Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper rang in 2024 by drinking on live TV – bringing drinking back to CNN after remaining sober on last year's New Year's Eve show.
“It's the top of the hour and we've been here for seven years doing this, and for most of those years, at the top of the hour, we usually have a toast,” Cohen said at the start of the hour. broadcast, turning to Cooper. “I hear from a lot of people…is daddy taking his juice?”
“Can Dad Get His Juice Responsibly?” » Cooper asked, before Cohen brought out a bottle of tequila and some shot glasses, and the two imbibed to start the show.
In November 2022, then-CEO Chris Licht announced that CNN would reduce its alcohol consumption for its New Year's Eve telecast. Regular host Cohen was quick to claim that this rule did not apply to him as host, although he and Cooper opted to have non-alcoholic drinks like buttermilk and pickle juice in solidarity with the rest of the staff.
“CNN stated that correspondents I won’t drink,” Cohen said. “Anderson and I will be the ones partying on CNN, (but) we will party responsibly.”
Cohen has been quick to step forward in recent months, publicly imploring CNN, now led by new CEO Mark Thompson, to allow on-air drinking for this year's show.
“I haven’t heard anything yet, but come on, they have to let us drink,” Cohen said. E! News in November. “It's New Year's Eve. It didn't go well last year in terms of viewer satisfaction with our drinking.” People really cared and I hope CNN gives them what they want.
Cohen and Cooper both played coy on the subject during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in the final weeks of the year, with the CNN anchor saying, “I think you're going to have to tune in and see. »
On the New Year's Eve telecast that rang in 2022, Cohen, while intoxicated, denounced ABC's “New Year's Rockin' Eve” and its host, Ryan Seacrest, calling Seacrest and his team a “group of losers.” After, Seacrest told Entertainment Weekly that he didn't know how drinking in the open had become a “tradition” and limiting alcohol consumption on the show was “probably a good idea,” speaking of Cohen's roast.
Cohen ended up apologizing. On his SiriusXM radio show, he said: “The only thing I regret saying, the only thing is I criticized the ABC show and I really like Ryan Seacrest and he's a great guy…I regret really for saying that, and I was just stupid and drunk and I feel it,” Cohen finished.