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CNN Live Event/Special

Celebrating New Year's Eve Around the World. 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 31, 2025 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... beautiful.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Yes, right there. That's a wave breaking on this.

BECKY ANDERSON:, CNN HOST: Can I see?

BERMAN: We are 30 seconds away -- 30 seconds away from 2026. I -- I got to say I couldn't be more excited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which resolution (INAUDIBLE) ...

BERMAN: My resolution, be a better person.

ANDERSON: Do you know what mine is? You saw me walking my young dog -- my cockapoo the other day.

BERMAN: We got 10 seconds to go.

ANDERSON: She's so badly behaved. I'm going to get her trained. Counting down?

BERMAN: I think we're five seconds to go.

ANDERSON: Oh, here we go.

BERMAN: Happy New Year.

ANDERSON: Hey, Happy New Year.

[15:05:00]

[15:10:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

ANDERSON: Damn ...

BERMAN: Oh, man.

ANDERSON: Like, damn, this is the UAE and do do that fireworks in style.

BERMAN: I mean, I -- by the way, it had to go sparkly. Yes, you know, once we got to 2026 I had to matchy-match with my partner here, Becky Anderson. We are ready for this year. What amazing fireworks. ANDERSON: Yes.

BERMAN: I'm still shaking from all the bursts going on here.

ANDERSON: Amazing, (INAUDIBLE) out. They've done it twice as we were saying, Amazing people here having an absolute ball. You've seen those fireworks down in Dubai, always absolutely spectacular. And I'll walk for tonight, that is about an hour from here and that is where they are trying to break a Guinness World Records continuous fireworks for 62 minutes, so stick around for that.

BERMAN: It's going on, so much more to see let's go back to Boris and Laura for more of the party. Take it away, guys.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Wow. I mean, Berman and Becky living their best life. Is Berman in a sequin Cardigan. I'm telling you, something about the Dubai ...

(CROSSTALK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Looks good.

COATES: ... had got him ...

ANDERSON: Secret.

COATES: ... living his very best life. I love it. That was an incredible ...

SANCHEZ: It looks good. He's got the tiara and all.

COATES: ... incredible display.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COATES: I cannot believe it. As you mentioned, records will be broken on this show everyone and we are watching and we watch all this incredible fireworks display from the Sheikh Zayed Festival in Abu Dhabi. By the way, it's 62 minutes long, six, two, minutes long. And Boris man, are we here for it?

SANCHEZ: Undoubtedly, it is going to be amazing. You know, what else is awesome fireworks every hour until midnight all in one city. Max Foster is there live in Edinburgh, Scotland. Max?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't see Boris in sequins by the end of the night, then Berman wins. I want to see it. Temperatures plummeting here, but the atmosphere is warming up. Behind the cameraman, we have about 45 feet -- thousand people gathering for a street party, whiskey's in full flow. They're getting ready for Auld Lang Syne. We're going to bring it all to you. This is the real party tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:39] SANCHEZ: Welcome back to CNN special New Year's Eve coverage. We are ringing in 2026 all over the world. I'm Boris Sanchez coming to you live from Paris, France with my colleague Laura Coates in London looking spectacular. I love those earrings, Laura. You look fantastic.

But here in the City of Lights I've got a sidekick to really help us dive into the culture the traditions and the fun, Sandy Heribert bear joins us.

Sandy, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

SANDY HERIBERT, FRENCH TV PERSONALITY: My pleasure, Boris.

SANCHEZ: I was here in Paris last year, but I feel like it wasn't the full New Year's Eve experience because I was deathly sick. I had influenza. I was so medicated at a hard time remembering what was happening.

HERIBERT: I heard that.

SANCHEZ: It was very, very cold. But now I get to enjoy the full experience nice and healthy. I wonder what it's typically like to be here outside the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees, did I say right?

HERIBERT: No.

SANCHEZ: Champs-Elysees ...

HERIBERT: Try again.

SANCHEZ: I keeps trying.

HERIBERT: Champs-Elysees ...

SANCHEZ: Champs-Elysees ...

HERIBERT: Champs-Elysees ...

SANCHEZ: What is it like here on New Year's Eve, typically?

HERIBERT: Well, it's just fun and people just love to be here with the atmosphere, you could be with friends and family and it's definitely the place to be. I mean, Arc de Triomphe -- try Arc de Triomphe.

SANCHEZ: Arc de Triomphe.

HERIBERT: That's pretty good.

SANCHEZ: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) ...

