- Twenty-five seconds to Carson - New Year's
- and Christina. - freakin' Eve
(chuckles)
- Happy New Year.
- 2000.
- Twenty seconds.
- Yes.
Tracks coming to eighth. - Seven,
- It's gonna be eighth first. - Six, five,
four, three, two, one. - And comin' up.
Hands up!
- [Interviewer] What's more helpful to you,
the actual walk-through rehearsal or table reading, or neither?
- They're both helpful.
I'm the one who's on the air that night, kinda like,
(clears throat)
the captain of the ship, if you will.
Like guiding it the night,
you know, taking the, "Let's go outside to John now."
John does his business,
he's got a big responsibility out there.
And then it's back to me. "Let's go, you know,
"And now I'm just hanging out some celebrities."
So for me mentally,
this being my third New Year's Eve live show on MTV,
it's important to have that stuff down
and to read through it. And to also rehearse it.
Welcome to 2 Large, MTV's live New Year's Eve party,
right here, live in Times Square. I'm Carson Daly,
alongside Christina Aguilera.
Behind us in Times Square,
as we watched the multitudes celebrate the arrival of Y2K,
which we saw moments ago in Great Britain,
with Irish drums and Scottish bagpipes.
- I am standing here with
one of our very special party guests, Enrique Iglesias,
who the Latin version of 'People' Magazine
called 'el hombre más sexy del mundo.’
- Chris and I are in here in the big party room
talking to all of our very important guests,
like Kathy Griffin here.
And we're gonna be asking everybody about
the thousand years now receding into history
and the thousand years coming up.
And what about this Y2K thing too?
- Amazingly enough, we're actually interested in what
you think about what's happened in 1999.
So put down that cup of wassail and pick up
that computer mouse. Log on to mtv.com
and tell us in our 2 Large poll,
what you thought the best and the least of 1999 was.
- [Interviewer] Those table reads I was at,
the one today and the one yesterday,
- Yeah - I mean,
for like kids out there, that have never,
don't know anything about TV production
or know about what goes on here behind the scenes,
it was just fascinating to see that.
- Yeah.
- To see you guys-- - The table read,
what you guys at home don't know,
is that we really never used to do that.
Last year, we decided, with so much going on
so many different talents, everybody doing everything
and changes, you know, upgrades and stuff,
we did a sort of an impromptu version
of what is now a table read out in the hallway.
We just grabbed everybody, almost like they do
in a TV show or a movie where everybody reads their lines.
We adopted that philosophy, and this year,
what you saw was a very organized version of that.
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the year 2000.
- When the time comes to do the actual show,
it's all an improvisation.
You just make it up.
They just tear scripts up and throw them away.
(people laugh)
- [Interviewer] So you're not at all,
you're not at all nervous about,
you know, potential Y2K disasters
especially when you're in the middle, in the midst of it?
- No, I was worried about it, like, two weeks ago.
I was lying in bed going, "I wonder if something really
undefined
Then it just,
as the week got closer, I just don't care.
And I really don't think anything's gonna happen.
I think this is the safest place to be.
- [Dave] We're gonna have, you know, 300 guests in here.
It's going to make everything that we all do
even more crowded and more hectic.
- Tomorrow when you try to get to work,
if you get stopped anywhere
and you have this pass with an ID,
you should have no problems at all.
- I see this, this page about entering
at Eighth Avenue and 45th [Street].
Is that the only recommended way, is from the west side?
- We don't know what NYPD is gonna do tomorrow night.
So there, uh - talent's arriving anywhere
from two to three blocks away.
It might be walking.
If NYPD shuts down blocks, two, three blocks out,
they're walking down with security guards, NYPD.
Then when they get to the designated door
they're supposed to come in,
NYPD might say, no, you can't use that door,
in which case, we go to Plan B, which is Minskoff Alley.
- [Interviewer] How do you think they're gonna be able
to get all the musical guests around?
I mean, there's just as many guests here as the VMAs,
and it's, like, not even a tenth of the space.
You have any idea how they're gonna manage
to coordinate that?
- [Carson] Everybody that I've even seen,
you know, Tony Kanal from No Doubt was just saying, you know,
how are there gonna be, you know,
eight performances or whatever in here?
Everybody's just like, how, how is this possible?
How is this gonna work?
It's gonna be interesting to see how it works. (chuckles)
- [Interviewer] Hey, real quick, so -
Who was the genesis, or
what was the decision-making process that led you guys
to play "It's the End of the World As We Know It"
on New Year's Eve 2000?
