Fox Cancels Times Square Telecast For New Year's Eve, CBS And NBC Move Their Shows Out Of Town

The rapidly rising level of COVID-19 cases in New York City has altered the New Year’s Eve telecast plans for three of the four major broadcast networks, with one show being canceled and two others being redirected to other cities.

What Happened: According to a Deadline report, Fox Corp FOX has cancelled its planned “Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022,” a live show that was to be hosted by Ken Jeong and Joel McHale.

A Fox spokesperson cited COVID-19 as the reason for the cancellation, noting “the recent velocity of the spread of omicron cases has made it impossible to produce a live special in Times Square that meets our standards.” The network has yet to announce a replacement for the show.

While New York City has traditionally been the epicenter of New Year’s Eve telecasts, ViacomCBS Inc VIAC is breaking with tradition by hosting a live show from Nashville with country music performers including Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker and Blake Shelton.

Comcast Corporation’s CMCSA NBC is also leaving Manhattan for the holiday, with “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels coordinating a Miami-based production hosted by Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson.

Only Walt Disney Co.’s DIS ABC is keeping its “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” in New York, which is scheduled to include a performance by LL Cool J from Times Square.

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Why It Matters: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose term expires on New Year’s Day, has yet to finalize the city’s plans for the Times Square festivities on Dec. 31. To date, the city was planning to require full vaccinations from all attendees coming into Times Square unless they have a medical exemption — however, the vaccination regimen needed to be complete by Dec. 17. Booster shots and masks for vaccinated people was not among the requirements being planned.

Last year, the Times Square festivities did not include the traditional huge crowds, but instead accommodated a limited number of invited essential workers to share in a much-welcomed goodbye to 2020.

Photo: New Year's Eve in Times Square in 2017. Photo by Dimitri Rodriguez / Flickr Creative Commons