CNN is laying the groundwork for their annual New Year’s Eve show with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, though they’ve gone with a curious promotional tactic, given their editorial stance and the current state of the country.

The network posted a promotional video on Thursday, which featured shows from past years while exclaiming “The crowds are back and so are we!”

The crowds are back and so are we! Who’s excited for New Year’s Eve with @AndersonCooper and @Andy?! The celebration starts at 8 p.m. ET! #CNNNYE pic.twitter.com/An6LmYy0DE

— CNN (@CNN) December 15, 2021

CNN’s decision to hype that “the crowds are back” is interesting, given the fact that the network frequently features pundits and experts who’ve warned against crowds throughout the coronavirus pandemic. On top of that, their most recent reporting has been suggestive that crowds might be problematic while the Omicron Covid variant is spreading across the country.

CNN’s John King led Inside Politics on Thursday by noting that case numbers are on the rise, causing a “sudden wave of major disruption” on multiple fronts. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen followed up by noting that even though Omicron appears less likely to cause severe illness, there are still plenty of unknowns to the variant, and it appears to surpass the Delta variant in contagiousness. She did explain, however, that even if vaccines and boosters can’t prevent Omicron infections, they can still help protect from the worst of it.

The segment continued with King pulling up a map on CNN’s “magic board” and looking at where cases numbers are climbing fastest around the country. He also noted that “hospitalizations are up” right now, with 70,000 Americans being treated when the number was 47,000 a month ago.

If CNN goes ahead with their usual New Years’ show primarily based out of New York, they’ll have to contend with the fact that Covid positivity rates have been trending upwards since mid-October. In fact, the city’s Covid positivity rate doubled in the last 3 days as of this writing.

Watch above, via CNN.

The post ‘The Crowds Are Back: CNN Promotes New Year’s Eve Special While Warning Viewers Against Crowds first appeared on Mediaite.

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