CNN Makes Drastic Move to Avoid Another Humiliating New Years Eve

Every year, CNN makes a complete fool of themselves on New Year’s Eve, when the hosts of the NYE show, get drunk and act like complete idiots. Who can forget a drunken Don Lemon getting his ear pierced? Or Anderson Cooper slurring his words. I don’t understand why anybody at CNN thought this was a good idea, and allowed the talent to get intoxicated on live TV. But it sounds like the new Boss, Chris Licht wants to make sure that doesn’t happen this year, and he’s implemented a new rule.

CNN will now be “dry” for the New Year…

From Semafor

CNN’s widely-viewed U.S. New Year’s Eve program has in recent years regularly strayed into tipsy, sloppy hilarity. CNN This Morning host Don Lemon got his ear pierced in a bar in New Orleans, and last year Bravo’s Andy Cohen went on a series of rants complaining about former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
But CNN President Chris Licht has chosen to take ratings hits in order to reposition the network to audiences as more serious. This year, Licht said in one internal meeting that Cooper and Cohen will be permitted to imbibe, prompting Cooper to tell network leadership he’s concerned at the perception that only the two white hosts are permitted to drink.

Licht then walked that rule back: “Chris made an offhand remark in a town hall about drinking during the NYE program,” an aide said. “Shortly after, he proactively reached out to Anderson to clarify that his comments were meant as a joke and that he preferred no drinking on air at all.”

In any event Lemon, who will likely be dispatched to hard-partying New Orleans, was not pleased about the sober state of things, another CNN insider said.

Not everyone is planning on letting the new regime spoil the fun. On his show after the news was announced, Andy Cohen said that since the correspondents will not be drinking this year, he “will be partying even harder on their behalf.“

I asked Licht about the change at a recent holiday party, where he maintained that it was important for the network’s anchors to be perceived as credible on air, not sloppy. He added that he will be in the control room New Years Eve, and will have a celebratory drink.

What Chris doesn’t realize is that the reason his network is “sloppy” is because of sober people like Don Lemon, Chris Wallace, and Jim Acosta.

They make sounds like idiots, but when they’re drunk, they actually have an excuse.