CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen Sees Second Highest Performance at Midnight in the Show’s History

+35% AUDIENCE INCREASE FROM NYE 2025 ON TELEVISION

CNN’S LARGEST LIVE STREAMING DAY SINCE STREAMING LAUNCH

#1 IN ALL OF CABLE DURING KEY TIME PERIOD

NEW YORK, NY – (January 5, 2026) – CNN’s annual New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen brought increased audiences to New York City’s Times Square celebration this year, delivering 4.487 million people in the P2+ demo (up +21% from NYE 2025) and 1.839 million among P25-54 (+35%), its second best performance in the 12 am – 12:30 am time period since CNN began airing the annual special in 2007, behind only historic 2020 audience levels.

CNN ranked #1 in all of cable in the key 11pm-12:30am time period, with 4.245 million among P2+ and 1.775 million among P25-54. CNN also ranked #3 in all of television, behind only ABC and CBS networks, among both demos. Among younger audiences ages 18-34, CNN ranked #2 in all of television.

During the full event (8pm-12:30am), CNN averaged 2.767 million among P2+ and 1.102 million among P25-54, also its second best performance since Andy Cohen joined as co-host in 2017.

CNN’s New Year’s Eve telecast during the same 8p-12:30p time period also saw double digit growth compared to last year across all demos, up +47% among P2+, +70% among P25-54, and +93% among P18-34. This marked more year-over-year growth than the entertainment network broadcast specials.

Additionally, the special New Year’s Eve event programming marked the highest day for streaming audiences since the launch of CNN’s streaming subscription offering in October 2025. The live streaming audience on December 31 reached nearly 450k unique visitors, 30% more than last year’s event. The digital live viewership behavior closely mirrored that of TV, with audiences climbing through the evening and tuning in in large numbers for the midnight ball drop. CNN’s New Year’s Eve programming also generated the single highest number of new subscriptions to CNN since the debut of a subscription offering and was the best day for live video starts across all digital platforms since launch.

Following coverage across CNN and CNN International throughout the day and across global time zones with nearly two dozen CNN anchors and correspondents with live reports and performances around the world, CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen featured music, comedy and surprise guests throughout the special.

TV Source: The Nielsen Company. 2025 based on Big Data + Panel, prior years based on Panel Only data. Average Audience (000s). Based on Live + Same Day, including Out of Home.

Digital Source: Adobe Analytics, Mux, 12/31/2025 – 1/1/2026. Note: The CNNgo TVE stream ran authenticated.