NBC will ring out the final night of 2025 with a reprise of Wicked: One Wonderful Night, followed by a star-studded “toast” to the year gone by.
The network on Monday afternoon revealed its alternate game plan for New Year’s Eve, weeks after Snoop Dogg bowed out of hosting an eponymous special. (Prioritizing his time with family and upcoming involvement in NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage in February, Snoop explained, “Sometimes the calendar gets in the way of the celebration.”)
Instead, NBC will kick off this New Year’s Eve with an 8 p.m. ET encore of its recent, corporate synergy-tastic Wicked special that transformed the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles into an Emerald City-inspired set and featured musical performances by Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and their Wicked: For Good co-stars, plus special guests Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel.
Following a half-hour local news break at 10, NBC from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. will raise A Toast to 2025! by way of a two-hour look back at “the most fun and funny pop culture moments of the year.” Today‘s Hota Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager will again host the Toast, while their guests will include Ethan Slater, Jim Gaffigan, Tiffany Haddish, Bobby Moynihan, David Alan Grier and others.
NBC’s New Year’s Eve attack plan in recent years has been a bit scattershot. In 2020, the broadcaster rang in the new year with a typical, Carson Daly-hosted special, and then in 2021 and 2022 handed the keys to recording artist Miley Cyrus, who winningly lorded over back-to-back countdowns.
In 2023, NBC was able to fill the night with Sunday Night Football, and last year the network paired A Toast to 2024! (hosted by Today‘s Kotb and Bush Hager) with The Day Drinking with Seth Meyers New Year’s Special.
