Jonathan Bennett to Host the Times Square New Year's Eve Celebration

The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, co-organizers of New Year's Eve in Times Square, today announced select performance and host details for the upcoming 2020 New Year's Eve celebration, including that popular rock band X Ambassadors will headline the live commercial-free webcast and TV pool feed.

Actor and beloved TV personality Jonathan Bennett, star of "Mean Girls" and host of the Food Network's top-rated "Halloween Wars" and "Holiday Wars," will return to the celebration as Times Square New Year's Eve Host. Bennett previously served as the webcast host in 2016.

The 11th annual webcast will cover the action and festivities in Times Square, beginning with the Ball Raising at 6 p.m. EST, plus live musical performances, hourly countdowns, behind-the-scenes stories, and star-studded interviews as anticipation builds towards the midnight countdown and the famous Ball Drop.

Multi-platinum selling rock band X Ambassadors will continue the New Year's Eve tradition of singing John Lennon's "Imagine" moments before midnight as well as performing several of their global chart-topping songs earlier in the night, including, "Renegades" and "Unsteady."

As the event host, Jonathan Bennett, along with street correspondents Andrea Boehlke and Jeremy Hassell, will kick-off the six-hour celebration at 6 p.m. EST when the star of the show, the Times Square Ball, is introduced.

The USO Show Troupe will perform their popular A Military Salute to honor our Armed Forces. Now in its 78th year, the USO Show Troupe performs for approximately 600,000 service members and their families worldwide in more than 350 live annual performances. Members of the troupe include Broadway, Off Broadway and top of the line entertainers, with musical arrangements produced in collaboration with Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winning writers and arrangers.

Presenting sponsor Planet Fitness will showcase The Marching Cobras Sapphire Danceline and Flag Unit for a performance that will feature student participants from all five New York City boroughs.

Univision will present three star musical performances to be announced later this month.

At the top of each hour, Bennett will be joined by a special guest who will talk about his or her New Year's Eve experience and Confetti Wish for the New Year and then lead the revelers in an hourly countdown.Throughout the night, Bennett will keep the revelers informed about the musical performances and other exciting entertainment in Times Square. Boehlke and Hassell will provide exclusive interviews and backstage access as well as fun personal stories from the revelers arriving from around the world to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square.

The live webcast video experience is available to embed for digital media outlets, bloggers, social media editors, webmasters, and Facebook users as a source of fun and entertaining content on their own sites customized for their respective communities and networks.

Last year's webcast was watched by more than 1.8 million unique viewers representing more than 200 countries and territories.

To post a comment, you must register and login.