NEW YORK — Comedians Joel McHale and Ken Jeong will neither be toasting nor roasting in Times Square to ring in the New Year.
Fox’s New Year’s Eve special “Toast & Roast 2022,” which was planned as a live broadcast by the ball drop, has been canceled as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
“While we are confident in the health and safety protocols for ‘Fox’s New Year’s Eve Toast & Roast 2022,’ the recent velocity of the spread of omicron cases has made it impossible to produce a live special in Times Square that meets our standards,” the network said in a statement late Tuesday.
“The health and safety of our casts and crews has always been, and will continue to be, of the utmost importance.”
Fox has not yet announced how — or if — the end-of-year festivities will proceed.
Last year, McHale and Jeong hosted from a Los Angeles studio while the pandemic was in full gear.
The 2022 “Toast & Roast” was also scheduled to include performances from Billy Idol, Imagine Dragons, Pink, Maroon 5 and Trace Adkins.
Fox is now the first major network to cancel its New Year’s Eve special, with NBC moving forward with Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson in Miami and Ryan Seacrest returning to ABC to host “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” with setups in New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Puerto Rico.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the city’s Times Square festivities will still go on, but hinted at a smaller version of the typical blowout.
“We’re looking to add additional measures to make it even safer,” he said on CNN. “We’re still in discussion. The goal, of course, is to keep it going because it is such an important event for New Yorkers and for the whole world, but if we’re able to figure out the right formula, to keep people safe, that’s what we’re working on right now.”
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