CNN Says Andy Cohen Will Return To New Year’s Eve Gig; Host Says He Regrets Verbal Barbs About Ryan Seacrest

Andy Cohen will return to CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage for 2022, a network spokesperson said, as Cohen addressed some of the alcohol-fueled on-air rants he made while hosting the most recent event with Anderson Cooper.

“I can confirm that Andy will be back next year,” the spokesperson said.

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Some of Cohen’s moments from the Friday/Saturday telecast went viral, particularly a rant against outgoing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In another moment during the coverage, Cohen slammed the New Year’s Eve festivities playing out on ABC, with Ryan Seacrest as host. “If you look behind me, you will see Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers performing,” Cohen said. “If you’re watching ABC, you’re watching nothing.”

On his SiriusXM show Radio Andy on Monday, Cohen said that “the only thing that I regret saying, the only thing is, that I slammed the ABC broadcast and I really like Ryan Seacrest, and he is a great guy, and I really regret saying that. I was just stupid and drunk and feeling it.” He said that he “felt bad about that.”

Cohen did not apologize for the De Blasio rant, in which he said, “The only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is what a horrible mayor he has been. So sayonara sucka!”

Cohen admitted in a tweet on the morning after the telecast that he was “a bit overserved last night.”

Cohen has hosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Cooper since 2017. The network dropped Cooper’s longtime co-host Kathy Griffin from the telecast earlier that year after controversy over her posting of a video in which she held up a mock severed head of then-President Donald Trump. Griffin tweeted on New Year’s, “It’s midnight here in oceanfront Malibu, so I’m commencing my yearly allotted 24 hours of bitterness. I’m not going to say why. I’m being very coy about it. Happens every year on New Year’s Eve. I’m not even going to say if it’s related to y’know, television. I’m too private :)”

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