HERIBERT: Arc de Triomphe is just the -- you know, the -- the place where everything's happening, the fireworks and all the concert We've been hearing in the past two three hours. It's going to be a full of a 1 million people here traveling some internationals, French people. This is just the place to be. And I'm really happy because I haven't been here in a while because of traveling around.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

HERIBERT: And I haven't seen this show live. So, I'm so happy to share this with you and everybody watching CNN.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and it's going to be quite a show because they've got lasers on the Arc de Triomphe.

HERIBERT: Yes.

SANCHEZ: As well as firework spectacular. It's supposed to last something like 10 minutes.

HERIBERT: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: So, it is going to be unforgettable. I also wonder are there any unique traditions that you take part in as part of the passing of the new year?

HERIBERT: Well, we do have the same, you know, we do resolutions.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

HERIBERT: We'll talk about resolutions a bit later on.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

HERIBERT: We -- we kiss and hug and we could actually kiss everybody around -- around us in the street. So, that's really nice, you know, it's very warm and we just kiss on both cheeks and just say Happy New Year. Also, Happy New Year -- we say happy new year for a full month.

So, until the 31st of January, we can say Happy New Year, which I don't think it's -- you can do that or you don't do that in America, right?

SANCHEZ: Well, keep saying Happy New Year until June if it's okay.

HERIBERT: Really?

SANCHEZ: You know, (INAUDIBLE) we haven't seen maybe.

HERIBERT: I like that. I like that.

SANCHEZ: Nah -- Sandy, thank you so much. We're going to have a really good time with Sandy throughout the evening. But for right now, we're going to send it back to Laura live in London with a familiar face.

COATES: Of course, we've got, of course, CNN's Isa Soares who is here and she knows how to bring it -- look at this sequin getup. Okay, first of all, it's like rainbow.

ISA SOARES:, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We match. We kind of match, right?

COATES: We match. SOARES: With your trousers. You don't see her trousers.

COATES: We do. We do -- oh, the metallic.

SOARES: The -- the high trousers are just so va-va-voom, how about that? Bring it.

COATES: Wait, hold on, I'm not going to be outdone by the French right now. I want my own pronunciations here in London. What do we call this Ferris wheel.

SOARES: This is not a Ferris wheel ...

COATES: But a ...

SOARES: ... London Eye.

COATES: London Eye. And then ...

SOARES: London Eye. And it was open until four o'clock in this aafternoon.

COATES: Okay.

SOARES: And you see behind you?

COATES: We see this.

SOARES: Or -- or your halo, also works as your halo as we've seen this afternoon.

COATES: And -- and what do we call the -- the flowing river below us?

SOARES: Oh, the Thames, maybe.

COATES: The Thames, see that?

SOARES: Yes. Yes.

COATES: I can speak (INAUDIBLE) of British.

SOARES: Your accent is so good, Laura.

COATES: Well, thank you. I know that Buckingham Palace is near where the (INAUDIBLE) live.

SOARES: Oh, did you -- did you go and visit Buckingham?

COATES: Yes, I did. Yes. We're going to have a good time.

[15:20:05]

SOARES: We've had a good time last year. We had a great time. We have some tests for Laura throughout the ...

COATES: Yes. SOARES: ... throughout the -- the next few hours.

COATES: What?

SOARES: Last year, if you remember we had kind of cultural icons.

COATES: Yes.

SOARES: This year, we're going to do events, cultural British events and to see whether you can get them on the hour.

COATES: Oh, no.

SOARES: Okay.

COATES: Okay. Can ChatGPT help?

SOARES: No.

COATES: Okay, fine. Now, we're going back to Boris. I mean, no, Max Foster in Edinburgh, Scotland and said, well, I try to get my little cheating device called a cellphone. Max, set the scene for us.

SOARES: Max has heard all of this.

COATES: Oh, God.

FOSTER: Get ready for Isa's outfit, so that's all I can say. I share an office with her. I've had an insight. They are quite extraordinary.

This is the castle hundreds of years old, 15,000 fireworks will be firing up from up there a bit later on. And below we have a fairground at a concert where Hamish Hawk will be playing very soon.

HAMISH HAWK, SCOTTISH SINGER: Hello.

FOSTER: A very well-known singer here in Scotland and -- I mean, it's an honor, isn't it? You get nervous.

HAWK: It's an absolute privilege, I've got to say. And do I get nervous? One-hundred percent.

FOSTER: You do.

HAWK: One-hundred percent.

FOSTER: This is your home crowd, you're Edinburgh.

HAWK: Yeah, there's -- there's going to be a lot of pacing ...

FOSTER: Yes.

HAWK: ... in the next couple of hours, I think.

FOSTER: So, the other teams in Paris and London have been talking about traditions at New Year. They don't have anything on Scotland. HAWK: No, we they don't. I'm afraid they don't. And well, Hogmanay is a very special time of the year here in Scotland. And it's quite different to Christmas, I would say. And it sort of encapsulates a lot of different traditions from a lot of different times and a lot of different religions a lot of different worlds as it were and ...

