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Arts & Entertainment

Jamie Kennedy Explains His Live TV Disaster On New Year's Eve: 'It Was Totally Supposed To Be Like That'

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So how do you create the worst New Year's Eve show of all time that features unbleeped f-bombs, loopy celebrities and technical difficulties worse than anything you've seen on cable access TV? If you're Jamie Kennedy, you claim that you totally planned it that way all along.

Kennedy was beaming with pride as he spoke to the New York Times about the notoriously terrible New Year's Eve show that he hosted on Orange County's KDOC this year: "It was totally supposed to be like that. We wanted to make almost an anti-New Year’s Eve show, and the recipe calls for unexpected. We had an open bar for our guests, we were unrehearsed. It was not glamorous."

So when he says he totally planned for the show to be a trainwreck, he actually means that they didn't plan at all. They didn't rehearse or do too much planning lest the show come off as some slick Ryan Seacrest production. Mission accomplished.

Kennedy said the inspiration for the show was Jerry Lewis' 24-hour telethons, where anything could happen:

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? No. How many people are talking about a New Year’s special on the 4th? Carson Daly, Ryan Seacrest - no. They’re talking about me. Some people really go after you, and I don’t know where the hate comes from. 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?

If you fall into the camp of people who thought the show was actually so bad it's good, then you'll be happy to hear this could be a tradition. Kennedy said Commerce Casino is ready to sponsor the show next year, and Marilyn Manson texted Kennedy to say he'd love to be on next year's show.Here's the show in case you missed it the first time:

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Related:
Video: Local TV Station's Disastrous New Year's Eve Live Show

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