Maybe I Should Have Watched CNN’s New Year's Eve Coverage

Happy New Year, everyone! I know this newsletter has been a little light over the past couple of weeks, but I plan to rectify that this year. I hope you all had a good New Year’s celebration. Personally, I’m not one for going out on New Year’s, and frankly, the weather wasn’t cooperating anyway.

It’s also been a while since I’ve even bothered watching the usual New Year’s Eve coverage in New York City. Who cares anyway? I’m done with the whole circus. Staying home, watching whatever’s on, pausing for a quick midnight toast works just fine for me. This year, we watched The Wonder Years and then timed Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight so the drum fill hit right at midnight.

Well, it turns out I missed something, though. Comic Amy Sedaris shocked CNN’s viewers with a transgender joke during the network’s live broadcast, co-hosted by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. The joke came less than 30 minutes into the special, where Sedaris appeared as the first guest, so in reality, that was likely the best and only good moment of the special.

Here’s what happened.

Cooper read a viewer question asking where the best place to meet a man in 2026 might be and tossed it to Sedaris. She replied, “I’d say in the ladies’ room, but—” before trailing off. Cooper and Cohen responded with dead silence. Cohen, reportedly a hardline defender of the trans community, must have been fuming.

Later in the segment, Sedaris got a chance to backtrack, but she didn’t. She doubled down.

When a viewer asked for the best excuse to get out of a prior commitment, Sedaris said, “I say, nothing, anything after because it’s bulls—t.”

More silence from Cooper and Cohen. She’s right about that one.

Of course, the bathroom joke sparked immediate backlash on social media, with critics slamming it as transphobic. Who cares? She’s not wrong. I’m pleased to see she didn’t feel the need to remain silent on the issue. Sure, she’ll get some backlash and criticism, but the fact that she made the joke in the first place and didn’t back down… well, that tells us the tide is turning against this crazy fade, and that’s something to celebrate about 2026.