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CNN Live Event/Special
All the Best, All the Worst 2016. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired December 27, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:10] JIM SCUITTO, CNN ANCHOR: That does it for us. Thanks for watching. I'm Jim Sciutto. "All the Best, All the Worst 2016", hosted by Tom Foreman starts right now.
TOM FOREMAN, "ALL THE BEST, ALL THE WORST 2016" HOST: 2016 was all wild west, all the time, filled with events that fought like a bronco. Struck like a snake. And roared like a barroom brawl. So saddle up for a look back with our rough riders, NFL hall of fame nominee and sports analyst, Hines Ward, HLN anchor, Erica Hill, D.J., actor and YouTube star, Flula Borg, entertainment host and model, Kamie Crawford, CNN's own, John Berman, comedian and actress, Helen Hong, and comedian and actor, Seaton Smith.
It's "All the Best, All the Worst 2016".
Welcome and what a year this has been. I'm Tom Foreman.
Every time, it seems, we had one story rounded up, another one came charging around the corner, in big news, in sports, in science, in music, in movies, in technology and T.V., and most of all, in the exhausting, exhilarating wildfire of politics.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hillary Clinton is a bigot.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior.
ERICA HILL, HLN ANCHOR: This was the unpredictable year.
HINES WARD, HLN SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: Definitely a crazy year.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This was crueler, meaner, nastier.
KAMIE CRAWFORD, ENTERTAINMENT HOST: It's like the mind screw of the century.
TRUMP: I'm taking the gloves off, right? Yes?
HELEN HONG, COMEDIAN: This really was the worst election in modern history. I mean, it was like, not dumb and dumber, it was like hated and hateder. FOREMAN: The presidential race was unprecedented. Voters facing a choice between former Secretary of State and U.S. senator, Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, who would be the first woman to hold the Oval Office, and Republican Donald Trump, a billionaire reality T.V. star, who would be the first president with no government or military experience. And it got nasty, fast.
TRUMP: But she's crooked Hillary.
Crooked Hillary.
Crooked Hillary.
CLINTON: Everything is a game. It's like he's living in his own celebrity reality T.V. program.
FOREMAN: On T.V., their ads featured bitter attacks.
WARD: Penalty flag on Trump. A penalty flag on Hillary. Below the belt.
FOREMAN: On the streets, their fans clashed, sometimes violently. And poll after poll brought us the worst reality of the race. Voters said they did not trust either candidate.
SEATON SMITH, COMEDIAN: It felt like the second season of "The Wire", where it was just like, ugh, I know we have to do this, but this is not as fun as the first season.
FOREMAN: The first family was having fun despite the nasty campaign. Best cameo, President Obama slow jamming the news on "The Tonight Show".
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Climate change is real, health care is affordable, and love is love.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commander in preach.
FOREMAN: Still, the heat grew hotter. The Republican convention was a barrage of heavy artillery aimed at Clinton. Worst slip, when Trump's wife, Melania, gave a speech which sounded a lot like one the first lady gave.
MICHELLE OBAMA & IVANKA TRUMP (in unison): You work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond.
BERMAN: Oddly enough, Michelle Obama was the star of both conventions.
FOREMAN: Nude photos of Melania Trump's modeling days made headlines, too.
HILL: I kind of felt for her. She wasn't really that into the campaign process.
BERMAN: It wasn't a convention you looked at and said, hey, this was everything the Republicans hoped it would be. Yet, now as we look back, you know, maybe we miss something, maybe it sent a message that at least some voters in key places like.
FOREMAN: At the Democratic convention, everyone appeared to be into it. With their candidate topping Trump by a few points in almost all the polls, the celebration started early. Then came three bruising debates --
CLINTON: Absolutely --
TRUMP: Wrong.
FOREMAN: And everything that swirled around them.
CRAWFORD: It seems like every time we were getting on a serious note and somebody was making a good point, all of a sudden something else came through or some scandal and then it just wiped everybody's credibility away.
