It's Not Times Square
From KWQC:

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Dick Clark will spend New Year's Eve in an unusual place for him -- a hospital bed.

Clark has been in the hospital since suffering a mild st[r]oke earlier this month, and he'll be there at least through New Year's Day....

The 75-year-old Clark says he'll watch stand-in Regis Philbin -- and as always, will kiss his wife at midnight.

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Unfortunately, no one told the webmaster at Dick Clark Productions:

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Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve
On December 31, 2004, Dick Clark will count down to midnight from Times Square for the 33rd consecutive year. Three consecutive specials begin at 10:30 pm and last into the New Year.
(ABC)

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Because I live in an area of the United States that doesn't receive live programming, this officially hasn't happened here yet:

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A century after the first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, close to a million revelers welcomed 2005 with wild cheering, confetti, fireworks and kisses, while also pausing to mourn the devastation of the South Asian tsunami.

The crowd was bathed in bright light as the electrified white ball began its drop at 11:59 p.m., when outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell, a native New Yorker, pressed a giant button with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The revelers powerfully counted down the last 20 seconds as they watched the 1,000-pound Waterford crystal-covered ball slump slowly from atop 1 Times Square.

As the clock struck midnight, a two-minute pyrotechnic display lit the sky and confetti fell from surrounding rooftops....

Springlike temperatures in the low to mid-50s helped draw the swelling crowds, who were protected by machine gun-toting police officers.

At 8:15 p.m., the crowd quieted to mark a moment of silence in Times Square to honor those killed in the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia....

For the first time in 32 years, the celebration took place without Dick Clark, the TV personality-producer who is recovering from a stroke. The daytime talk-show host Regis Philbin filled in for the 75-year-old Clark on ABC-TV’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.”

Philbin calls it “the greatest ‘temp job’ in the world.”...

In New York, as in recent years, police boats, helicopters, bomb squads and thousands of officers were on duty, and officers armed with radiation detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled Times Square.

At an office high-rise several blocks from Times Square, police arrested a man who was found carrying a loaded military-style rifle Friday evening. The incident briefly closed 33rd Street, but most revelers didn’t notice....

It’s been 100 years since revelers in New York first brought in the New Year in what was formerly known as Longacre Square. The tradition was started in 1904, by New York Times owner Adolph Ochs, who was building a new headquarters in the neighborhood.

The city had just renamed the oddly shaped “square” in the newspaper’s honor and at midnight Ochs had pyrotechnists illuminate his new building at One Times Square with fireworks shot from street level.

Three years later, when the city banned fireworks, Ochs brought in an illuminated iron and wooden ball, to be lowered from the building’s flagpole at midnight....

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ABC had this to say:

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Spring-like temperatures warmed close to a million revelers as they welcomed 2005 with wild cheering, confetti, fireworks and kisses a century after the first New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square.

The people, some wearing only sweaters or light jackets, were bathed in the bright lights of the so-called Crossroads of the World as the electrified white ball began its drop at 11:59 p.m. after outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell, a native New Yorker, pressed a giant button with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The crowd watched the 1,000-pound Waterford crystal-covered ball slump slowly from atop 1 Times Square, powerfully chanting each numeral of the last 20 seconds of the 60-second descent.

At midnight, a 2-minute city-sanctioned pyrotechnic display lit the sky as 3,000 pounds of confetti was released from rooftops of buildings throughout Times Square.

The new year arrived after the crowd listened to live music by Lindsay Lohan, Duran Duran and other performers, all setting the stage for Powell's moment....

With temperatures in the low to mid-50s, the swelling crowds were protected by machine gun-toting police officers led by Commissioner Ray Kelly, who said there were no new terrorism threats.

Some people heading to Times Square early in the evening were serenaded by police sirens as a mechanic at nearby 1 Penn Plaza was arrested at the 57-story office building when someone called police at 6:30 p.m. to say he was carrying a military-style rifle on the 12th floor.

Police said the man was arrested with the gun, which was loaded with a 10-round magazine. He was being interviewed by police, and charges were pending. The incident forced a brief closing of 33rd Street, next to Penn Station, which is across from the office building.

The incident went unnoticed by the bulk of the Times Square crowd, which paused as scheduled at 8:15 p.m. to observe a moment of silence to honor those killed in the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia....

Police boats monitored Staten Island ferries, long considered a possible target for potential attack. They also patrolled around Battery Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and the United Nations. Also, flights were banned below 4,000 feet from 23rd to 96th streets. Some subway platforms were closed, and plainclothes officers were on trains and street corners....

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[OE 1/6/2006: Did God strike Dick Clark down for promoting dancing? Perhaps.]