Technical Glitch Knocks CBS New Year’s Eve Special Off Air for 12 Minutes

CBS's New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash was briefly knocked off the air during Lainey Wilson's performance when the broadcast abruptly cut to black and a technical difficulties crawl appeared. The interruption occurred roughly 42 to 50 minutes into the five-and-a-half-hour telecast, around 8:50 p.m. PT, before the feed unexpectedly switched to a rerun of Matlock mid-scene.

The drama starring Kathy Bates ran for a while, frequently interrupted by ads and promos and accompanied by a crawl reading, “We are experiencing technical difficulties,” which was subsequently replaced by a longer one, “We are experiencing technical difficulties, and programming will resume shortly.”

After Matlock aired for an extended stretch, the network returned viewers to more commercials before resuming the live special. The sequence sparked immediate backlash on social media, with viewers expressing frustration over the disruption and the delay in returning to the live New Year's Eve event.

When the broadcast resumed, Gretchen Wilson was performing, and the hosts addressed the situation directly from the stage as the show continued.

“We lost power here in Nashville, and we got kicked off the air on CBS,” Bert Kreischer said as he and fellow co-host Hardy joked that none of them pulled any plugs to cause the incident.

Executive producers Robert Deaton and Mary Hilliard Harrington organized the Nashville-based event in partnership with Music City Inc. and the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp foundation. The concert took place at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. It featured a lineup including Jason Aldean, Bailey Zimmerman, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, and other country artists.

The special aired live on CBS and streamed simultaneously on Paramount+. An in-person watch party was also held at Luke Combs's Category 10 in Nashville. The telecast ultimately resumed as planned, with co-hosts informing viewers and continuing the celebration of New Year's Eve with Nashville's music community.