[21:05:00] FOREMAN: Clinton's worst choice of words --
CLINTON: You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I would call the basket of deplorables.
FOREMAN: That rapidly became a rallying cry for the other side. But her worst new problem was an old one.
HONG: Remember when Bernie Sanders during the primaries told Hillary Clinton, everybody's sick about hearing about your damned e-mails. Well, apparently James Comey didn't get the memo.
FOREMAN: Best news for Democrats. When the FBI director said he'd found nothing in her private e-mail server to justify criminal charges. Worst follow-up, when he announced new evidence to consider just days before the vote.
HILL: But let's be honest, the timing's a little awkward. But if you don't say something and then it comes out after the election that you had something, that would be a little awkward, too. So it was a no- win situation.
FOREMAN: Once again, the FBI said nothing warranted charges, but hacked e-mails of Democratic Party officials didn't help her cause.
SMITH: And also she never got ahead of the story.
FOREMAN: For Donald Trump, the troubles seemed endless. After years of suggesting Barack Obama might have been born elsewhere, he made an admission even as he falsely claimed Clinton started the whole thing.
TRUMP: President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.
FOREMAN: Questions about his business practices dogged him, support from white supremacists haunted his campaign even as he disavowed it. A guy even climbed Trump Tower, but, you know, not all of it.
And while first lady Michelle Obama got mad props for her carpool karaoke with Missy Elliott and James Corden --
MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: This is for my girls all around the world, stand up, put your head up. Don't take nothing from nobody.
FOREMAN: Another ride back in 2005 gave us the worst sound bite of the election. Audio of Donald Trump talking about sexually assaulting women.
TRUMP: And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH, RADIO AND TELEVISION HOST: Whatever you want.
TRUMP: Grab them by the [ bleep ]. You can do anything.
HONG: When I heard the audio that came off of the bus from Donald Trump, I was like, ugh. I was grossed out, I was offended. My [ bleep ] wanted to grab back.
FOREMAN: Trump jumped to quiet the controversy and after diving briefly in the polls, he started rising again.
HILL: It was fascinating. Because everything he did was what candidates have been told for decades and multiple election cycles not to do.
FLULA BORG, YOUTUBE STAR: I think Donald Trump was very popular because he had hats. Hillary, I don't know what she had. Maybe it was like, like, a wallet or some socks or perhaps a skirt or a sundress. No, Donald Trump just had a hat.
WARD: Well, the best thing out of the election this year is watching "Saturday Night Live". I love all the spoofs.
FOREMAN: Indeed, comedians had a field day with it all.
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: She's the one with the bad temperament. She's always screaming, she's constantly lying, her hair is crazy, her face is completely orange, except around the eyes, where it's white.
HONG: "SNL" gave Donald Trump a really big platform this year. Thanks, "SNL".
BORG: But you know what, no ruins, it's like outback steakhouse, except a president wins at the end.
FOREMAN: On Election Day, that's exactly what happened in the most extraordinary way.
BERMAN: In state after state, these counties came back in numbers and in ways for Trump that just hadn't happened before.
FOREMAN: Energized Trump supporters began flipping blue parts of the map to red, while Democratic turnout floundered in key precincts. Within hours, it was clear, the political pro had been beaten by the beginner with an undeniable edge in the electoral vote. BERMAN: He will be President Donald Trump. What is that going to mean? We just don't know.
FOREMAN: Best prognosticators, a handful of pollsters who saw Trump's victory coming, the worst, everyone else.
CRAWFORD: I have no faith in polling. I have no faith in projections.
HILL: It was an awful year for pollsters. I'm kind of glad I'm not in that business.
FOREMAN: The backlash was immediate with protesters storming into the streets.
BORG: I do not know why Hillary did not win. Actually, spoils alert, Hillary did win. Have you counted your actual votes?
FOREMAN: Their furry was unleashed by word that Clinton actually won the popular vote by millions.
HONG: The Electoral College is bull [ bleep ].
CRAWFORD: I think that a lot of people, especially with this election, are wondering, does my vote count?
