New Year’s Eve 2011

New Year’s Eve 2010

New Year’s Eve 2008

Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin are back for their sixth time co-hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage from Times Square.

“As always, I await New Year’s Eve with Kathy Griffin with grave reservations and tremendous fear, and I want to apologize in advance to anyone she may offend/assault/attempt to kiss,” said Cooper.

The last two years — NYE 2011 (although Griffin did take off her top at one point) and NYE 2010 — were relatively tame compared with some of the headline-making stunts of the previous years; like when Griffin dropped the “F” bomb on New Year’s Eve 2009 and the year before when she called out an onlooker who had been heckling her.

CNN’s live coverage begins at 10pmET from Times Square. Cooper and Griffin will be joined by correspondent Isha Sesay in Times Square, John Zarrella in Key West and Gary Tuchman in Eastport, Maine.

At 12:30amET CNN’s Brooke Baldwin at Jackson Square in New Orleans and HLN’s Susan Hendricks at the Hard Rock Cafe in Nashville will count down to midnight, Central time.

And once again, Tom Foreman will host a year-end special “All the Best, All the Worst 2012,” at 8pmET.

(Photos: Chris Ariens)

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Mitt Romney took questions from reporters in California last night, hours after a secretly-taped video of him speaking at a fundraiser in May hit the news cycle. At the event at a private home in Boca Raton, FL, Romney called supporters of Pres. Obama  “victims … dependent on government … who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, you name it.”

In a news conference following a fundraiser in Los Angeles Romney said his remarks were “inelegantly stated” and were edited in such a way that left out the question from the donor.

The cable news networks broadcast the taped Romney newser in the 10pm hour, during Greta Van Susteren‘s Fox News show, Lawrence O’Donnell‘s MSNBC show and on CNN with news anchor Isha Sesay updating the 10pm edition of AC360.

> Update: Politico reports Mother Jones, which aired the edited version, will release the full video later today.

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• Shannon Bream is filling in for Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” this week. It will be the second time hosting the program for Bream, who was the first female to ever fill in for Wallace.
• “Anderson Cooper 360″ will host its inaugural Google+ hangout tonight at 6:45pmET. Viewers will able to chat with Cooper, Randi Kaye, CNN International anchor Isha Sesay and “AC360″ producer Jack Gray.
• “The Gavin Newsom Show, ” Current TV’s weekly show hosted by the California Lieutenant Governor, will premiere next Friday night at 10pmET.

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The half-hour “Amanpour” will air weekdays at 3pmET and replay at 5pm and will be seen in more than 200 countries on CNNI. The show will be the centerpiece of a new CNN International lineup, says Tony Maddox, EVP and managing director of CNNI.

As part of a deal announced in December, Amanpour continues her reporting for ABC News. “Christiane has proven herself time and time again to be the leading international journalist in television news and with Liza’s commitment to producing compelling television, ‘Amanpour’ will showcase the very best CNN has to offer,” says Maddox in a statement.

“Amanpour” joins existing CNNI programs, and a new newscast anchored by Isha Sesay.  European primetime will look like this (all times ET):

• 1 pm International Desk

• 2 pm Quest Means Business

• 3 pm Amanpour

• 3:30 p.m. Isha Sesay

• 4 pm Connect the World with Becky Anderson

• 5 pm Amanpour (encore)

• 5:30 World Sport

• 6 pm Piers Morgan Tonight

Like Amanpour, McGuirk is a CNN original, joining the network in 1980. In 1989 McGuirk moved to CBS News where she spent eight years. She returned to CNN and launched “Fareed Zakaria: GPS” and “Parker-Spitzer.” McGuirk is married to Kevin Magee who is the EVP of Fox Business Network.

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Kathy Griffin & Anderson Cooper, New Years 2009

Griffin and Cooper, New Years 2011

Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin will again co-host CNN’s New Year’s Eve celebration from 11pmET to 12:30amET. “Get ready, America. Pull up a chair and a box of your finest wine, because you’ve never seen a New Year’s Eve show like this,” said Griffin. “Kathy Griffin scares me. I’ve said this often to CNN management directly and through my attorneys,” joked Cooper.

Last year was pretty tame compared to the year before when Griffin dropped the “F” bomb and the year before that when she heckled an onlooker. Top those, Griffin.

Isha Sesay will join Cooper and Griffin from the crowds in Times Square and Gary Tuchman will report live from Central Park for the annual Midnight Run. Correspondent John Zarrella will be live in Key West, Florida and Brooke Baldwin from Nashville, Tennessee. The show will simulcast on CNN International.

Leading up to the 11pm special, CNN presents the “Best and Worst of 2011,” an Anderson Cooper 360° special anchored by Tom Foreman.

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Sesay joined CNN in November 2005 from UK broadcaster ITN, where she anchored ITV’s Early Morning News program, as well news bulletins for the UK’s most watched breakfast program “GMTV.” Before ITV, Sesay worked for three years at News Corp.’s Sky Sports and the show “Good Morning Sports Fans.”

Sesay begins her AC360 duties on Monday.

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