FOSTER: Yes.

HAWK: ... one of my favorite, I would say, is -- is first footing.

FOSTER: Yes.

HAWK: Which is when you arrive at someone's house ...

FOSTER: On New Year's Day?

HAWK: That's right, on New Year's Day, you cross -- you're the first to cross their threshold and you traditionally bring them a lump of coal so that their hearth ...

FOSTER: For warm, right?

HAWK: Yes, for warm, so their hearth stays warm throughout the year.

FOSTER: Yes. And Auld Lang Syne is a big moment. Will, if you turn the camera around, so the crowds have only just been allowed into this area, but we can have 45,000 revelers here for the street party you grew up with these street parties.

HAWK: I do.

FOSTER: Describe what the viewers are going to see.

HAWK: It really is -- it's organized mayhem, let's just say that. Scottish people are very well behaved typically but things do get a bit lively after ...

FOSTER: Yes.

HAWK: ... after the bells.

FOSTER: And I got a lesson from the Edinburgh poet laureate ...

HAWK: Oh, yes.

FOSTER: ... on how to do Auld Lang Syne.

HAWK: Keep going.

FOSTER: You do -- you start off with hand that way, didn't you?

HAWK: That's right.

FOSTER: Not that way.

HAWK: That's right. And then you cross. FOSTER: Boris, Auld Lang Syne, there's a way to dancing to it. By the end of the night, we'll have it all sorted.

SANCHEZ: Impressive, I'm looking forward to that. Maybe you could teach us as well, I'll follow along. Max Foster, thank you so much.

Still to come, what is New Year's without amazing musical performances? We are bringing you the very best parties from around the world first in Music City. CNN's Lynda Kinkade is at the Anzie Blue in Nashville.

LYNDA KINKADE:, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, Boris. As you can hear from that iconic riff, Nashville royalty runs deep, from Johnny Cash and June Carter, the son, John Cash Carter. They're going to be performing after the break.

COATES: And we're heading to Clarksdale, Mississippi and Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club where some real stars are going to get on stage. And you know who's there, Omar Jimenez, he's live

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm just trying to blend in over here. We got some great music. We got performances by a total of 10 Grammys, I believe. Some special performances from the music -- from the movie "Sinners." A lot happening here in the birthplace of blues here in Clarksdale, Mississippi Stay with us. We got a whole lot of party coming up.

COATES: Oh, I cannot wait. And, of course, Miami's own Flo Rida is going to turn it up, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:33]

COATES: Welcome back to CNN special New Year's Eve coverage. We want to get right to Nashville where CNN's Lynda Kinkade is standing by for an epic performance at the Anzie Blue. Lynda?

KINKADE: Hey, Laura. Yes, welcome to Nashville, Tennessee. I have with us Nashville royalty Johnny Cash, June Carter. These two are carrying on the tradition. We've got John Carter Cash his wife, Ana Cristina. You two are doing your best to preserve the legacy of two music legends, what's it like performing Johnny Cash's songs?

JOHN CASH J CARTER: Well, the music lives on in the spirit of my parents that they, you know, they gave to the world lives on in so many people's hearts. So, it's a connection. It's exciting. You know, it's a great way to end the old year and bring in the new Johnny and June music.

KINKADE: And it certainly is and you can hear that iconic rift (ph). And not many people know June Carter wrote "Ring of Fire."

J CARTER: She did.

ANA CRISTINA CASH: With Merle Kilgore.

J CARTER: With Merle Kilgore, yes.

A CARTER: With Merle Kilgore she wrote it.

KINKADE: Exactly.

A CARTER: It's a timeless song.

CASH: Yes.

A CARTER: Timeless.

KINKADE: And -- and you two are going to be performing one of their classic hits, right?

A CARTER: Yes. Yes.

CASH: Yes.

A CARTER: "Ring of Fire."

CASH: Yes.

A CARTER: "Ring of Fire."

KINKADE: Right.

CASH: "Ring of Fire," and then, yep ...

A CARTER: Yep.

CASH: ... and then, Ana's going to sing one of her wondrous songs.

KINKADE: Excellent. I'm going to let you two make your way to the stage ...

CASH: Okay, cool.

KINKADE: ... because that is what we are here for. It is Music City, head up to the stage. We are here for John Carter Cash, Ana Cristina. And for those who might not know Johnny Cash and June Carter met not far from here. They fell in love back in 1956 at the Grand Ole Opry now known as the Ryman Auditorium, where they met.

[15:30:07]

And just recently, June Carter was inducted into the ...