Seacrest still the king of New Year’s Eve TV

Ryan Seacrest is still the king of New Year’s Eve television, no matter what Andy Cohen may think.

Seacrest, inheritor of ABC’s 50-year-old “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” from Dick Clark, reached 19.6 million viewers between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. last weekend, the Nielsen company said. During the 15-minute interval where the ball dropped in New York’s Times Square, his audience jumped to 24.2 million people.

It was the show’s biggest audience in four years.

A drunken Cohen, who was co-hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve special from Times Square, attracted attention for referring to “Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers.” He said that people watching ABC had “seen nothing.”

Sobered up two days later, Cohen said on his SiriusXM show said that he really liked Seacrest. “He’s a great guy, and I really regret saying that. I was just stupid and drunk and feeling it,” he said.

Cohen expressed no regret for calling former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “a horrible mayor.” He was scolded by CNN for saying it, however, although the network made a point of saying Cohen was invited back for the next New Year’s Eve celebration.

CNN’s shot-filled celebration with Cohen and Anderson Cooper reached 3.3 million viewers between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., outdoing Fox News Channel’s show, which had 2.1 million people watching.

NBC, which tried a new show with Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson, reached 6.3 million during the same time as Seacrest’s fest, Nielsen said. CBS’ countryoriented show had 5.2 million viewers.