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One of my favorite things about New Year’s Eve is watching Anderson Cooper get drunk and overly giggly on CNN. There’s also been some wild Don Lemon moments throughout the years, too. Last year, after the CNN crew had a particularly spirited time ringing in 2022 (Andy Cohen’s “sayonara, sucka” rant towards former Mayor Bill di Blasio, Lemon and Dulcé Sloan’s “No more broke d–k” convo, etc.), the network put the kibosh on the booze. On social media, viewers made it pretty clear that we do not tune into CNN on New Year’s Eve just to watch Anderson and Andy do pickle juice shots. The giggles and innuendos just were not the same. Someone at CNN must have paid attention to the comments because the tequila shots were back this year.

The booze is back on the televised New Year’s Eve celebration featuring Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. After taking a forced alcohol break during televised festivities last year, the hosting duo got right into the drinking early during the broadcast for CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” above New York City’s Times Square.

“It’s the top of the hour and we’ve been here for seven years doing this, and for most of those years at the top of the hour we typically have a toast,” seven-time host Cohen said, adding, “I’m hearing from a lot of people asking, ‘Does Daddy get his juice?'”

They vowed to take a shot at the top of each hour of the CNN broadcast.

In November 2022, then CEO Chris Licht announced that CNN would be cutting back on the New Year’s Eve drinking that has become a staple of Anderson and Cohen’s annual broadcast. Cohen eventually agreed that he and Cooper would drink non-alcoholic beverages like pickle juice on the air during New Year’s Eve 2022.

“So we should talk about the elephant in the room,” Cohen quipped last year in a clip shared on social media of CNN’s broadcast. “We can’t drink, alright! We can’t drink. But it’s fine. It’s totally cool.”

But that dry era has ended. In the second hour of Sunday’s broadcast, Cooper’s face was less dramatic after his tequila shot. “I think it’s getting easier,” said Cohen.

“Why do people do this?” Cooper asked.

[From USA Today]

I know that watching people get drunk is not everyone’s cup of tea. I think for me, part of the fun is that Anderson is known as a straight-laced, serious news reporter the other 364 days of the year. Watching him let loose, show his disgust at the taste of tequila, and giggle at silly things is endearing, especially since I’ve spent the last decade having boring NYE’s at home. While I can’t say the same for some of his co-hosts over the years, he never takes it too far and just strikes a delightful balance of being slightly inebriated to the point where everything seems silly but never does or says something out-of-control.

Some of the things we laughed at from this year’s show were Anderson absolutely losing it and laughing uncontrollably at John Mayer at the cat cafe, Andy reading the viewer shoutouts, and, my personal favorite bit, them talking with the ghost of Jacob Astor IV. I don’t know if it was the late hour or the champagne toast at midnight, but Mr. Rosie and I laughed so hard at that bit. But I think the most relatable part of the entire evening was around 12:15 a.m. ET, when Anderson was clearly ready to leave the party, chug a liquid IV, and go to bed while Andy kept dragging their goodbyes out by bringing up something else.

Andy Cohen: "Does daddy get his juice?"

Anderson Cooper: "Can daddy get his juice responsibly?"#HappyNewYear pic.twitter.com/uVX5M33Vx8

— Gabe Sanchez  (@iamgabesanchez) January 1, 2024

I will never get tired of watching Anderson Cooper take a shot #CNNNYE #NewYearsEve pic.twitter.com/jVgTAAnnLe

— Christine Galea (@chrisgalea) January 1, 2024