Lateralus

Looks good to me, his voice is off a little bit but I think all is good. The way people were talking I thought he was hunched over and drooling.

whotony

as far as I can tell only his speaking is affected.
it is probably more then that but he is sitting at a desk and it doesn't matter for purpose of his appearance on the countdown show.

JeffTheAlpaca

they should let him do one more show to close out 2009 and bring in 2010 then somebody close to him like a family friend or his wife should tell him nicely that it would be better if he left the show and we don't want to see you struggle to do the show in front of a nationwide tv audience.

Fox does not allow Pat Summerall to do the big NFL games anymore once he lost his abilities to call the game without making countless mistakes so why should Clark even though he is a legend continue to do the show just because of his name and reputation?

I think they should also remove the title "Dick Clarks Rockin New Year" from the title once he leaves instead of using "Dick Clarks Rockin New Years with Ryan Seacrest" so Seacrest can create his own show with his own imprint on it and it won't piss off the Dick Clark fans thinking Seacrest is equal to Dick Clark in talent.

TheNightFlier

I thought he actually looked better than last year.

whotony

Who says he is struggling?
Dick Clark just sits at a desk and offers up some thoughts and welcomes in the new year.
He doesnt have to see anything and call a football game.
Clark owns the show, doesn't he, so he probably won't take his name off.

CertifiedTHX

I thought he sounded better last year than he did this year. He seemed to be struggling more with his speech this time. But his mind was sharp as ever.

Did anyone else hear Seacrest mention that this was Dick Clark's last year with the show?

--THX

Jason

When they started the countdown, Dick said "one last time" or "one more time" (not sure which), so he might be hanging it up.

Timber

Yeah, I was wondering that myself when they had Seacrest come into the studio after wards. Sort of seemed like a passing of the torch. As much as I was bothered by Clark last night I don't want to see this show with just Seacrest next year.

Jason

I missed Seacrest in the studio with Clark. I had already flipped over to Fox for their idiotic coverage of Evil Kineval jumping a volcano or something.

Seacrest is lame, but he was a lot better than the spaced out blonde bimbo they had working the crowd.

Michael Corvin

Not sure which New Year's you rang in, but Evil Kinevil died last year.

Jimmy James

If we're nitpicking, that was Evel Knievel.

I imagine it was his son Robbie who attempted a stunt last night, though I heard nothing about it and still haven't made it over to YouTube to see it.

big whoppa

Finally watched Dick tonight. He looked OK though it was tough at times. Mentally, he was all there but his speech was hard to understand.

Dick Clark productions runs this show, the American Music Awards, and many others.

vaporware

I agree. He seemed better in that clip than he did a few years ago.

Jack Straw

To answer the OP's question, probably "yes".

From the initial comments I was expecting a LOT worse. He's still hasn't fallen over the cliff yet. That being said, he still looks and sounds like an old coot in the booth compared to the kids on the street.

DRG

Ha, no kidding. I expected to see him looking like the Crypt Keeper and sounding like Rain Man. After the clip... considering his age and condition he did a great job. I think I'd be more worried for him if he didn't show up at all.

Michael Corvin

I think the year he hangs up the towel there will be people complaining about him not being there after it's all said and done.

albert_m

I hope he continues to improve and have good years ahead of him, but in every profession, there's a time to move on. It's been time for years now for him to pass the torch gracefully.

DeanoBKN

Let the man do his thing.

Breakfast with Girls

He started doing the NYE countdown in 1972, I say make 2012 his last for an even 40 years. He looked and sounded fine to me in the clip, just a deeper, slower voice.

boc4ever

I found it tough to watch also. I work with special needs kids so it wasn't because of his difficulties speaking, etc. I just prefer to remember Dick as the upbeat host of Bandstand, Bloopers and the New Year's Eve Show and not as the man desperately trying to form sentences.

Joe Schmoe

So what happened to his teeth?

Numanoid

"Why are you watching 'Weekend at Bernie's'?"

"This is Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years!"

mphtrilogy

The kiss with the wife was a bit uncomforttable after the first 7 seconds...

Nefarious

I thought it was a downer, too. But, as previously mentioned, most other networks weren't doing shit. WTF? I seem to remember every network had a big New Year's show on and we'd flip back and forth to catch the different acts, etc. The whole event seems to have fallen off the wayside.

We watched the ball drop for EST (we live in CST) and it was hardest to hear Clark do the countdown. I didn't mind them flipping over to him for thoughts and what not but he struggles to speak so a countdown doesn't seem to be appropriate. It seemed a little out of sync, including the lights on the ball, and was a little anti-climatic. You need someone down there in the crowd counting down so it is crazy. Not the studio guy with the condition.

Pickler -- whoever got her involved needs fired. She's atrocious and a joke. I'm no Seacrest fan but I'm not surprised they anointed him. I think they involved him years ago expecting Clark to get out of the game (or die) and neither has happened. That's one long transition plan.

After the NYC ball drop we flipped to ESPN to see the motorcycle stunt. The only good part of that was the open-mike f-bomb after the jump.

wm lopez

On Monday's THE VIEW Joy said he still looks like 25 years old.