Happy New Year's Eve, Dec. 31! Americans look forward to Dick Clark's New Year's Eve special, the New York City Times Square ball drop, and singing the lyrics to "Auld Lang Syne" more than anything. This New Year's Eve will be bittersweet however. This is the first New Year's Eve without Dick Clark since he died. He was 82-years-old at the time. The ball dropped to Ryan Seacrest.
Ryan Seacrest will have some trouble remembering Dick Clark, not because he's forgotten the American Bandstand host, but because Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest were co-hosts together on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" for eight years. Dick Clark had a stroke in 2004 which prompted Regis Philbin taking over for Dick Clark that year. Ryan Seacrest came on board in 2005.
The death of Dick Clark on April 18, 2012 leaves Ryan Seacrest as the sole host of the "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2013" special beginning with its 2012–13 edition.
According to FOX News on Monday, Dec. 31,
"Ryan Seacrest has already appeared on "Good Morning America," then headed to the rooftop of One Times Square, where the huge crystal ball was poised for its flashy descent, along with half-a-dozen TV teams queued up to tape interviews with him. An hour later, at ABC's Upper West Side headquarters, Seacrest has shed his top coat and taken a break to reflect on Monday's extravaganza."
On Monday, Dec. 31, Huffington Post quoted Ryan Seacrest,
"I'd like to say I can imagine how it's going to feel, but I'm not quite sure. I looked forward so much to each year that I did the show with him." Seacrest recalls how typically he would be posted outside overlooking Times Square, while Clark, who had suffered a stroke in 2004, made brief appearances from indoors. "Then, right after midnight, I would run inside and stand next to him, and he always has some funny, clever thing to make fun of me about," says Seacrest, unwittingly speaking in the present tense. "I think I will really miss that moment this year."
Watch "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest" on December 31, 2012 on ABC from 8 p.m. until past 2 a.m. EST.
Sources: FOX Mews; Huffington Post
Photo Credit: LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 23: Producer Dick Clark is featured in the In Memoriam tribute during the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on September 23, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
