New Year’s Eve TV includes broadcast from Sundance Square

December 30,2014

Ryan Seacrest will tell you there’s only one TV destination that matters on New Year’s Eve, but don’t believe it.

The night no longer belongs only to New York City, the Times Square ball drop and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.

“Everybody has grown up watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve — it’s a staple,” says Seacrest, Clark’s successor as host. “You turn it on for the whole night, you watch the ball drop and you celebrate into the early hours of the morning. That’s just what you grew up knowing how to do.”

For a generation of viewers, that’s true. But today, when it comes to ushering in the new year, there’s an abundance of viewing choices Wednesday night.

This includes not one, but two programs originating from North Texas.

From Victory Park in Dallas, WFAA/Channel 8 will present two hours of live coverage of Big D NYE 2015. Meanwhile, from Sundance Square in Fort Worth, KTVT/Channel 11 counters with New Year’s Eve on the Couch, a live half-hour broadcast.

We break down the highlights:

▪ Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest (7-10 p.m. and 12:30-3:15 a.m. on WFAA/Channel 8). Clark, who died in 2012, turned this into a national tradition in 1972. ABC’s New York-centric event has since spread to Los Angeles. Seacrest is joined again by Jenny McCarthy, who plays correspondent from Times Square, and Fergie, who hosts the Billboard Hollywood Party on the West Coast.

Taylor Swift headlines the lineup of more than three dozen live musical acts, which include One Direction, Charli XCX, Florida Georgia Line, Pentatonix, Iggy Azalea, Idina Menzel, Lady Antebellum, 5 Seconds of Summer and Meghan Trainor.

“The idea of this show is to capture and celebrate everything that was popular this year in music,” Seacrest says. “When we look back at what happened this year, we’ve got them all, everybody who’s at the top of the charts. And Taylor Swift will be at the center of everything in Times Square.”

▪ Big D NYE (10:30 p.m. on WFAA/Channel 8): Coverage of the eighth annual Dallas celebration is hosted by sports anchor Dale Hansen and meteorologist Pete Delkus. The Polyphonic Spree headlines a lineup of musical performances that includes Level Ground, the Orbans, the Suffers and DJ Ro Parrish.

WFAA’s Dallas coverage is fast becoming a tradition beyond just North Texas. The program is now syndicated to nearly 30 stations in 11 states — as far east as Pensacola, Fla., as far north as Austin, Minn., as far west as Las Cruces, N.M.

“We’re an ABC affiliate and we’ve run Dick Clark’s programming for years and years,” Big D NYE executive producer Dave Muscari says. “But I think he would applaud what we’re doing to turn this into an event that’s bigger than just the Dallas-Fort Worth market.”

▪ New Year’s Eve on the Couch (11:37 p.m. on KTVT/Channel 11): In its second year of coverage, the CBS affiliate moves its big red couch from the studio to Sundance Square Plaza in downtown Fort Worth, so weekend anchor Gilma Avalos and meteorologist Lisa Villegas can be in the thick of the action.

The broadcast will include musical performances by Luke Wade and Dawn & Hawkes, Texas-based artists who gained national followings on The Voice. The broadcast will include highlights from Dallas and Collin counties.

“Nobody’s ever done anything like this in Fort Worth before,” executive producer Tanya Hayes says. “They didn’t do much to advertise it last year and they had a huge crowd. So we decided to kick it up a notch and show everyone that you don’t have to be in Dallas for New Year’s to have fun.”

▪ Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution (7-9 p.m. and 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m. on KDFW/Channel 4): Mr. Worldwide himself, Pittbull, brings Fox’s live broadcast to his home city of Miami. He’ll perform his hits and will be joined by Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, Fifth Harmony, the Band Perry and Becky G.

▪ New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly (9-10 p.m. and 10:30-11:30 p.m. on KXAS/Channel 5): NBC’s New York-based broadcast includes musical guests Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Seth MacFarlane, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams.

▪ MTV’s New Year’s Eve (10 p.m. on MTV): Victoria Justice, star of the upcoming MTV drama Eye Candy, and radio/TV personality Charlamagne co-host the one-hour special from New York, which features comedians dishing about the moments, trends and scandals that made 2014 unforgettable.

▪ Live From Lincoln Center (7 p.m. on KERA/Channel 13): The two-hour PBS broadcast features jazz singer Dianne Reeve and Broadway star Norm Lewis performing classic George Gershwin songs, backed by the New York Philharmonic.

Channel hopping: The following programming stunts have nothing to do with New Year’s Eve: FXX’s 29-hour The Simpsons marathon begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday with The Simpsons Movie, then follows with the season premiere and finale from all 25 seasons of the long-running cartoon. … Syfy’s 20th-annual Twilight Zone marathon begins at 7 a.m. Wednesday and lasts for two days. … AMC’s The Walking Dead endurance test, which began Tuesday, won’t wind down until the wee hours Saturday morning. … El Rey begins a 12-hour Miami Vice marathon at 11 p.m. Wednesday.

By BY DAVID MARTINDALESPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM