New Year’s Eve: Times Square’s 6 countdowns -- and who’s doing them

How many times can you welcome 2014? At Times Square in New York City, six New Year’s Eve countdowns are planned throughout Tuesday evening, with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushing the button for the final countdown and ball drop.

Partyers begin to gather and streets around the square start closing around 3 p.m. EST (noon PST) for the show that will feature live performances by Miley Cyrus, Blondie, Icona Pop, Jencarlos Canela, Melissa Etheridge and others.

Here’s the rundown of official hourly countdowns (Eastern Standard Time) for those who want to practice screaming out “10, 9, 8...�

7 p.m. countdown: Fox TV hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Bill Hemmer;
8 p.m. countdown: CNN’s Anderson Cooper;
9 p.m. countdown: R&B singer Mack Wilds and hip-hop performer Lil’ Mama;
10 p.m. countdown: Spider-Man and director Marc Webb of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2� movie;
11 p.m. countdown: Raul de Molina of Univision’s “El Gordo y la Flaca.�

At 11:52, Etheridge sings her new song “Uprising of Love� and John Lennon’s “Imagine� before the 60-second (and final) countdown.

Then Sotomayor starts the descent of the lighted ball with 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles and more than 32,000 LED lights. The ball drops and then the “2014� lights up at the stroke of midnight. Happy New Year!

[email protected]
Follow us on Twitter @latimestravel, like us on Facebook @Los Angeles Times Travel.