Ryan Seacrest shades Andy Cohen ‘drinking on the air’ in response to CNN’s sober NYE plans
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Ryan Seacrest is all for his competitors at CNN reducing their alcohol consumption during this year’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, a rule announced last month after co-host Andy Cohen drunkenly made digs last year at the “American Idol” host, 48, and the band, Journey.
“I don’t advocate drinking when one is on the air,” the “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” host told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t know how that started as a tradition, but it’s probably a good idea [to scale back], CNN.”
The comment was taken by many to be good-natured shade directed at the rival broadcast. In years past, CNN’s coverage has featured the broadcasters drinking on-air — with the affects of those beverages growing more obvious as the night progressed.
Chris Licht, the new CEO in charge of the news network, indicated in a November town hall with staff that the drinking would be toned down on this year’s New Year’s Eve coverage, Variety reported last month. The new boss felt on-air drinking hurt the network’s credibility.
Sobering up the festivities is likely in part because of comments Cohen made last year. The “Real Housewives” executive producer, 54, was co-hosting the festivities alongside best friend Anderson Cooper when he said there was “a bunch of smoke coming from Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers that are performing behind us.”
Cohen — who also took the opportunity to slam outgoing mayor Bill de Blasio — told viewers that if they were watching Seacrest on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” they’d “seen nothing, I’m sorry.”
He apologized for the “stupid and drunk” rant a few days later, noting that he did “regret” having “slammed the ABC broadcast and I really Ryan Seacrest. And he’s a great guy and I really regret saying that.
“I was just stupid and drunk and feeling it. I was continuing the Journey rant and I just kept talking and I shouldn’t have,” he told “Radio Andy” co-host John Hill in a clip from the show. “And I felt bad about that.”