[21:10:05] FOREMAN: Best news if you're a Republican, your party will head into the new year holding the presidency, both chambers of Congress and substantially more governorships and state legislatures than the Democrats. For Democrats --
SMITH: Congress is our only hope. I'm just hoping they're able to do the same trash they did to Obama to Trump.
FOREMAN: And President Obama?
HONG: Now he's like, oh, dear, God, what was it all for? Why? Why did I work that hard for eight years, just getting wiped away in one election?
FOREMAN: On the other hand, he did enjoy his highest approval ratings since the last presidential vote.
CRAWFORD: It was a good and bad year for him, but I think he's going to have a great year next year when he's out of there and on a beach.
FOREMAN: The political scene was such a bar fight, it was sometimes hard to remember all the other things that were going on, but there was plenty, so, keep your boots on.
Coming up, move along, little doggies. We'll have the hottest music of the year, including sweet sounds from Beyonce, Drake, and The Chainsmokers. The world of T.V. turns west. And what has 18 legs and takes more than a century to win the championship? It's "All the Best, All the Worst 2016".
WARD: Let's head them up and move them out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:15:16] FOREMAN: A new release, an HBO special, and a featured slot at the Super Bowl all surrounded the biggest and best music event of the year for some fans.
CRAWFORD: Beyonce's lemonade, I mean, cut, done, I think we're finished here.
WARD: I dig her music. I love the beats. And I just think, you know, with Jay-Z, Beyonce, they're the power couple.
FOREMAN: To be sure, Adele remained a force to be reckoned with and plenty of others were fighting for the spotlight. Tovlo, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber, too.
BORG: He's a tiny man from Canada. I like him. He's making some songs. He's white person. I don't understand but I like Houston Bieber.
SMITH: I do a lot of future, a lot of two chains, a lot of Drake.
HILL: I'm kind of obsessed with that song "Closer" by The Chainsmokers.
FOREMAN: Best proof Atlanta is one of the hottest music scenes in the country, "Black Beatles" by Rae Sremmurd.
Best proof she's no flash in the pan came from Meghan Trainor.
SMITH: You know what I like about Meghan Trainor, she found a sound like -- she's like a lighter Beyonce.
Pop music is so popular. It's overwhelming. Like, they don't let sad people on white pop stations anymore. You know what I'm saying?
FOREMAN: There was, however, plenty to be sad about in music. Worst news, the spate of sudden passings, including the always groundbreaking David Bowie, the Eagles' Glenn Frye, Earth, Wind, and Fire's Maurice White, Merle Haggard, Leon Russell.
HILL: When I heard Leonard Cohen died, I was just sad.
FOREMAN: And, of course, there was the legendary Prince.
His unexpected loss triggered an outpouring of emotional tributes, a tweet from Adam McKay summed it up best. It's Prince, it's like hearing the Grand Canyon died. And then the questions about the drugs that killed him.
CRAWFORD: There was like the rumors that he wasn't doing well and then all of a sudden, he was gone. And it was just crazy.
FOREMAN: Far out west, the best concert event of the year for many older fans was Desert Trip, or as many called it, "Oldchella", a three-day bash featuring the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the who, and Neil Young, among others.
BORG: I think it's wonderful when the old seniors of the world are not just sitting in their living room making tiny sweaters, but instead are sing songs from 55 years ago. I find this exciting.
FOREMAN: Bob Dylan was there just about the same time he was named this year's Nobel Prize winner for literature.
BERMAN: Bob Dylan, you know, getting the Nobel Prize for literature was the best excuse ever to listen to three days in a row of Bob Dylan, not that you even need that excuse, right? But it was wonderful.
HONG: Someone on that Nobel Prize Committee is really gunning for some free concert tickets, I mean --
FOREMAN: In country music, Keith Urban, Florida Georgia Line, and Little Big Town got lots of attention.
WARD: They got some upbeat songs. I can two-step all day with the best of them.
