‘Where’s Our Camera Guy?’: When Jamie Kennedy Hosted a Catastrophic New Year’s Eve Special

By the time Scream actor Jamie Kennedy and singer Macy Gray began counting down to New Year’s Day 2013, they were 10 seconds too late. It was already midnight.

That was likely the only way First Night 2013 With Jamie Kennedy could have turned out. For the previous hour, the New Year’s Eve special was plagued by production glitches, from Kennedy and co-hosts not being cued that they were on the air to cameras dropping coverage to one physical altercation in the live crowd.

By the time it was over—10 seconds later than necessary—viewers were left stunned and the media was wondering if Kennedy had headlined a mismanaged production or masterminded an elaborate televised hoax on the audience.

A Party on Hollywood Boulevard

The late Dick Clark is synonymous with televised New Year’s Eve celebrations, but he didn’t pioneer them. That honor belongs to Guy Lombardo, a bandleader who began ushering in the New Year on radio in 1929 before moving over to CBS television in the 1950s. Clark began his own New Year’s countdown in 1972 partly in response to Lombardo’s: Clark felt he could capture a hipper, younger audience, though Lombardo’s show remained the more popular of the two until its cessation (due to Lombardo’s death) in 1977.

Clark and his competitors typically broadcast from Times Square, which is where the ball drops. It stood to reason that there might be opportunity for a West Coast show with more of a Hollywood feel. That made sense to Jamie Kennedy, an actor (Scream, Malibu’s Most Wanted) and stand-up comedian who worked with an independent television producer named David Marquez (Championship Wrestling From Hollywood) to mount a regional broadcast.

As Kennedy explained in a 2022 YouTube video detailing the fiasco, he believed he could produce the show and realize a profit by recruiting sponsors. He assembled several, including Commerce Casino, fast food franchise Carl’s Jr.—which wanted to peddle its new jalapeño turkey burger—and Energy Upgrade California, an environmental state advocacy group, among others. Not everyone who signed on paid what was owed, according to Kennedy.

“{I could have made} three times my money,” Kennedy said in the video. “{But} I’m still in the hole on this thing.”

The full extent of the financial pain came later. At that moment, Kennedy was concerned with getting the special on the air. He approached KDOC, a local independent television station in Los Angeles, California. The channel was excited about a regional New Year’s event and agreed to broadcast it. Kennedy also secured the cooperation of TCL Chinese Theater (also known as Grauman’s Chinese Theater) on Hollywood Boulevard, an area Kennedy believed was the Los Angeles equivalent of Times Square. A press release touted appearances by Mario Lopez, Shaquille O’Neal, Eva Longoria, and others. Things seemed set up for success.

They weren’t. When First Night 2013 With Jamie Kennedy aired at 11 p.m. Pacific time on December 31, 2012, it was immediately obvious that there were production issues. After returning from a commercial break, Kennedy appeared confused as to whether the broadcast is live or not.

“Come on, man, don’t give me fucking shit,” a voice called out.

“Where’s our camera guy?” someone asked. “Where’s our stage manager?”

When co-host Stu Stone began interviewing actress Shannon Elizabeth, the production couldn't seem to train a camera on her—and as the show continued, the technical issues grew worse. At one point, a woman in the audience began mouthing the words written on the cue cards for Stone, who was interviewing an Energy Upgrade California spokesperson.

By the time musical group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony appeared on stage dropping four-letter words, KDOC was becoming concerned they might invite the wrath of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (“We couldn’t afford the {bleep} machine,” Kennedy later said of the on-air expletives.) Finally, after the mistimed countdown, the show concluded with two audience members getting into a physical fight on stage.

“There’s a fight,” Kennedy observed, narrating the action. “It’s ending with a fight. It’s ending with a fight. Guys, please. God bless you, get out. Go to a cartoon.”

There was one upside to this errant telecast: It was airing locally, not nationally. But thanks to one enterprising viewer, it was about to go viral.

Enter the Internet

Comedian Shaun Broyls was one of the viewers watching the New Year’s special and decided it deserved a wider audience. Broyls put clips on YouTube, which were amplified on social media by actor and comedian Patton Oswalt. “Sweet. Jesus,” Oswalt messaged on the platform now known as X. “KDOC Channel 56’s live 2012 New Year’s Eve broadcast. Does ANYONE have the full show? I am speechless.”

For a time, it became an internet obsession, not unlike the way some bad movies (The Room, Birdemic) are fetishized. Viewers used to the polish and inertia of the usual New Year's specials were left awestruck by the clunky production.

People began to speculate Kennedy had orchestrated the production gaffes. In addition to his film work, he had been host of The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, a reality prank show that aired from 2002 to 2004. Was First Night 2013 a spiritual sequel to that?

According to Kennedy, it wasn't. “It was totally supposed to be like that,” he told The New York Times. “We wanted to make almost an anti-New Year’s Eve show, and the recipe calls for unexpected.”

Guests, Kennedy said, enjoyed an open bar, which likely lowered their on-air inhibitions. The technical problems were due in part to poor crew communication. “We had a walkie-talkie issue from the beginning of the show. It was like, ‘3 … 2 … the walkies are out—you’re on!’ We didn’t have a lot of communication for about three-quarters of the show. So we were in Vietnam. But other stuff was supposed to be the way it was.”

Though Kennedy insisted Commerce Casino was ready for a New Year’s show the following year, and that he might even produce a show covering the Academy Awards, nothing materialized. The comedian has since done live shows on New Year’s Eve at comedy clubs, but not on television. In 2022, he released the entire 97-minute program to streaming services with a new title: Jamie Kennedy: New Year’s Eve.

Kennedy, who also compared the special to the sometimes-awkward Jerry Lewis charity telethons, observed that the chaos was ultimately a net positive. “We wanted to make a stink. Did we know it was going to make this much of a stink? No. But if I had done this correctly, would I be talking to you right now? ... Here’s what I say: I didn’t stab nobody, I didn’t shoot nobody. I just made a New Year’s Eve special. Is that so bad?”

Read More About Television: