Most Controversial Moments From CNN’s ‘New Year’s Eve Live’: Kathy Griffin’s Cursing, Don Lemon’s Antics and Andy Cohen’s Disses

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Most Controversial Moments From CNN’s ‘New Year’s Eve Live’: Kathy Griffin’s Cursing, Don Lemon’s Antics and Andy Cohen’s Disses

Not long after Anderson Cooper started hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage from Times Square in 2002, the news program often became the news. Over the last two decades, Cooper has been joined by several of his colleagues and celebrities during New Year's Eve Live broadcast, which has gotten increasingly longer over the years. In 2007, Kathy Griffin joined as the journalist’s official cohost. While the unlikely duo brought the laughs, Griffin made waves annually for her dirty jokes and cursing. Still, the network stood by her — until May 2017 when the My Life on the D-List alum came under fire for posing with a fake severed head of then-President Donald Trump. After Cooper tweeted that he was “appalled by the photo shoot,” calling it “clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate,” the network cut ties with Griffin. The Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty author's best friend Andy Cohen subsequently took over Griffin’s gig. Cooper and Cohen continued to keep the coverage light, with the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen host encouraging his pal to take a shot every hour. [jwplayer lYwkD6AN-l3ahXupL] “We like to think that we are the only TV hosts on New Year’s Eve who are actually having fun,” Cooper said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in December 2022. “I started covering New Year’s Eve, like, 17 years ago for CNN. … They had no one else to do it so I volunteered to do it … because I’ve always hated New Year’s Eve.” Colbert pondered why the network created content that night at all. “On the off chance that time didn’t pass that night? Because that would be the only news — if it didn’t become January 1 at midnight,” he quipped. “I love New Year’s Eve,” Cohen added at the time. “I love an overhyped event. And covering New Year’s Eve is — I say this every year — it is like a telethon with no disease. We are standing there just marking the passing of time. … It’s an odd thing.” Colbert subsequently showed a picture of Cohen going off during the 2021-22 broadcast — the year the “overserved” Bravo host made headlines for shading Mayor Bill de Blasio and Ryan Seacrest. “That was one of my rants. I had things to say!” Cohen recalled, noting that he wasn’t impressed with the band Journey performing without Steve Perry on ABC. “They sprayed me with their stuff, [I was] covered with their glitter and so it just rubbed me the wrong way. … I was calling it fake Journey and, you know, Neal Schon went after me for about a year on Twitter. And I felt terribly after but I’m a Steve Perry fan.” Cooper then joked: “That is the face of someone just watching my old friend dig his grave.” Scroll through for the most-talked-about moments from the broadcast over the years:

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Most Controversial Moments From CNN’s ‘New Year’s Eve Live’: Kathy Griffin’s Cursing, Don Lemon’s Antics and Andy Cohen’s Disses

Not long after Anderson Cooper started hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage from Times Square in 2002, the news program often became the news. Over the last two decades, Cooper has been joined by several of his colleagues and celebrities during New Year's Eve Live broadcast, which has gotten increasingly longer over the years. In 2007, Kathy Griffin joined as the journalist’s official cohost. While the unlikely duo brought the laughs, Griffin made waves annually for her dirty jokes and cursing. Still, the network stood by her — until May 2017 when the My Life on the D-List alum came under fire for posing with a fake severed head of then-President Donald Trump. After Cooper tweeted that he was “appalled by the photo shoot,” calling it “clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate,” the network cut ties with Griffin. The Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty author's best friend Andy Cohen subsequently took over Griffin’s gig. Cooper and Cohen continued to keep the coverage light, with the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen host encouraging his pal to take a shot every hour. [jwplayer lYwkD6AN-l3ahXupL] “We like to think that we are the only TV hosts on New Year’s Eve who are actually having fun,” Cooper said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in December 2022. “I started covering New Year’s Eve, like, 17 years ago for CNN. … They had no one else to do it so I volunteered to do it … because I’ve always hated New Year’s Eve.” Colbert pondered why the network created content that night at all. “On the off chance that time didn’t pass that night? Because that would be the only news — if it didn’t become January 1 at midnight,” he quipped. “I love New Year’s Eve,” Cohen added at the time. “I love an overhyped event. And covering New Year’s Eve is — I say this every year — it is like a telethon with no disease. We are standing there just marking the passing of time. … It’s an odd thing.” Colbert subsequently showed a picture of Cohen going off during the 2021-22 broadcast — the year the “overserved” Bravo host made headlines for shading Mayor Bill de Blasio and Ryan Seacrest. “That was one of my rants. I had things to say!” Cohen recalled, noting that he wasn’t impressed with the band Journey performing without Steve Perry on ABC. “They sprayed me with their stuff, [I was] covered with their glitter and so it just rubbed me the wrong way. … I was calling it fake Journey and, you know, Neal Schon went after me for about a year on Twitter. And I felt terribly after but I’m a Steve Perry fan.” Cooper then joked: “That is the face of someone just watching my old friend dig his grave.” Scroll through for the most-talked-about moments from the broadcast over the years:

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Kathy Griffin’s Dirty Mouth

During her tenure, the comedian made wives for cursing several times. In December 2008, she told a heckler, "I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth.” The following year, she said the F-bomb, joked about threesomes and asked Cooper why he doesn’t “stare in the mirror all day and pleasure yourself because you're so gorgeous.”

Credit: Roger Wong/INFphoto/INSTAR

Kathy Griffin Strips Down and Kisses Anderson Cooper

After kissing a crew member during the 2010-11 show, Griffin planted one on Cooper the next year. The 2011-12 broadcast also featured her stripping down to just a bra.

Credit: CNN

Don Lemon Drunkenly Gets His Ears Pierced

Cohen isn’t the only one who has been tipsy on air. After several shots, Don Lemon ended 2016 by getting his ears pierced on air. During the same broadcast, the network seemingly cut his mic after he declared “2016 was awful.”

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Kathy Griffin Is Fired

CNN announced in May 2017 that the network had “terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year's Eve program” amid the fallout from her graphic Trump photo shoot.

Credit: Courtesy of Andy Cohen/Instagram

Andy Cohen vs. The Times Square Alliance

Cohen’s first target on NYE was The Times Square Alliance. During the 2018-19 show, the Real Housewives producer claimed he and Anderson were being singled out after being asked to put down their umbrellas on the rainy holiday. Cohen ranted on air and alleged that the Alliance threatened to pull CNN’s credentials despite other networks using umbrellas.

The Times Square Alliance fired back in a statement at the time: “It has been our policy that umbrellas are not permitted on the media riser so as to not interfere with media colleagues’ sightlines. There were over 100 credentialed members of the media and 15 live broadcast camera spots on the media riser this year. We don’t monitor this issue on other stages that are stand-alone with no other networks present, thus no potential for other camera shots to be blocked. Some tempers flared, but it was never the case, nor will it be the case, that CNN would be denied credentials or the ability to cover New Year’s Eve.”

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Andy Cohen Shades de Blasio — 2 Years in a Row

Cohen has been triggered by the (former) NYC mayor on several occasions.

“I just don't need to see that in the beginning of 2021,” he said after watching de Blasio and wife Chirlane McCray dance in Times Square during the 2020-21 show. “Do something with this city! Honestly, get it together!” 

The next year, he declared that de Blasio wouldn’t be reelected.

“Watching Mayor de Blasio do his victory lap dance after four years of the crappiest term as the mayor of New York — the only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is what a horrible mayor he has been,” Cohen said. “So sayonara sucka. 2022! It’s a new year because guess what? I have a feeling I’m gonna be standing right here next year, and you know who I’m not going to be looking at dancing as the city comes apart? You!”

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Andy Cohen Disses Ryan Seacrest

“If you look behind me, you’ll see Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers performing. … I’m sorry but if you’re watching ABC, you’re watching nothing,” Cohen quipped during the 2021-22 broadcast. “We were doused with confetti from fake Journey on ABC. If it’s not Steve Perry, it doesn’t count! You get it? It’s not Journey! It’s propaganda! It’s propaganda! It’s not Journey! It’s not Journey! No, that was not Journey. Steve Perry is Journey.”

That same year, Lemon joked about “broke dick” with comedian Dulcé Sloan and told haters: “You can kiss my behind, I do not care."

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Banning Drinking Reports

Following Cohen and Lemon’s drunken antics on the 2021-22 show, Variety reported that the network wanted to sober up the show. The Most Talkative author fired back at the claims on WWHL, saying that he and Cooper were going to “party harder" for the 2022-23 broadcast. He also addressed the situation during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“What [CNN CEO Chris Licht] said was that he didn’t want the correspondents out there drinking, but that he wanted Anderson and I to do our thing,” he said in November 2022. “So I’m happy to do our thing. My only directive for years on CNN has been to have fun on New Year’s Eve, and that is absolutely what I plan to do."