How to Watch 2023 Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Free Online

Todd Spangler

December 31, 2022 at 4:00 PM·4 min read

New Year’s Eve revelers across the globe can watch the iconic Times Square Ball Drop live from New York City online — for free, without commercials — along with a lineup of musical performances and other festivities ushering in 2023.

The six-hour Times Square 2023 livestream will start at 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 31, 2022, and end at 12:15 a.m. ET on Jan. 1, 2023. The show will be available on multiple websites, including TimesSquareNYC.org, LiveStream.com/2023 and TimesSquareBall.net, powered by Vimeo’s Livestream platform.

The Times Square New Year’s Eve livestream will feature artists including Chelsea Cutler — who will perform several of her hits at around 7 p.m. ET before she continues the New Year’s Eve tradition of singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” just before midnight — as well as JVKE, Jax, Ava Max, J-Hope, Osmani Garcia, New Edition, Sech and Duran Duran.

On traditional TV, Times Square also will be a central locale as part of the slate of programming airing on ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. That will include ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” (set to feature live performances by Duran Duran, Jax, J-Hope and New Edition), CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen” (featuring Ava Max) and Univision’s “¡Feliz 2023!” (featuring Sech and Osmani Garcia).

The evening will kick off at 6 p.m. ET with the lighting and raising of the New Year’s Eve Ball at the top of One Times Square. Returning as the livestream’s host is actor and TV personality Jonathan Bennett (“Mean Girls,” Hallmark’s “The Holiday Sitter,” Food Network’s “Cake Wars”). Bennett will be joined by co-host Jeremy Hassell, who has been a part of the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration since 2016.

The Times Square livestream also will be available in the free VNYE app (vnye.com) from Jamestown, the real-estate company that owns One Times Square. With VNYE, users can virtually explore Times Square sights, play games and livestream New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square and around the world.

The annual event is co-organized by the Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment. This year marks the 118th celebration of New Year’s Eve in Times Square, which began when the owners of One Times Square in 1904 held their first rooftop celebration to ring in the New Year.

The first ball-lowering ceremony in Times Square took place in 1907. This New Year’s Eve, the nearly 6-ton ball — 12 feet in diameter and outfitted with 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles and 32,256 light-emitting diodes — is scheduled to descend from atop the 26-story One Times Square building starting 60 seconds before midnight local time.

Here’s the schedule of events for the 2023 Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration:

6:00-6:03 p.m.: Lighting and raising the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball

6:07-6:19 p.m.: SAFA Chinese cultural performance

6:20-6:27 p.m.: Performance by ANEW

6:30 p.m.: Times Square 2023 hats, balloons, necklaces, gloves and scarves

7:03-7:19 p.m.: Musical performance by Chelsea Cutler

8:03-8:17 p.m.: Musical performance by JVKE

8:23-8:29 p.m.: ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” performance by Jax

8:40-8:43 p.m.: Waterford Crystal toast

9:15-9:29 p.m.: CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” performance by Ava Max

9:34-9:40 p.m.: ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” performance by J-Hope

10:04-10:10 p.m.: Univision’s “¡Feliz 2023!” performance by Osmani García

10:16-10:19 p.m.: Highlights of Good Riddance Day presented by Netspend

10:19-10:22 p.m.: Planet Fitness world premiere

10:23-10:25 p.m.: Carnival “Choose Fun” moment

10:31-10:34 p.m.: Hip Hop Museum announcement

10:45-10:53 p.m.: ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” performance by New Edition

11:02-11:10 p.m.: Univision’s “¡Feliz 2023!” performance by Sech

11:11-11:15 p.m.: Kay’s New Year’s Eve Kiss

11:17-11:19 p.m.: Times Square celebrates with NYC Mayor Eric Adams

11:20-11:25 p.m.: Associated Press presents 2022 year-in-review video highlights

11:39-11:46 p.m.: ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” performance by Duran Duran

11:55-11:58 p.m.: Chelsea Cutler performs John Lennon’s “Imagine”

11:59 p.m.: The 60-Second Countdown

12:00 a.m.: “2023” sign illuminated at the top of One Times Square, alongside confetti release and pyrotechnic effects

