Universal City, CA (Top40 Charts/ Def Jam Records) - 'NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly' will once again feature the biggest names in music with this year's performers Ludacris,
50 Cent and
Katy Perry bringing their unique sound to New York City as Carson Daly rings in the New Year on Wednesday, December 31. The show promises to give viewers the experience of being in the middle of the world's most famous New Year's Eve destination, Times Square, and for the first time will be broadcast beginning in primetime from 10-11 p.m. (ET) and continuing in late night from 11:35 p.m. - 12:35 a.m. in high definition. The announcement was made today by Rick Ludwin, Executive Vice President, Late Night & Primetime Series.
"NBC's Carson Daly New Year's Eve tradition has increased its rating each year it's been on the air,' said Ludwin. 'Viewers clearly like what Carson is doing. The additional hour in prime time makes our audience even more a part of this New Year's Eve party."
Perry, whose smash hit "I Kissed A Girl" was the No 1 single in 20 countries including the US where it dominated the Billboard charts at No 1 for seven weeks, and whose follow up single "Hot N Cold" is Top 5 in both sales and airplay as well as the No 2 most viewed video premiere of all time on MySpace, will perform songs from her RIAA gold certified album One Of The Boys. 50 Cent, who has sold more than 22 million albums and has received numerous awards and 11 Grammy nominations throughout his career, will perform songs from his upcoming fourth studio release, Before I Self Destruct. Ludacris is a multi-platinum Grammy Award winning rap artist and actor. He will be performing his single 'One More Drink' featuring T-Pain from his long-awaited release Theater of the Mind, which comes out Nov. 25th. Theater of the Mind follows up Grammy-winning RIAA platinum Release Therapy No 1 debut of 2006, with No 1 singles 'Runaway Love' featuring Mary J. Blige, and RIAA platinum 'Money Maker' featuring Pharrell Williams.
In addition to the musical lineup, Carson will have help bringing the celebration to the home audience with Saturday "Today" co-anchor Amy Robach giving live reports from Times Square. Along with Robach, NBC News correspondent Luke Russert will join the broadcast this year.
'The network gave us a huge vote of confidence by asking us to expand into primetime,' said Daly. 'We've got great music with 50 Cent, Katy Perry, Ludacris. It's gonna be a huge show, bigger than the Beijing Olympics and if it's not, I apologize.'
In 2007, 8 million viewers tuned in to watch "NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly." It was the highest rated NBC New Year's Eve special in six years, continuing the yearly upward trend for the special.
"NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly" is executive-produced by Daly ('Last Call with Carson Daly') and David Friedman ('Last Call with Carson Daly', 'Last Comic Standing', 'Rosie Live') through Universal Media Studios. Guy Oseary ('Last Call with Carson Daly') also serves as co-executive producer.
