So much for ringing in the new year with Winger and Chang.
Fox announced Tuesday that it has halted plans for a live New Year’s Eve special from Times Square due to the global surge in COVID cases brought on by the Omicron variant. The second annual New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast was to be hosted by Masked Singer judge Ken Jeong and former Community costar (and frequent Masked Singer guest judge) Joel McHale.
“While we are confident in the health and safety protocols for Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022, 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,” Fox Entertainment said in a statement. “We will not be moving forward with Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022 in New York. The health and safety of our casts and crews has always been, and will continue to be, of the utmost importance. Replacement programming for New Year’s Eve on Fox will be announced in the coming days.”
As of press time, Fox is the only network to confirm it has scrapped its live New Year’s Eve broadcast. Among rival offerings are ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest; CBS’ New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, to be hosted by American Idol‘s Bobby Bones and Entertainment Tonight‘s Rachel Smith; CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live, to be hosted by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen from Times Square; and NBC’s Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party, to be hosted by Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson from Miami, Fla. TVLine has reached out to representatives for all four networks about potential programming changes.