12:15 a.m.: End of show

Best of Variety

Associated Press
Protesters' biggest day expected at UN climate talks, where progress is slow
The United Nations climate talks neared the end of their first week on Saturday with negotiators still at work on how much wealthier nations will pay for developing countries to adapt to planetary warming. The demonstration in Baku, Azerbaijan is expected to be echoed at sites around the world in a global “day of action” for climate justice that's become an annual event. Negotiators at COP29, as the talks are known, will return to a hoped-for deal that might be worth hundreds of billions of dollars to poorer nations.
Reuters
IMF, Pakistan wrap up unscheduled talks on $7 billion bailout
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday it held constructive talks with authorities in Pakistan on economic policy and reform efforts to reduce vulnerabilities during an unscheduled staff visit. The unusual visit from Nov 12 to Nov 15 discussed a $7-billion bailout within six weeks of its approval by the IMF board, but came too early for the first review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), due in the first quarter of 2025. "We are encouraged by the authorities' reaffirmed commitment to the economic reforms supported by the 2024 EFF," Nathan Porter, the chief of the IMF's Pakistan mission, who led the talks, said in a statement.
CBS News
Gunfire strikes Southwest plane on tarmac of Dallas airport, officials say
No one was hurt when Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was struck by gunfire while preparing to depart Dallas Love Field for Indianapolis.
Associated Press
The family of Israeli-American hostage pleads with Biden and Trump to bring hostages home
Over the past two weeks, the political landscape around the negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza have undergone a dramatic transformation. The American elections, the firing of Israel’s popular defense minister, Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation, and the ongoing war in Lebanon all seem to have pushed the possibility for a cease-fire in Gaza further away than it has been in more than a year of conflict.
Associated Press
Colombia’s government is eager for post-fossil fuels economy. But costs are a barrier
Colombia's fiery left-wing President Gustavo Petro is one of the biggest opponents of fossil fuels on the world stage today, with speeches that lump oil and coal with cocaine as his country's “three poisons.” Colombia's oil reserves are projected to last only about seven years, and without new discoveries, the country will eventually have to find a way forward without the oil and coal that make up more than half its exports.
AFP
Xi, Biden to meet as Trump return looms
US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will meet for the last time Saturday, a day after both leaders warned of turbulent times ahead for the world as Donald Trump returns to the White House.Xi and Biden, who are meeting for the third time overall, warned separately at the summit on Friday of choppy waters ahead.
Associated Press
In the polar bear capital of the world, a community lives with the predator next door and loves it
Sgt. Ian Van Nest rolls slowly through the streets of Churchill, his truck outfitted with a rifle and a barred back seat to hold anyone he has to arrest. “How are you today?” Van Nest asks. It's the beginning of polar bear season in Churchill, a tiny town on a spit of land jutting into Hudson Bay, and keeping tourists safe from hungry and sometimes fierce bears is an essential job for Van Nest and many others.
Associated Press
Forget downtown or the ’burbs. The far-flung exurbs are where people are moving
Not long ago, Polk County’s biggest draw was citrus instead of people. Located between Tampa and Orlando, Florida’s citrus capital produces more boxes of citrus than any other county in the state and has devoted tens of thousands of acres to growing millions of trees. Bulldozed citrus groves in recent years made way for housing and big box stores that could one day merge the two metropolitan areas into what has half-jokingly been dubbed, “Orlampa.”
Associated Press
Investigation reveals a Russian factory's plan to mix decoys with a new deadly weapon in Ukraine
A high-tech factory in central Russia has created a new, deadly force to attack Ukraine: a small number of highly destructive thermobaric drones surrounded by huge swarms of cheap foam decoys. The plan, which Russia dubbed Operation False Target, is intended to force Ukraine to expend scarce resources to save lives and preserve critical infrastructure, including by using expensive air defense munitions, according to a person familiar with Russia’s production and a Ukrainian electronics expert who hunts them from his specially outfitted van.
Associated Press
Operation False Target: How Russia plotted to mix a deadly new weapon among decoy drones in Ukraine
At a secretive factory in Russia's central grasslands, engineers are manufacturing hundreds of decoy drones meant to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses as they try to protect against a horrific new weapon, an Associated Press investigation has found. The plant at Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone recently started churning out thermobaric drones alongside the decoys, the investigation found. The thermobaric warheads create a vortex of high pressure and heat that can penetrate thick walls.
