Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images Jamie KennedyAs New Year's Eve telecasts go, this one was not exactly a tightly planned, rigidly precise, Ryan Seacrest-style affair.
On Monday night, Jamie Kennedy, the comedian and star of films like “Scream†and “Malibu's Most Wanted,†hosted “First Night,†a special broadcast live from Hollywood by KDOC, an independent Southern California television station. Advertisements for the show promised a mix of celebrity cameos, musical guests and other surprises, and viewers who tuned in sur ely got their share of unexpected laughs.
Presiding over the sometimes shaky-looking and decidedly seat-of-the-pants special, Mr. Kennedy and his co-host, Stu Stone, mixed it up with exuberant revelers (some of whom read directly from the teleprompters of the M.C.s), occasionally getting caught by surprise by their own live cameras and open microphones. Innuendos were made; obscene words were broadcast unbleeped; and Macy Gray gave a performance that had some viewers wondering if she'd started celebrating the arrival of 2013 well before midnight. The show concluded with Mr. Kennedy announcing from a crowded stage, “There's a fight. It's ending with a fight. It's ending with a fight. Guys, please. God bless you, get out. Go to a cartoon.â€
That might have been the last viewers saw of “First Night,†had it not been for the help of the Internet, where portions of the show were posted by Shaun Broyls, an actor and comedian, and circulated with the help of enthusiasts like Patton Oswalt. (For the time being, a version of Mr. Broyls's unbleeped video can be found here.)
This viral video has since been widely covered on blogs, some of which appreciate it for its rough charm and inadvertent comedy, and others, like The A.V. Club, which simply declared it “the world's worst New Year's broadcast.â€
On Friday, Mr. Kennedy, the emcee and mastermind of the “First Night†special, spoke to ArtsBeat about its creation. In these edited excerpts from that conversation, he discusses why he believes it has been so widely embraced by the Web and whether he'd do it again for 20 14.
So, did the special turn out the way you wanted?
It was totally supposed to be like that. We wanted to make almost an anti-New Year's Eve show, and the recipe calls for unexpected. We had an open bar for our guests, we were unrehearsed. It was not glamorous. We shot at the apex of craziness on Hollywood Boulevard on New Year's Eve, in front of one of the most highly visible places, the Chinese Theater, and it was more like a block party type of feel.
How did the idea for this originally come up?
I'm friends with the guys in charge at KDOC, and the day of Thanksgiving, we're watching the parade. They were like, “Didn't you correspond for that one year?†I'm like, “Yeah, I did it for Macy's. It was kind of hard but fun.†They were like, “Let's do our own version, but for New Year's.†We were going to do a very local New Year's show. With about five weeks we went out and we got brands aboard and started building a show. It was supposed to look fun and spontaneous. Back in the day, Jerry Lewis used to do it with his telethons for 24 hours straight, and things would happen and that's what made it interesting. We wanted people to go, “What's going to happen next?â€
And the celebrities you recruited, those were mostly through personal contacts and calling up people you knew?
Yeah. I couldn't get Drake, but I got Drake Bell. [laughs] Mena Suvari was supposed to be on the show, but we didn't get to her in time, so she left. I'm sorry about that, Mena. I owe her an apology.
In those moments you were caught doing things you didn't know were on camera, or saying things you didn't realize were picked up by microphones, did that freak you out?
It didn't freak me out, because I didn't know I was on camera. [laughs] We had a walkie-talkie issue from the beginning of the show. It was like, “3 … 2 … the walkies are out â€" you're on!†We didn't have a lot of communication for about three-quarters of the show. So we were in Vietnam. But other stuff was supposed to be the way it was.
Does that include Macy Gray's performance?
Look, that's Macy. She's cool. She's a soulful, raspy chick. People say she's drunk â€" I never saw her drink. She's just chill and laid back. But she didn't do a sound check, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony didn't do a sound check. They were winging it. I thought she did great. There's some funniness there where she thought it was 11:15 and it was 11:50. When we did the countdown I was 10 seconds late. [laughs]
You were doing the countdown behind schedule?
Yes, it was already New Year's and I was still counting. I wanted to make stew, you know? I wanted to put in many ingredients, from celebs to brands. Like Shannon Elizabeth's talking and there's the Carl's Jr. star dancing behind her, or you've got the California Green initiative lady on screen â€" she was a little stiff, but it was funny. And then you would cut to a Bone-Thugs performance. Hollywood Boulevard â€" people think it's glamorous, it's glitz. It's nuts. That's what I wanted to show. And then technical difficulties added to that nuttiness.
It looked like things were getting a little hectic at the end of the show.
Yes. At the end, we were trying to give our goodbyes, and this girl said, “I just want to stop all my haters.†And she got pushed to the front, and there was a wr estler and she, I guess, scratched his neck and he pushed her back and it got a little crazy. I was like, “Whoa â€" let me get out of here.†It ended in a fight, which was the perfect way to end it.
The online reaction to the special has been very polarized and in many cases extremely negative. Does that bother you?
The more stuff I do, the more polarizing I become. Sometimes I'm like the Kardashian of comedy. People seem to hate me but they can't stop watching. I'm fine. We wanted to make a stink. Did we know it was going to make this much of a stink? No. But if I had done this correctly, would I be talking to you right now? No. How many people are talking about a New Year's special on the 4th? Carson Daly, Ryan Seacrest â€" no. They're talking about me. Some people really go after you, and I don't know where the hate comes from. Here's what I say: I didn't stab nobody, I didn't shoot nobody. I just mad e a New Year's Eve special. Is that so bad?
With the Internet, you can't fail anymore. Everything has to be perfect. How come you can't fail anymore, or trying something? O.K., so maybe it didn't work. But I tried, and you're talking about it.
Were your sponsors happy with the special?
Commerce Casino is already signed up for next year, they loved it. And I got a text from Marilyn Manson that says he wants to do next year. And I want to get Wu-Tang Clan. I want to put people in that I like.
So you'd like to make this a tradition?
I would like to do this again. If you can believe it, I want do an Oscars special. I don't know if we have the time to do it. We have to wait and see how this blows over.
