Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen were in Times Square on New Year's Eve in order to ring in 2018 live for CNN. They were based out of Times Square, which meant that viewers got a good look at the ball dropping on top of all the Cooper/Cohen banter. Of course, broadcasting live from Times Square also meant spending hours outside in frigid temperatures. Luckily, Cooper came up with a way to keep warm while broadcasting the end of 2017, and it had everything to do with his wardrobe choice. He revealed his trick for not freezing, saying this:
I spent $2,900 buying electric clothing. I didn't know that they had electrically heated clothing now. There's a battery pack on your socks, a battery back on your vest, on your long underwear, on your hat, on your gloves, and they sold me the Ferrari of warming gloves, they said. It was kind of amazing.
Apparently Anderson Cooper was willing to shell out some pretty big bucks in order to stay warm in Times Square on New Year's Eve. He's probably not going to need his electrically heated clothing for most of the other nights of the year, although he could very well make them an annual part of his ensemble if he continues the tradition of co-hosting the CNN celebrations. Still, it's hard to blame him for taking drastic measures if they were within his means. It was very, very cold on New Year's Eve in Times Square.
In fact, New Year's Eve 2017 was the coldest in Times Square since way back in 1917 and the second coldest ever recorded for the celebrations in Times Square. The temperature for Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen was only nine degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind chill was almost certainly below zero. Good for him for taking precautions to keep warm and cozy! After all, the CNN broadcast wouldn't have been very entertaining if Cooper had been shivering with his teeth chattering for hours on end, and there were plenty of other options for viewing on New Years Eve if CNN hadn't been any fun.
Viewers wouldn't have known that Anderson Cooper was wearing heated clothes just by looking at him. Cooper went on in his chat with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to explain how he managed to hide his secret weapon against the cold:
I had coats over it, but every now and then, you could press a button and your pecs would get really hot.
I'm guessing plenty of the other New Year's Eve hosts in Times Square will be retroactively jealous to find out that Anderson Cooper had battery-operated warmth in his winter gear all night. Who knows? Maybe this will be the start of a fad for folks who are on the Times Square hosting circuit every year.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news. For your viewing options now that we're into the new year, check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere guide. If you're not up on all the shows that didn't make it out of 2017, take a look at our breakdown of all the series that got the axe last year. The latest episode of The Cord Cutter Podcast can fill you in on some of the biggest and most exciting news on the streaming front in 2018.