FOREMAN: But give the award for best all-around duet to an act you may not be following, but should. It's "St. Anne's Parade" by Shovels and Rope.
FOREMAN: Online streaming is the new sheriff in town. It's now the number one way in which we're listening to music. And increasingly, it's how we're getting television, too. And there were a lot of great new shows.
Best proof an old movie can be remade into a new T.V. hit.
[21:19:59] BERMAN: "West World" is very good. In every step of the way, it surprises me and delights me and the acting is so good. I mean, Anthony Hopkins should be in everything still.
BORG: I do not want to make spoils alerts of what is the plot, but if you're combining cowboys and future and like iPods, I'm inside this. I'm in the town, Charlie Brown. So, I did very much like it. I like to watch robots be humans and smooch each other.
FOREMAN: Worst case of a great new series feeling way too short.
HONG: "Stranger Things".
CRAWFORD: Are you serious?
SMITH: "Stranger Things", awesome show. I like that man, that whole '80s vibe. I really, really enjoyed that.
CRAWFORD: It was just the right amount of everything. It had family, it had Winona Ryder, I mean, like, how much more could you want?
HONG: It was so, so good. Those kids are amazing. I bet the stock price of Eggo waffles went up just based on "Stranger Things". FOREMAN: Plenty of older series unveiled their latest seasons to acclaim, "House of Cards," "Orange is the New Black".
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome back.
CRAWFORD: I watched the new season of "Orange is the New Black" and I cried at the end, hysterically.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My rein has just begun.
HILL: I got really into "Game of Thrones".
BORG: The "Battle of the Bastards" are very great episode. I love this show so much. It has ravens and it has large people and tiny people and walking people and all, you know, walls. It's the best.
FOREMAN: Best new show with a familiar old face?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will not live in fear.
FOREMAN: "Designated Survivor".
HONG: Who knew Kiefer Sutherland was going to be our perennial saving world guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be awesome, boy.
FOREMAN: Worst case of a fantastic show not being noticed by enough people yet.
SMITH: I really like the "Atlanta". I think "Atlanta" is a real show ever made on this planet. That is -- that blows my mind.
FOREMAN: Best staying power. Competition shows continue to rumble on.
HILL: Oh, "The Voice". I love "The Voice".
FOREMAN: "Dancing with the Stars", which Hines won a few years ago, is now in its 12th year.
WARD: And everywhere I go, I'm always being asked for the first dance. So, it's the greatest thing that's ever happened, but also, it was the worst thing, because now I can't go to wedding parties, Bar Mitzvahs, I can't do anything because of "Dancing with the Stars". But I love watching it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to cry.
FOREMAN: Worst guilty pleasures, any of the unstoppable reality show series.
SMITH: "Bachelor" and "Bachelor Island" and some of those bachelor like reality show now where you follow a couples eating cake. I'm all about that, yow. I can't stop it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need to believe him.
FOREMAN: Best case of art imitating life, "The People Versus O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story." It was deja vu all over again for those who saw the real thing.
WARD: It went on for a long time. And every day, I was glued to the television. I couldn't get enough of the O.J. trial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm O.J.
FOREMAN: Best "Do it yourselfers", give it to the Gaines and their hit home makeover show.
HILL: I do love a good "Fixer Upper" marathon. Chip and Joanna Gaines are just adorable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go get them.
FOREMAN: Animation wrote us the best comedy writing on T.V. "Bob's Burgers".
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tina, what is going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your mom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What?
FOREMAN: The strangest new rival?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vodka and chainsaws?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah that's right, father and son warrior weekend.
HONG: "Son of Zorn", what a weird show, huh? It's like he-man meets arrested development?
FOREMAN: And the worst oversight finally corrected after all these years, congratulations to RuPaul at long last winning an Emmy.
Don't touch that DVR. Coming up, we've got the biggest, best, and baddest in big news, some spectacular moments in sports, and roll it.
We will go out for the worst night of the movies, the best blast off. And are you excited or is that a flaming phone in your pocket?
