- [Jason] Revelers in Times Square
on January 1st, 2020 expressed
the usual optimism about the new year.
- This is our year.
This is the world's year.
- It's gonna be a great year.
- Little did they know that where they were standing
would, in just a few months,
due to the Corona virus pandemic, become a ghost town.
What a difference a year makes.
This December 31st, there'll be no crowds here
in Times Square as in so many other cities around the world
that the pandemic is putting a damper on celebrations.
This year, the glimmering crystal ball will still count
the world down into a new year,
but the hundreds of thousands of people
who normally line up the blocks and brave the elements will
be reduced to a small group of invited guests.
- [Hosts] Three, two, one!
- Happy new Year!
- [Jason] Carson Daly,
who's been in Times Square on New Year's Eve
for NBC since 2004, is adapting.
- I don't think it's going to be like happy new year,
it's two minutes away!
And all the, you know, the background, obviously,
is going to be completely different.
You know, usually if you see me on Times Square,
you know, I'm like, hey, where are you from?
Where are you from? Where are you?
Oh, you drove from here?
You flew from Peru, blah, blah, blah.
It's so exciting here, guys.
- [Jason] The tradition of often-shivering crowds,
assembling shoulder to shoulder in Times Square
to ring in the new year as the ball drops dates back
more than 100 years.
There've been only two years when the ball didn't drop,
1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due
to the wartime dim out of lights in New York City.
But this year, the show will go on,
staged for an at-home audience,
according to the president of the Times Square Alliance,
which helps coordinate the event.
- There will be a live broadcast event in Times Square,
but there will not be a public audience.
It will simply be a broadcast stage for the entire world
to see.
- [Announcer] Ring in a year that has to be better.
- [Jason] Broadcasters will be live
without the raucous crowds below.
- Celebrate with us.
- You sort of have to kind of nail the tone
on a night like this,
because this has been just a horrific year for so many,
because lives have been lost,
not to mention, if it wasn't lives, it was livelihoods.
So, and then there's some people that, you know,
may not have been affected.
So, and everything in between.
So, the tone, I think, is, is to be,
you know, optimistic and hopeful, but reflective.
- [Jason] The NYPD will bar the general public
from congregating anywhere near Times Square.
- The only people that will be there besides
the performers will be about 40 people
who are our invited special guests.
- In years past, the onstage production
featured special guests who joined the mayor in pressing
the Waterford button that triggers the ball drop.
This year, first responders, frontline
and essential workers will be the ones honored,
but they'll remain in socially-distant seating areas
with their families,
rather than pressing the countdown button.
The audience will also include a small group of guests
who've rented, for the night,
this dome on NASDAQ's terrace, overlooking Times Square.
Airbnb, which debuted on NASDAQ earlier in December,
says the guests who signed up
for this marketing gimmick are paying $21.
New York isn't alone in finding ways
to adapt new year celebrations to the pandemic.
Some cities are canceling them altogether.
As Americans start the day on December 31st,
Sydney will kick off the new year
with a scaled down version of its annual fireworks display.
Hong Kong is doing away entirely with its fireworks display
over Victoria Harbor.
Officials say it's due to the pandemic.
The government also canceled it last year,
citing the threat posed by antigovernment protesters.
London, now in lockdown, has canceled all public events,
including its firework show.
And Las Vegas, which earlier launched an ad campaign
to let people know it's open again,
won't hold its annual pyrotechnics display on the strip.
Instead, the city is promoting a virtual event
where it plans to blow up a 2020 sign, live,
at an undisclosed location.
Here in New York City,
where there've been around 20,000 deaths from COVID,
the organizers of the event say they want the tone,
despite the pandemic, to be celebratory and hopeful.
- Staring at the ball, being a part of such a rich,
American, iconic visual of this ball dropping,
I feel like will really make people feel like, okay,
it's official now, it's 2021,
and a sense of relief, and a sense of hope.
- [Jason] And in a nod to the year that was,
two-time Grammy award winner, Gloria Gaynor,
will sing the lyrics.
- Go on now, walk out that door and just turn around now,
you're not welcome anymore,
which I think is the way we all feel about 2020.
- [Jason] The message from public officials worldwide,
you can help make 2021 a year to celebrate
by spending new years at home.
(light music)