RIP Boozy CNN: Network Asks Reporters to Be Sober for New Year’s Eve Coverage

By Greta Bjornson @greatbjornson
Published Nov. 17, 2022, 10:09 a.m. ET

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CNN is buttoning up this New Year’s Eve. The network, where anchor Don Lemon has previously celebrated Jan. 1 by jumping out of a cake, getting his ear pierced in a bar and ripping tequila shots, is toning down its coverage this year by asking reporters to abstain from drinking both on and off camera, Variety reports. Booooo!

The outlet reports that CNN held a town hall on Tuesday (Nov. 15) during which chairman and CEO Chris Licht asked staffers to put the brakes on the boozing. Per Variety: “Licht told employees he felt on-camera drinking eroded the credibility of CNN personnel and damaged the ‘respectability’ they may enjoy among viewers.”

Who cares about respectability when you’ve got relatability?! Lemon gave us all the empowering words we needed when he blurted out after midnight last year on Jan. 1 that he is a “grown-ass man,” before saying he is “able to share my point of view on television and it freaks people out and you know what, you can kiss my behind, I do not care. I don’t care.”

CNN, do we really want to give this up?

While we might have seen the last of drunken antics on CNN, at least two of the network’s stars may still be allowed to pop a bottle (or a few). Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper, who have co-hosted a NYE show for CNN since 2018, just might skirt the new rule.

According to IndieWire, Cohen and Cooper “will apparently be free to drink on air as usual while reporting from Times Square” because they are hosts, not reporters.

Cohen confirmed as much on Watch What Happens Live, where he gleefully informed the audience on Wednesday (Nov. 16) that he and Cooper and guzzle as much as they please on this year’s broadcast.

“Anderson and I are going to party harder than we have ever partied before on New Year’s Eve,” he proclaimed. “Do you understand me?”

While he hasn’t gotten a tattoo to ring in the new year like Lemon has, Cohen has had his fair share of buzzy moments over the years on CNN, including last year’s epic rant against former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — which also included a dig at NYE broadcast rival Ryan Seacrest.

Cohen, after imbibing for hours, told the camera, “Watching Mayor de Blasio do his ‘victory lap’ dance after four years of the crappiest job as the mayor of New York. The only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is what a horrible mayor he has been. Sayonara, sucka!”

He also dissed Seacrest and his “group of losers,” a comment he later walked back. De Blasio, however, got no such apology from Cohen.

Decider has reached out to CNN for comment, but did not hear back by time of publication.