"All the Best, Al the Worst 2016" rolls on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:28:03] FOREMAN: The election was hands down, the biggest story of 2016. But all around the globe, we had unrest natural disasters and conflicts.
The biggest and worst domestic story, the clashes between police and African-American communities, complete with graphic video showing officers shooting citizens. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shots fired.
CRAWFORD: It was really conflicting and it was just really sad. It was like a dark cloud over everything. Every single day, it was like you were waking up to this news.
FOREMAN: Just as troubling, retaliatory attacks on law enforcement, the worst at a peaceful protest in Dallas. It left five officers killed, nine wounded, and everyone talking.
BERMAN: The issue is, are they going to talk to each other? Are we all going to talk about it and are we going to do something about it?
SMITH: I mean, it's interesting to me, because of my perspective as a black person, I don't know when this conversation wasn't a thing.
WARD: At the end of the day, we're all Americans, so we need to find a way to get along and make our country better than what it was.
FOREMAN: Other events, wildfires in Tennessee, devastating floods in Maryland and Louisiana killing of a gorilla holding a child in Ohio, transgender bathrooms in North Carolina, a pipeline protest in North Dakota, and the Zika virus all over.
HONG: I love that Zika, there was no plan in place. At one point, the CDC was like, don't be a woman in Miami. And women in Miami were like, uh --
FOREMAN: It was actually aimed at pregnant women, but still, we saw a major shift on addiction.
[21:30:01] SMITH: Damn. Drugs.
FOREMAN: The surgeon general is pushing more than ever before to treat it as a chronic illness with more than 20 million Americans booked.
HILL: From the ritzy suburbs to some of the poorest communities in this country, and if we don't get a handle on it, I think the consequences are really going to be devastating.
FOREMAN: But few stories shot like the attack on a gay nightclub in Florida, 49 people died, the most ever from a single gunman.
CRAWFORD: It caused people to actually have to pay attention to the issues that face the LGBT community that I think a lot of people were trying to ignore for so long.
BERMAN: To have that be a place where so many were murdered was particularly tragic.
FOREMAN: Religious radicals struck in Pakistan, Belgium, Turkey and France, with few clues on how to stop them.
HONG: You can't just round up Muslims in a country, because there are millions of Muslims who are innocent, law-abiding citizens, of that country, and don't deserve to be, you know, lumped in with these crazy, insane people.
FOREMAN: In Iraq, the battle to retake Mosul saw stiff resistance from ISIS. The best word on the terror group, they're losing ground. The worst reality?
BERMAN: That may be so, but at the same time, ISIS was still able to inspire and carry out attacks all around the world.
FOREMAN: Syria produced nothing but more misery, more refugees, and the photo of the year.
HONG: There was a real little boy going through some really, really tough times, and nobody has an answer.
FOREMAN: Elsewhere, polls said the vote for the Brits to leave the European Union was doomed so almost no one saw the Brexit coming.
BORG: I think what occurred is that everyone in England did not understand. I think they said, breakfast, and everyone's like, breakfast yes or no? Yes, I'm so hungry, it's the morning time. Yes to breakfast.
FOREMAN: Italy handled an earthquake while the Vatican made Mother Teresa a saint. North Korea continued missile and nuclear tests as the world wondered what's next.
SMITH: I know this is tough. South Korea makes some of the best revenge movies in the world. So I kind of want to make sure that country sticks around.
FOREMAN: Worst party crashers, the Russians, getting involved in many affairs far beyond their borders with President Vladimir Putin leading.
SMITH: And I mean, from what I get, he's that an evil dude that likes to ride on his horse without shirts. That's all I really know about the man.
FOREMAN: In Colombia, 50 years of fighting with rebels appear to be finally winding down. In Haiti, Hurricane Matthew brought death and disease. In Cuba, the passing of Fidel Castro raised questions about the future after a year of improving relations with the U.S. and everywhere, the worst hot flash still global warming with record temperatures and plenty of alarming examples of its impact.
HILL: Yeah, how about Glacier National Park? To think that in perhaps my children's lifetime, the glacier is gone, that's crazy.
