Television viewers and party hosts have been given more programming options on New Year's Eve in recent times, but on Monday night, most of them still chose to ring in the new year with an old, reliable standby: “Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest†on ABC. According to Nielsen, that countdown special attracted its largest prime time audience ever â€" with 13.3 million total viewers tuning in during the 10 p.m. hour â€" and its highest rating in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic in 12 years.
It was Mr. Seacrest's first time as host without Mr. Clark, who died in April at the age of 82. That program was preceded by “New Year's Rockin' Eve Celebrates Dick Clark,†a two-hour special that drew 9.4 million total viewers.
The closest competition for “Rockin' Eve†was NBC'S “New Year's Eve With Carson Daly,†which drew 3.8 million viewers, up slightly from the 3.1 million who watched last year. On CNN, “New Year's Eve Live With Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin†was also up from last year and scored 2.3 million viewers.
