez. CNN International will simulcast.
Online at www.CNN.com/yearinreview, CNN.com features a special report which includes an interactive timeline of the top stories of 2009, along with a look at the year’s milestones in areas such as politics, health and entertainment. CNN iReport, the network’s user-generated news community, is asking iReporters to sum up their entire 365 days into a quick 30-second video. Additionally, on New Year’s Eve, users will be able to watch live video of celebrations around the world.
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.