FOREMAN: Through it all, the best kitchen table news, the American economy did pretty well.
WARD: Hey, show me the money.
BORG: I think five percent is a very great number for unemployment. It is terrible for skim milk. But I think delicious for unemployment.
FOREMAN: Home building was up, wages, too.
BERMAN: Things are good, yet, people are saying, at least at the polls, they're not good enough.
CRAWFORD: Yeah, well, I'm like, OK, are we still in a recession or is that over?
WARD: I know we're not where we want to be, but we are taking strides in the right direction.
FOREMAN: And the most staggering number from 2016, 325 million, the current size of the U.S. population. That's 2.5 million more than last year.
With births, deaths, and immigration, we're getting a new American every 13 seconds.
HILL: Wow. Every 13 seconds. That is a lot of people.
FOREMAN: So where do we go from here? Still to the west, to find cars to drive themselves, unbelievable moments in sports, and the best and worst movies under the sun.
So keep your glasses on, Joe. We'll be right back.
[21:35:01] HONG: Westward hooo.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOREMAN: A little fish was lost and a lot of fans were found by one of the best films of the year, according to the box office.
HILL: I did see "Finding Dory". Dory was found. I hope I didn't ruin it for you.
FOREMAN: Animation broke out with "Zootopia", "Kung Fu Panda 3" and "The Secret Life of Pets", even "The Jungle Book" took the cinema by storm.
CRAWFORD: "The Jungle Book" was amazing. That was actually amazing and brought me to tears. I loved that.
FOREMAN: But hold tight, super hero flicks sold tickets like wild "Captain America" and "Batman versus Superman" were almost unstoppable.
BERMAN: My advice to Superman and Batman is lighten up a little bit.
FOREMAN: Best twist on the theme --
HONG: "Deadpool" what a great movie, it was so much fun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Woo super hero landing. That's very hard on your knees.
[21:40:00] SMITH: I'm happy, Ryan Reynolds, wherever he talks, I'm just enjoying the man. He's this wonderful snarky, wonderful white man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is it going?
FOREMAN: Tough guys also room through the list of money makers Jack Ritter raked it in.
WARD: I'm a big fan of Tom Cruise. Anything he's in is going to be good.
FOREMAN: Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and his old pal, Ben Affleck were counting tickets too.
BORG: Oh, I did watch his film the "The Accountant". I love Matt very much and I was very confused that there was no mathematics really in this. It was just a man kicking other people in the face and looking very serious with glasses.
FOREMAN: Funniest take on action adventures, "Central Intelligence".
HONG: The tag line for "Central Intelligence" was, "a little heart and a big Johnson," and whoever came up with that --
FOREMAN: Best and worst relationship movie, depending on your mood.
CRAWFORD: I just saw "Girl on the Train" last week, which was amazing.
SMITH: Nope, nothing happened. It was stupid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, let's go!
FOREMAN: "Bad Moms" got big laughs, but another film with women in lead roles got the worse backlash, "Ghostbusters".
WARD: I liked the old "Ghostbusters". Bill Murray, I mean, Dan Aykroyd I mean, you know, I ain't operated that ghost but I like that.
HONG: You know, for a movie that a lot of people didn't like, it sure made a ton of money. So, girl power, what?
FOREMAN: "Star Trek Beyond" was popular, but the best sci-fi flick "Arrival".
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now that's a proper introduction.
FOREMAN: And the best documentary was also the worst way to make people squirm, "Weiner".
BERMAN: When you watch the Anthony Weiner movie, all you can think about the whole time is why did he let the cameras there?
HILL: And you really just wanted it to end, because it was painful to watch.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're a perfect person? You're my judge?
FOREMAN: For all of that, this was one of the weakest years in decades for movie attendance, in part because of millennial's aren't going much and a lot of things were competing for our attention, including a dazzling year in sports.
Fear of Zika and crime kept some athletes away, some Russians were disqualified for doping, and still the Rio games were great.
