Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper closed out 2025 and welcomed 2026 with their annual NCS’s New Year’s Eve Live particular.
The Bravo star, 57, and the journalist, 58, cohosted the printed from New York City’s Times Square for the ninth consecutive yr on Wednesday, December 31.
“Bottoms up: This is tequila!” Cohen declared earlier than doing a shot with Cooper to open the present. Afterward, the cohosts spoke about 2025 highlights, together with a visit to Disneyland with their youngsters and watching Cher carry out throughout an occasion for Saturday Night Live‘s fiftieth anniversary.
“Cher called me a couple weeks ago,” Cooper stated, to which Cohen replied, “Did she ask for me?”
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Cooper jokingly recalled Cher saying of Cohen, “How’s that troublemaker?”
The cohosts additionally talked about Ryan Seacrest, who hosts Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on ABC.
“Did Ryan call you … or text you today?” Cooper requested Cohen, who responded, “He texted me, like, yesterday or the day before.”
Cooper stated that Seacrest had texted him that morning. In previous years, he famous, Seacrest had despatched him presents.
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“Like, a photo of himself?” Cohen requested.
“No,” Cooper stated, including that Seacrest had beforehand despatched him tequila.
The longtime buddies additionally mentioned the hit hockey romance sequence Heated Rivalry, with Cohen telling Cooper, “Of the two of us, you’re Ilya and I’m Shane.”
“What?!” Cooper replied.
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In addition to Cohen and Cooper’s signature banter, NCS’s New Year’s Eve Live featured performances by Robyn, Shakira, Brandy and Monica, Bryan Adams, Florence + The Machine, Raye, Brandi Carlile, Aloe Blacc, Patti LaBelle and Michelle Williams and particular appearances by Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, B.J. Novak, Leanne Morgan and Sarah Sherman.
Since Cohen joined the printed as Cooper’s cohost in 2017, the NCS New Year’s Eve particular has constantly made headlines, maybe most notoriously when the community banned the duo from drinking after Cohen shaded then-New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and Seacrest through the 2021-2022 present.
“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 stated on the time. “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!”
Cohen was similarly critical of the Seacrest-hosted Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
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“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,” he quipped. “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.”
Cohen later apologized to Seacrest, 51, and the 2 made amends. Cohen and Cooper had been nonetheless banned from consuming through the 2022-2023 broadcast, however their tequila shots tradition returned the next yr.
Prior to the 2025-2026 present, Cooper and Cohen mirrored on their favourite reminiscences from their years of cohosting the New Year’s Eve particular.
“We can’t talk about New Year’s Eve without talking about your many, many occasions of being in a puddle of giggles,” Cohen instructed Cooper in a NCS video earlier this month. “I say to people my job is to make you laugh on New Year’s because people love to hear you laugh. And I think God bless you for the work you do all year long. You’re keeping ‘em honest right here on NCS, and this is your time and all of our time to let loose and enjoy.”