The Times Square New Year's Countdown Is Back For 2022 & Here's How To Watch The Ball Drop
You can watch the countdown for free — and this time there'll be a real crowd!
New York City isn't about to let the pandemic ruin another New Year.
The most-watched New Year's Eve countdown in North America will return to Times Square to ring in 2022 on Friday night, and it'll look a bit different from the last one in all the best ways.
The city is preparing to host a scaled-down version of the annual tradition this year, with strict attendance limits and rules for those who are lucky enough to get tickets to the free event.
But that doesn't mean it'll be the dud that it was last year, when the ball dropped in front of a barely-there crowd.
This year there'll be 15,000 masked and fully vaccinated people in the square, and several musical acts performing on stage ahead of the big countdown at midnight, according to the mayor's office. That's about 25% of the typical crowd size at these New Year's celebrations, but a step back toward normal after last year's bare-bones event.
Tickets are free if you can get them, but you must be vaccinated if you're over the age of 5.
If you're not one of the 15,000 who gets to see the event in person, you can still watch it online for free beginning at 6 p.m. ET.
Ryan Seacrest will host ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve from Times Square, where Chlöe, Karol G, KT Tunstall and Journey are scheduled to perform for the crowd.
LL Cool J was also expected to be there but he pulled out due to a positive COVID-19 test, the Associated Press reports.
The city is pressing ahead with the party despite a major surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant. New York recorded more than 40,000 new cases on Thursday and it's seen a 595% increase in new cases over the last two weeks, the New York Times reports.
New York had originally planned a 50,000-person event, but COVID-19 forced them to cut the numbers down so they could still have the party.
“We’ve got to send a message to the world: New York City is open,” outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio told NBC New York on Thursday. De Blasio's last day of work is on Friday and the next mayor of New York, Eric Adams, will be sworn in after the ball drops.
Although Times Square gets a lot of the New Year's Eve attention, Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson will try to steal a bit of that spotlight with their own special from Miami. The show is being produced by Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels and it'll air on NBC and the Peacock app starting at 10:30 p.m.