Humiliating: CNN's New Years Eve Show Descends Into Debauchery Yet Again

CNN’s steady descent into irrelevance took another embarrassing turn as the network rang in the New Year by once again turning its live broadcast into a spectacle of intoxication, incoherence, and cultural rot.

As if its long-running credibility crisis were not already severe enough, CNN has now normalized making drunkenness a feature — not a bug — of its New Year’s Eve coverage. Hosts Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen appeared visibly impaired as they welcomed in 2026, delivering slurred commentary, political jabs, and outright vulgarity that would be unacceptable for any outlet still pretending to be a serious news organization.

That CNN executives continue to greenlight this behavior is baffling, though perhaps revealing.

One particularly awkward moment saw Cohen launching into a rant about outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams. According to AOL, this occurred shortly after midnight, with Cohen declaring, “He got his pardons… I’m just saying, great. You got your pardon,” as Cooper repeatedly tried to interrupt and shut him down.

While President Donald Trump did not issue a pardon to Adams, AOL notes the remark appeared to reference the Department of Justice’s decision to direct the Southern District of New York to drop federal charges against the mayor.

“We’ll settle with what we have,” Cohen added.

Throughout the exchange, Cooper awkwardly talked over his co-host, seemingly aware that the segment was spiraling out of control. Whatever political commentary Cohen intended to offer while intoxicated, it aligned seamlessly with CNN’s usual editorial posture — smug, partisan, and unserious.

Another viral clip circulating on X featured Cooper and Cohen interviewing soon-to-be former late-night host Stephen Colbert. There, Cohen lavished Colbert with praise that sounded indistinguishable from CNN’s routine ideological cheerleading.

“You’re a martyr of free speech and everything right in the world and we love you very much,” Cohen told him.

Drunk or sober, that sentiment hardly differs from what CNN routinely feeds viewers during its so-called news programming.

Other moments crossed from cringe into outright repulsive. One clip showed Cooper reading a sexually explicit song by Taylor Swift on air, while Cohen enthusiastically discussed a television show centered on two gay hockey players titled “Heated Rivalry.”

A painful 20-minute compilation of the broadcast can be found here, containing even more moments likely to leave viewers wondering how a once-prominent news network sank this low. Click at your own risk.

As 2026 begins, the question is unavoidable: what exactly is CNN trying to be?

If the network hopes to rehabilitate its image after nearly a decade of operating as a de facto propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, this latest display does the opposite. Pairing partisan activism with drunken debauchery is not a strategy for restoring trust.

CNN fails on both fronts — it cannot be taken seriously for its political coverage, and it does not take itself seriously as a news organization.

In 2026, CNN has fully cemented its new role: not as a trusted source of information, but as a punchline.