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TIMES SQUARE BALL

The New York City’s Times Square ball rests atop One Times Square. It is a significant component of the ball drop, a New Year’s Eve event in Times Square. It starts its descent down a specially designed flagpole at 11:59 p.m. ET and stops at midnight to mark the beginning of the new year. Musicians and other live performers have begun to play before the ball drop in recent years. The event attracts more than one million attendees from around the globe.

Adolph Ochs, proprietor of the New York Times, had the ball planned originally; it was to follow a series of New Year’s Eve fireworks shows that he had hosted at the building to advertise it as the new home of the Times. Artkraft Strauss was responsible for the ball’s design. With the exception of 1942 and 1943 due to wartime blackouts, the ball drop has been held every year since its inception on December 31, 1907, to welcome 1908.

The initial design of the ball was five feet (1.5 meters) in diameter, made of wood and iron, and lit with one hundred incandescent light bulbs; it has since undergone four redesigns to accommodate technological advancements in lighting. What we have here is a ball that employs more than 32,000 LED lights and has a diameter of 12 feet (3.7 m). The ball’s exterior has been made of triangular panels made by Waterford Crystal since 1999–2000. These panels have inscriptions that symbolize the topic of the year.

Jeff Strauss’s firm, Countdown Entertainment, and the Times Square Alliance are coordinating the event. Displayed atop One Times Square practically year-round since 2009, the present ball has its smaller 2008 predecessor on exhibit within the Times Square visitor’s center. As a result of the success of the Times Square ball drop, various national New Year’s Eve celebrations have begun to incorporate “drops” of their own, with some using balls and others dropping artifacts symbolic of local heritage or culture.

Dick Clark's New Year's Eve

On December 31, ABC airs a show called Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (NYRE), which has been renamed to Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest since 2008. The spectacular airs mostly from Times Square in New York City and incorporates live and pre-recorded musical performances by famous performers from both Times Square and Hollywood, as well as footage of the square’s traditional ball drop event, presented by Ryan Seacrest, a television celebrity. In addition to New Orleans (Central Time, 2017–2024) and San Juan (Atlantic Time, 2021–2022), the program has routinely featured music and footage of midnight celebrations from additional U.S. destinations from 2016–17.

Dick Clark, a performer, came up with the idea for New Year’s Rockin’ Eve to be a younger alternative to CBS’s legendary New Year’s Eve spectacular hosted by Guy Lombardo. When the show originally aired on December 31, 1972, it was presented by Three Dog Night on NBC and George Carlin on the network; Clark oversaw the Times Square coverage for the first two installments. After relocating to ABC in 1974–1975, Clark became the show’s host. From 2000–01 through 2011–12, the program has taken up both primetime and late-night slots on New Year’s Eve on ABC, with portions airing during primetime and the main late-night show. It originally aired at 10 p.m. ET.

After Guy Lombardo passed away and CBS’s specials began to fall in ratings, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve took over as the most watched New Year’s Eve program in the United States. With a peak of 22.6 million home viewers in 2012 (not including viewers in public locations, which were not yet measured by Nielsen), New Year’s Rockin’ Eve has maintained its status as the top-rated New Year’s Eve special broadcast by the United States’ major television networks.

For the years 1973–1999 and 2001–2004, Dick Clark presided over New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Joining overall presenter Peter Jennings for coverage from Times Square, Clark was a member of ABC News’ day-long ABC 2000 Today show in 2000. After Clark had a stroke in December 2004, Regis Philbin took over as host. Clark handed up hosting duties to Ryan Seacrest the year after his stroke because of residual speech problems; nonetheless, he made occasional appearances as a co-host right up until his death in 2012. Beginning with the 2012–13 season as a solo host, Seacrest welcomed Rita Ora as a co-host and Times Square correspondent, and Jeannie Mai as host of the concert parts from Los Angeles for the 2023–24 season.

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