Sound CheckHow to Make New Year’s Eve Rock (From the Comfort of Your Couch)
Nothing says Happy New Year like your TV and a program built around cool tunes. To keep you from wasting your New Year's Eve channel-surfing, we've compiled a list of the best New Year's Eve music programming on television.
"Dick Clark's New Year's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest," ABC — Ol' Dick is long gone, the name of the program is so friggin' long that the ball may drop before you're able to spit it all out, and it really isn't that rockin with Blondie, Billy Joel, Daughtry, and Fall Out Boy the only acts on the bill that can vaguely qualify as rock. Still, it's the granddaddy of all New Year's Eve TV specials and chances are most TVs in America will be tuned into this program on ABC.
This year it begins with "New Year's Rockin' Eve Presents the 30 Greatest Women in Music," a two-hour lead-in special at 8 p.m., and then the live broadcast from New York runs from 10 to 11 p.m., with a half-hour break, before continuing from 11:30 p.m. to 2:12 a.m.
Other artists on the bill include Miley Cyrus, Icona Pop, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in New York with hosts Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy; and Capital Cities, Jason Derullo, Florida Georgia Line, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Enrique Iglesisas, Robin Thicke, and the Fray in Los Angeles, with Fergie serving as the hostess.
"New Year's Eve With Carson Daly," NBC — Not to be completely outdone, NBC will offer what's called in the business "counter-programming" with their own two-hour special, also live from Times Square in New York City, beginning 10-11 p.m. and continuing 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Strangely, NBC appears to be keeping their musical talent a secret, only offering that the show "will ring in 2014 with some of the best musical performances of 2013." Nothing like a mystery!
"New Year's Eve Live!," FOX — Fox will celebrate with their own program, also live from Times Square, with a country flavor. Comedian/actor Rodney Carrington is slated to host along with Rick Harrison and Austin "Chumlee" Russell of "Pawn Stars" with performances by "American Idol" alum Lauren Alaina, Rodney Atkins, and Joe Nichols.
"MTV's New Year's Eve 2014" — Sticking with their philosophy of ignoring the "M" (as in "music") in their name, MTV will offer a one-hour special featuring the casts of MTV's "Carol Code" and MTV2's "Guy Code,"looking back at 2013 and into the future in 2014. Yawn.
"106 & Party: New Year's Eve 2013," BET — If you want to get your groove on, BET is the place to be with "106 & Party: New Year's Eve 2013." It'll feature Trey Songz, August Alsina, ASAP Rocky, and more, from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. — and then apparently it run all over at until 3.
"New Year's Eve Dance Party," Fuse — We're short on details, but the title sounds promising. It starts at 9 p.m. and runs through midnight.
