New Year's Rockin' Eve 2026 (Dcik Clark Productions, ABC-TV, 2025-2026)

by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2026 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved

After the Joni Mitchell tribute my husband Charles and I watched a bit of the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve show on ABC so we could see the Times Square ball drop heralding the New Year. There were a few major musical guests in the segment we watched, including Diana Ross, Pitbull, Ciara, Demi Lovato, the Goo Goo Dolls, Post Malone, and Chance the Rapper. While the music was inevitably a major comedown after the Joni Mitchell material, the big frustration with the parts we watched was that all too many of the singers did medleys. Ross pieced together her stint from “I’m Coming Out,” “Upside Down,” “The Boss” (no, you’re not; Bruce Springsteen is!), “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (one of her best early records even though the original by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell was even better), and a song that appeared to be called “If We All Change.” Charles thought the sheer amount of makeup she was wearing made her look like Michael Jackson (whom she actually discovered: M.J.’s first album was called Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5). Pitbull’s set was similarly pieced together from various songs, including ones I think were called “Love in the Air” and “Feel Tonight” – or were those parts of the same song? It’s hard to tell from a rap performance when one song ends and the next begins, though at least Pitbull, like Chance the Rapper later in the show (whose song appeared to be called “On and On and On,” which is also a good description of how it goes), worked with actual live musicians on stage and had backup singers adding genuine musical content. I was really looking forward to Ciara’s performance, but it was just another medley of songs that judging from the snatches (a regrettably appropriate word in this context) of lyric I could decipher seemed to be presenting her exclusively as a sex object: “Level Up,” “Bet You Want a Body,” “Put Your Hands Up,” “I’ll Let You Take Me,” “Way to Party,” “With Your Body,” and “What’s Up?” At least Demi Lovato, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Post Malone only did one song each instead of those damnable medleys, though Lovato’s song, “Heart Attack,” was not one of her better ones. (I suspect she co-wrote the song as fallout from her near self-destruction with alcohol and drugs, since the gravamen was that indulging in those substances now would just give her a heart attack.) The Goo Goo Dolls, whose lead singer, John Rzeznik (one of only two original members left), is surprisingly well preserved, did “Iris” (the tag line of which is “I just want you to know who I am”) from 1998. Post Malone did a song called “Working at Chicken Express,” which the band’s leader (and sole member: like St. Vincent, Post Malone is one person rather than a group), Austin Post, actually did in the 2010’s before he was fired. He returned there in 2025 to promote his Post Malone Croc shoes by doing a giveaway, and it was a genuinely charming neo-country song.