US3 min(s) read
Published 15:49 01 Jan 2026 GMT
Andy Cohen wasted absolutely no time ringing in the New Year – and neither did his opinions.
Just minutes after the ball dropped in Times Square, the Bravo boss launched into a savage on-air rant about former New York City mayor Eric Adams, leaving viewers stunned and his co-host Anderson Cooper scrambling to keep things under control.
Appearing on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live, Cohen, 57, seemed to go completely off-script as he delivered what can only be described as an unfiltered send-off to Adams’ four-year run at City Hall.
“I’d like to say, watching the final moments of Mayor Adams’ chaotic, horrible…,” Cohen began, before trailing off and then fully committing to the takedown.
Cooper and fellow guest BJ Novak immediately sensed trouble and tried to rein him in – but Cohen, clutching a shot glass, was clearly just getting warmed up.
“I just want to say, I mean he’s got his pardons, he’s pardoned,” Cohen said, incorrectly referring to Adams’ federal corruption charges, which were dismissed earlier this year. “Great, you got your pardons, go off into the sunset.”
Novak jokingly suggested Cohen should be “cut off,” while Cooper awkwardly wrapped an arm around his longtime co-host in a failed attempt to de-escalate the moment.
But Cohen wasn’t done. Not even close.
“You pardoned your way through four years,” he continued, staring straight down the camera. “Goodbye, Mayor Adams. You did it. You did it. You did it, didn’t you?”
He then took a sarcastic swipe at one of Adams’ final moves in office – the creation of a new Office of Rodent Mitigation.
“I will say this,” Cohen added. “I think he may have dented the rat population.”
After a beat, he followed it up with an even sharper line: “I think he got rid of some of the rats – but isn’t that a metaphor of sorts?”
As if the night wasn’t already chaotic enough, Cohen capped things off by declaring: “It is 2026 and there are less rats,” before casually taking another sip of his drink.
The rant came as Adams officially handed over the reins to his successor, Zohran Mamdani, who was sworn in as New York City’s new mayor just hours later. The private ceremony took place in an abandoned subway station beneath City Hall Park, with Mamdani taking his oath on a Quran held by his wife, artist Rama Duwaji.
CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast has become infamous for moments like this. The network previously banned most on-air drinking after past incidents – though Cooper and Cohen have always been given a little more leeway.
This also isn’t Cohen’s first New Year’s Eve meltdown. Back in 2022, he unleashed a similarly brutal rant aimed at Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, calling his time in office “the crappiest term of the mayor of New York” and telling him to “do his victory lap dance,” as per The Independent.
Cohen later admitted he didn’t even remember that rant – blaming the booze.
Judging by this year’s performance, history may well be repeating itself.