CRAWFORD: How can you not love the Olympics?
WARD: It's the only time, I think, in any sporting event you really feel patriotic.
BORG: America (ph), you guys did kick all the booties.
FOREMAN: The U.S. gymnastics team nailed it, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time with 28 lifetime medals, Katie Ledecky dazzled, but then another swimmer gave us the worst story of the games.
CRAWFORD: Oh, Lochte. Ryan Lochte is a hot mess.
HONG: What a dumb ass.
FOREMAN: Lochte and some pals said they were robbed at gunpoint after a night on the town.
RYAN LOCHTE, SWIMMER: I put my hands up, I was like, whatever.
FOREMAN: Brazilian authorities not convinced. It was a huge embarrassment for the U.S. and Lochte lost a small fortune in endorsements.
BERMAN: Sometimes you just say, I was at a gas station and I had to go.
FOREMAN: Worst good-bye. Give it to the greatest. Muhammad Ali.
CRAWFORD: I think the passing of Muhammad Ali hit a lot of people really hard, because he was seen as such, you know, an amazing figure in our society for just across the board.
WARD: He was the original gangster. He was a rapper, you know, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. You know, so iconic.
HONG: If you have the audacity to call yourself the greatest, you better deliver and he did.
FOREMAN: There were other great stories. Leicester City bidding 5,000 to won odds to win their league championship. Eddie Hall's record setting dead lift of more than a half ton. Rookie Alexander Rusev win at N.D. and Pete Kostelnick's record run 72 miles a day for six weeks to cover 3,000 miles coast to coast.
CRAWFORD: That's remarkable. I have suffered through a couple of marathons and I don't know how anybody runs 72 miles a day, day after day after day, super human.
FOREMAN: However, the major sports gave us the biggest moments. In the NFL, some thought at nearly 40, the Broncos Peyton Manning was just too old to beat Cam Newton and his Panthers in the Super Bowl.
WARD: I felt sorry for Peyton, because seeing him limping around and, you know, screaming, Omaha, Omaha, you know, you really didn't know what the hell Omaha was, but, you know, he found a way to persevere and gave us old people hope that you can still win a Super Bowl at the age of 40 still.
[21:45:03] FOREMAN: In hockey, Metallica played the national anthem before their San Jose Sharks tangled with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but then skated off with a Stanley Cup, anyway.
In basketball, the never-champion Cleveland Cavaliers faced the same team they lost the NBA trophy to last year, falling perilously behind.
BERMAN: In this, Cavaliers came back in under LeBron James they beat the Golden State Warriors. That was amazing.
FOREMAN: And that might have been the best sport story, if it weren't for the Cubs.
SMITH: This is the most dramatic thing I've ever seen. It was awesome.
FOREMAN: In the World Series of a lifetime, the long-suffering Chicago team fought back from a terrible hole against the Cleveland Indians, breaking a 108-year dry spell.
WARD: 108 years is crazy.
HONG: People were like, ah.
BORG: I think it's amazing that in the time that the cubs had won their last World Series, my country had started and lost two world wars. So, again, sorry about both of those and also congratulations to you, Chicago Cubs.
FOREMAN: As the late Cubs announcer Harry Caray would say, holy cow. In a moment, Alexander storms Broadway, an old friend goes missing, and a naked burglar. Plus, an epic quest. It's "All the Best, All the Worst 2016".
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[21:50:21] FOREMAN: There were spectacular explosions. A European probe crashed into Mars, but overall it was a good year for space exploration. SpaceX solved the big techno challenge, safely launching and landing numerous rockets. The super moon drew hordes of shutterbugs and an asteroid, what some are calling a second moon, was discovered orbiting Earth, only the size of a football field.
HILL: You know, that's enough space for me. I don't need a lot of space for a vacation home. FOREMAN: NASA Juno probe arrived at Jupiter, sending spectacular pictures home. And there is the best mystery in the sky, Tabby star, 1,500 light-years away getting inexplicably brighter and dimmer. Sign of intelligent life?
