Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper bring drinks to CNN to toast to 2024

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper dialed in 2024 with some drinking on live television, bringing alcohol consumption back to CNN after going sober during last year’s New Year’s Eve broadcast.

“We’re at the very beginning of this hour, and we’ve been doing this here for seven years, and for most of those years we usually toast at the beginning of the day,” Cohen said, turning to Cooper earlier in the broadcast. “I hear from a lot of people…does dad buy the juice?”

“Can dad drink juice responsibly?” Cooper asked, before Cohen pulled out a bottle of tequila and a shot glass and sipped to start the show.

In November 2022, then-CEO Chris Licht announced that CNN would reduce alcohol consumption for its New Year’s broadcast. Regular host Cohen was quick to claim that this rule didn’t actually apply to him as host, but he and Cooper opted to take photos of non-alcoholic drinks like buttermilk and pickle juice in solidarity with the rest of the staff.

“CNN said this reporters Cohen said he wouldn’t drink. “Anderson and I will be the partying guys on CNN. [though] We will party responsibly.”

Cohen has been quick to get ahead of things in recent months, publicly imploring CNN, now under new CEO Mark Thompson, to allow live drinking on this year’s broadcast.

“I haven’t heard anything yet, but come on, they have to let us drink,” Cohen said. AND! News In November. “New Year’s Eve. Last year the audience’s happiness with our drinking didn’t go over well. “People really cared about this, and I hope CNN gives the people what they want.”

Both Cohen and Cooper were coy about the subject when they appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in the final weeks of the year, with the CNN anchor saying: “I guess you’ll have to tune in and see. ”

During the New Year’s telecast ringing in 2022, a drunken Cohen criticized ABC’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and its host Ryan Seacrest, calling Seacrest and his crew a “bunch of losers.” Afterwards, Seacrest told Entertainment Weekly He said he didn’t know what kind of “tradition” drinking on live television had become. and limiting alcohol consumption on the show was “probably a good idea,” citing Cohen’s roast.

Cohen finally apologized. On the SiriusXM radio show, he said, “The only thing I regret saying is that I criticized the ABC broadcast and I really like Ryan Seacrest and he’s a great guy… I really regret saying that and I was just stupid and drunk and I feel it,” Cohen concluded.

First Publication Date: 01 January 2024, 07:49