Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Is Shaking Things Up Its 2026 Countdown In The Way I Always Wanted Growing Up

As wild as it may be to believe, the end of 2025 is imminent. The 2025 TV schedule is winding down, and as people like to fill their time in December watching the best Christmas movies, there's one TV event that dominates the last day of the year -- Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. The long-running program will return to ABC on December 31st at 8:00 p.m. ET, and it's adding something brand new.

Ryan Seacrest, who has hosted the program for over twenty years now, will return for another celebration in New York's Times Square. Now, viewers can expect another group to join the fold, and I'm shocked it took the program this long to host a Midwestern New Year's celebration.

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve Is Adding Chicago To Its 2026 Countdown Celebration

For the first time in over fifty years, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve will add a Central Time Zone countdown celebration. While competitors like CBS have hosted a countdown from Nashville, Tennessee, the ABC program will have a team in Chicago, Illinois. Details on who will host the Chicago countdown are still forthcoming, but viewers and attendees can expect live performances, celebrity appearances and a designated host for the festivities.

If Chicago is hoping to tap homegrown stars for the program, singer Jennifer Hudson would be a great choice. Given all the major milestones in her career, I think she'd make a great host of the event or the perfect live performer to sing "Auld Lang Syne." I'd almost rather see her host, however, so they could do a "spirit tunnel" for every special guest like she does on her show.

Midwesterners Will Get To Watch The Ball Drop In Their Time Zone On ABC

While there have been options to watch a ball drop in the Midwest for a while, I feel that Chicago teaming up with Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve adds more validity to the experience. Growing up in the Midwest, obviously, children aren't able to celebrate New Year's in the same way that adults are. Staying home and watching TV to see the clock strike midnight is the biggest thrill, and what I love is that now a lot of kids living in the Central Time Zone will get to experience that, thanks to one of the biggest networks.

As an adult, I'm almost tempted to make the trip from where I live to Chicago to be part of the televised celebration, and it's cool to have the option. Personally, I've heard from many people that the Times Square experience on New Years Eve is not great (and I can't understand why that's their perspective). Also, it can get pretty cold in the Windy City, so unless I'm rocking heated coats like the broadcasters, I may celebrate from home.

I'm curious as to whether another major network, like CNN, will try to have a Chicago presence as well in an attempt to compete with ABC. Really, though, I'm just hoping to see the feud between Ryan Seacrest and Andy Cohen reignite after all the excitement that one year where he called him out. Let's bring back old-school rivalries between hosts. I feel like this generation is missing out on that with the late-night television scene dwindling in some respects.

Tune in to see the ball drop on ABC via Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31st beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'll be waiting for more details on who will be hosting the Chicago celebration in the meantime, and I hope it ends up being worth getting excited about.