Associated Press
An Indian family froze to death crossing the Canada-US border, a perilous trip becoming more common
On the last night of their lives, Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two young children tried to slip into the U.S. across a near-empty stretch of the Canadian border. Wind chills reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius) that night in January 2022 as the family from India set out on foot to meet a waiting van. Coordinating things in Canada, federal prosecutors say, was Harshkumar Patel, an experienced smuggler nicknamed “Dirty Harry.”
Associated Press
The November Project gets people outside to exercise and socialize together all winter long
The sun had yet to come up in Edmonton, Alberta, and it was more than 20 degrees below zero. Tanis Smith layered up anyway, ready to run up and down hundreds of stairs among the trees in the Saskatchewan River Valley. It wouldn’t be the last time they risked freezing their toes off to get in a workout before the rest of the world wakes up.
Associated Press
Alaska political leaders hope to see Trump undo restrictions on oil drilling
President-elect Donald Trump promised repeatedly during his campaign to expand oil drilling in the U.S., which is good news for political leaders in Alaska, where oil is the economic lifeblood and many felt the Biden administration has obstructed efforts to boost the state's diminished production. A debate over drilling on federal lands on Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope will likely be revived in the coming months, particularly in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which environmentalists have long sought to protect as one of the country's last wild places.
Associated Press
AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images
A thousand days of war in Ukraine have been captured in stunning images, many of them horrifying, some of them poignant, others uplifting. Since Russia’s all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour on Feb. 24, 2022, Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides. The Russian military has repeatedly used missiles, drones and artillery to blast civilian targets across Ukraine with devastating consequences.
Associated Press
House elections produced a stalemate. Can Republicans figure out how to work with a thin majority?
After one of the most chaotic and least productive sessions in modern history, voters made a surprising choice in elections for the U.S. House -- they overwhelmingly stuck with the status quo. House Republicans will hold onto a thin majority, and while the chamber's exact partisan divide is still to be determined as votes are tallied in a handful of states, the results of 435 House races nationwide have produced hardly any change to the makeup of the chamber. In fact, it's more like a stalemate: Republicans and Democrats have each flipped seven seats, while just eight incumbents nationwide have lost their races.
Associated Press
In final talks, Biden to press China's Xi on North Korea's ties with Russia
President Joe Biden is expected to use his final meeting with China's leader, Xi Jinping, to urge him to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia's war on Ukraine. Saturday's talks on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru come just over two months before Biden leaves office and makes way for Republican President-elect Donald Trump. It will be Biden's last check-in with Xi — someone the Democrat saw as his most consequential peer on the world stage.
Associated Press
More states are ditching exams as high school graduation requirements
When Massachusetts voters decided to ditch the state's standardized tests as a high school graduation requirement on Election Day, they joined a trend that has steadily chipped away at the use of high-stakes tests over the past two decades. The vote on the ballot question leaves only seven states with mandated graduation exams, a number that could soon shrink further. A backlash to standardized tests has been fueled by complaints they take up too much classroom time and questions about how well they measure readiness for college or careers.
AFP
Japan PM expresses concern to Xi over South China Sea situation
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed "serious concerns" over the situation in the South China Sea to Chinese President Xi Jinping in their first in-person talks, Tokyo's foreign ministry said Saturday.Ishiba "conveyed serious concerns over the Chinese military's growing activity" to Xi, the Japanese foreign ministry said.
AFP
Tens of thousands flee as Super Typhoon Man-yi nears Philippines
A powerful storm sweeping towards the Philippines intensified into a super typhoon on Saturday, the state weather forecaster said, warning of "significant to severe impacts" from the wind and "life-threatening" storm surges.Up to 14-metre (46-feet) high seas were expected around Catanduanes, while "significant to severe impacts from typhoon-force winds are possible" in the hardest hit areas, along with a "high risk of life-threatening storm surges" exceeding three metres, the forecaster said.
NBC News
Trump taps Karoline Leavitt for White House press secretary
President-elect Donald Trump announced that he is selecting Karoline Leavitt, his campaign's national press secretary, to serve as White House press secretary.

Latest Stories