WARD: I'm sure they are. They probably, you know, otherwise up there in outer space but I want no part of it.
FOREMAN: Closer to ground the Solar Impulse 2 completed the first ever around the world flight powered entirely by the sun, touching down ironically in the dark. And on Earth, early versions of self- driving cars are now logging millions of miles, and production models could be widely available in a few years.
WARD: I am against it. I like to have control of the wheel for myself.
SMITH: We got cellphones that explode and now they want to go to self-driving cars? I think that's elite future. Take your time.
FOREMAN: Fair point. Samsung had a massive recall to deal with the worst feature of the Galaxy Note 7, catching fire. At first, it seemed a manageable issue.
HONG: Then two weeks later it was like, if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, get off the plane now.
BORG: Don't surprise me with a fire in my pants. That's what my doctor always says.
FOREMAN: Best example of a first world problem. All the complaints about the new iPhone with the no headphone jack.
BERMAN: I got the new iPhone 7 right here. There's no headphone jack and it hasn't bothered me once.
FOREMAN: Best game played on a phone. Pokemon Go, with more than a half billion downloaders.
HONG: I did not play Pokemon Go. I sat on the sidelines and mocked people who were just walking into walls because they were playing it.
FOREMAN: Virtual reality took a leap forward with newer, easier to use hardware.
SMITH: There was one from "New York Times" where you're flying. That blew my mind. I was flying. And then there's a porn ones. I haven't tried the porn ones yet, but that's on my to-do list.
FOREMAN: And some old tech said farewell. Funai Electric was the last company on earth making videocassette recorders, and they've stopped. Worse question, now what do you do with all those tapes in your basement?
In the world of entertainment, after a years of pressure from animal rights groups, Ringling Brothers retired their elephants, ending more than a century of performances with the world's largest land mammals. On the radio, Garrison Keillor left his Prairie Home Companion after 42 years.
HILL: Saturdays will never be the same.
FOREMAN: On Broadway, the performance that had people standing in line for tickets like no other, Hamilton.
WARD: Get a brother, get some tickets with somebody. I need a hook- up with somebody.
FOREMAN: On line, the best mash-up, Hamilton and Beyonce. The worst break-in, the naked burglar who lost his pants crawling through the roof of a pizza place, and didn't find any money, either.
Some of the political memes were hilarious, and all the T-Rex costumes had us smiling, especially the one on American Ninja Warrior.
We really liked that traditional goodbye to a teacher in New Zealand. But in the end, the best viral preoccupation, the mannequin challenge.
CRAWFORD: Everybody is trying it. I've tried it myself with my friends. It didn't go viral, but it was still amazing.
FOREMAN: We're about to ride off into the sunset, but we have just enough time left for our traditional wishes for the 12 months ahead, so stay put. "All the Best, All the Worst". We'll be right back
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[21:58:23] FOREMAN: We have about reached the last round-up, but before we hang our spurs up, we want to ask our guests, as we always do, about their hopes for the year ahead.
BERMAN: I hope 2017 is the year where people give a damn.
SMITH: I hope we are not in a nuclear war with nobody or war in general.
HONG: In 2017, not only should we be legal it should be mandatory, because we could all use a little chilling out right about now.
WARD: You know what I wish that we all can just get along. You know, not look at race, not look at color. We're all Americans. Let's find a way to better ourselves and challenge ourselves each and every day.
HILL: I wish for kindness. I wish for everybody to just learn to take a breath and to listen and to be kind.
BORG: So who knows what is 2017. I hope it's sassy, I hope it's wearing a turtleneck.
CRAWFORD: I hope that this year and the things that we have learned really brings people together next year and that we can keep on this path of being inclusive of other people and understanding other people in their struggles and everything that we all go through, because we're all human beings at the end of the day.
FOREMAN: And that's the end of the line for 2016. Thanks to all our guests, thanks to you for watching and for everyone at "AC360" and here at CNN. I'm Tom Foreman wishing you all of the best and none of the worst in 2017.
