For years, Mariah Carey and the holiday season meshed well together due to the actress' extremely popular Christmas album and its hit singles, but an awkward new wrinkle was added this past weekend when the Grammy winner experienced a problematic set during ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve special. Somewhat surprisingly, Carey's camp publicly pointed accusatory fingers at producers, claiming the sound equipment was intentionally botched. To be expected, Dick Clark Productions' own reps did not take that kind of blame game lightly, issuing this flaming response.
As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists. To suggest that DCP, as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year's Rockin' Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd.
That's one hell of a rebuttal, and one that is likely justified, assuming all parties involved with the production indeed took the moral high ground in this scenario. It's pretty ludicrous to think that the people whose jobs it is to make the special go as flawlessly as possible would make the reverse decision to get audiences to cringe as much as possible during Mariah Carey's planned three-song segment. But come on, there are too many millions of dollars invested in an event like this to blindly accept that a conspiracy to embarrass Carey was at play, right? People who are potentially in the wrong usually don't bring defamation into it.
I mean, I get that some in the TV world do "whatever it takes" in order to get eyeballs on projects, and by far the best way to do that these days is through videos going viral online. And, yes, clips have an exponentially greater chance of reaching said viral-ability if they are centered on a major entertainer dealing with a grand-scale screw-up like this. But that just proves that a form of motivation can exist, and not that Dick Clark Productions was actually responsible for screwing with Carey's equipment. Had this been a public access show put on by a bunch of high-schoolers who weren't as invested in repercussions or the future, perhaps the sabotage claims would be easier to initially consider.
The production company also acknowledged that things don't always go perfect - which is pretty in line with how Mariah Carey herself reacted to the performance. Here's what else their statement said, according to Variety.
In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television, however, an initial investigation has indicated that (Dick Clark Productions) had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey's New Year's Eve performance. We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry.
So if you're on Dick Clark Productions' side, then it looks like there was never any bad blood. And if you're on Mariah Carey's side, then this wasn't going to convince you no matter how good it sounded. The joy of debate!
It's unclear how things will play out on this front in the near future, but you can bet Mariah Carey won't be agreeing to if ABC asks her to be on Rockin' Chinese New Year later this month. (Not a special that actually exists.) To see what will be debuting this month and beyond, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
