New Year’s Eve 2019: How to Watch, Who’s Performing, Ball Drop
How to watch on TV: The venerable Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest airs on ABC, beginning at 8 p.m ET and running well past midnight. Christina Aguilera headlines this year, with live and pre-taped performances in New York’s Times Square, Hollywood and New Orleans from some of country music’s heavy-hitters, including Dan + Shay, Florida Georgia Line, Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris, Kane Brown and Lauren Alaina. Post Malone, New Kids on the Block, Dua Lipa, Ella Mai and Halsey are also set to take the stage.
NBC taps Carson Daly to anchor its coverage (10 p.m. ET) from Times Square, along with co-hosts Chrissy Teigen and Leslie Jones. Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, John Legend, Bebe Rexha and Jennifer Lopez are among the performers, with an additional remote broadcast from Keith Urban’s Nashville party.
Steve Harvey hosts Fox’s own New Year’s Eve coverage from Times Square. Sting, Jason Aldean, Florence + the Machine and Robin Thicke are among the music guests on the broadcast, which kicks off at 8 p.m. ET.
And on CNN, Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen reunite to highlight events in New York and around the globe (8 p.m. ET).
How to stream online: The versatile Bebe Rexha will headline Times Square New Year’s Eve on December 31st, performing a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” along with her radio hits “Meant to Be,” “Me, Myself & I” and “I’m a Mess.” The webcast, which can be streamed below and at TimesSquareNYC.org, NewYearsEve.nyc or livestream.com/2019, begins at 6 p.m. ET and lasts until 12:15 a.m.
In addition to Rexha, the pop-rock trio Lovelytheband will also perform on the webcast. The group will play “Broken,” which reached over a billion listeners in 2018 and became the biggest song on the “Alternative” format, along with the follow-ups “These Are My Friends” and “Maybe, I’m Afraid.”
Key performances: Post Malone appears live from his concert at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Dan + Shay perform in Times Square on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Keith Urban plays live from the Jack Daniel’s Music City Midnight party in Nashville’s Bicentennial Park on NBC’s New Year’s Eve. And Sting headlines Fox’s countdown show.
What’s being dropped: Everything from pineapples to diamonds begin their descent in cities around the U.S. at midnight. In Nashville, it’s a 16-foot, 400-lb. Music Note outfitted with video screens that welcomes in 2019. But it’s New York City’s big ball that is synonymous with the holiday: 12 feet in diameter, weighing nearly 12,000 pounds and covered with 2,600-plus Waterford Crystal triangles.