- Oh, are we actually having an interview now?
- [Interviewer] Yeah
- Is the camera on?
- [Interviewer] It's on, it's on.
- No red light, huh? This is a good story.
Want me to tell the truth, or should we make up something?
- I would make it really better than the truth.
- Better than the truth?
- Yeah, truth sometimes is not as fun.
- [Tom] The reason we decided to do
"It's The End of the World As We Know It" is because,
we actually put a bunch of songs into a hat.
We wanted to do a special song that really reflected,
I think, how everyone felt at the end of this decade,
century, I mean the century, we don't know,
we weren't alive for the whole century.
- [Interviewer] What do you expect
is gonna happen tomorrow night?
I mean, in general, what do, can you just like,
anything you can say, like to predict what
it's gonna be like in this building, all these people?
- I think it's gonna be a lot of fun.
It's gonna be a lot of energy.
And I think it's just like a clean,
fresh start for everybody, so I think that's a good thing.
- [Interviewer] Checkin' on y'all like, yo,
what's up with the radio broadcast?
How is it going?
- We're just setting up right now, testing some lines.
- [Interviewer] And where exactly is it gonna
be heard tonight?
- All over the country.
- Ultimately, if we just show people a great time,
the fun, excitement, and historic occasion that it is,
we'll be great.
(pressure gun hisses)
(indistinct chatter)
(Upbeat song mix)
- We're basically here to grab all of our performing talent
and bring them inside the building securely.
- OK, Sisqó then Goo Goo Dolls, copy.
- Security is bananas,
I've got, like, four extra men on me already.
(indistinct chatter)
- [Interviewer] You looking forward
to tonight obviously?
What can you tell me? - Yeah, it's fun.
Tonight? Where?
(Interviewer laughs)
- Jay-Z! It's Jay-Z!
(indistinct chatter)
- [Interviewer] MTV News, how's it going, man?
- MTV News, y'all.
- [Interviewer] You excited for tonight, man?
- Oh, I'm hella excited.
I got my Fig Newtons.
(Upbeat music in background)
- There's about a thousand people waiting in line
to get through the metal detector
and there's a thousand guards - - I had a stool sample
- [Christina] Last year, we were with our boyfriends.
our ex-boyfriends, yeah.
- Got plastered.
(both laugh)
She didn't just say that.
- I always bitched about being outside,
but actually there's something very cool about it.
And I think that this year in particular,
there's few better places to be than Times Square.
(indistinct chatter)
- Great having you.
- What's up baby, all right.
- About 90 seconds away.
- Happy New Year to everybody.
It's been a terrific show all around.
Let's bring it home strong.
- Remember, it's going to go off my cue.
I'll count everybody in.
- All right, guys. Hey let's (bleep) off of this, Gwen.
- [Gwen] OK
OK
(Screams)
- (Crowd screams) Five, four, three, two, one...
Happy New Year!
- [Gwen] Happy New Year! (crowd screams)
- Congratulations to everybody.
- I am working 'til about 12:20 is my final thing.
And then it's all-out war. Party war.
(crowd screaming)
- I'm gonna do a little dance-party action
for those people out there.
- Goodnight
- [Host] Goodnight everybody. God bless you.
Have a good year from all of us at MTV.
- It's all ready?
Is it all ready? - EPB track. Elvis, Steve, Elvis
- No, I killed the camera bumper, I killed the bumper.
(crew claps)
- That's it people, that's it. - Yeah!
(crew claps)
- Great job, Kurt.
- It came out great. Who knew?
- Like, drunk people are coming on the platform, dancing,
and it's like, that doesn't matter.
Nobody really cares at this point.
We're having a great time.
It's just like, whatever.
- I had a great time.
Every band went on, on time.
That's my job. I love that.
- [Interviewer] I suppose I should get off stage.
- Ah, we have a few minutes.
(indistinct chatter)
- [Interviewer] Yo, I'm wrapping this up in a second, man.
I'm so sick of shooting this crap.
- I'm so fried right now. I don't even know, like -
I can't even gather my thoughts.
It was such a
momentous occasion.
- Happy New Year! - It was unreal.
Thank you. Happy New Year to you too, bro.
Thanks for everything.
Rock on!
(gentle music)
- [Woman's voice] Thanks, Greg. Happy New Year.
- All right, I'll be upstairs. - OK, cool.