ShareThisBless Dick Clark's heart.
The world's oldest teenager is now 79, but still manages to stay up late every Dec. 31.
His New Year's Eve special will welcome the arrival of 2009 with the Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift, Lionel Richie, Natasha Bedingfield, Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney, Ne-Yo, Pussycat Dolls, Solange and Robin Thicke.
The Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift? Didn't Swift just break it off with Joe Jonas? Uh, oh. Awkward.
The party gets started at 10 p.m. Wednesday on ABC and goes beyond midnight, live from Times Square.
Clark can't do it all alone. He has Ryan Seacrest and pop star Fergie by his side.
The special will also act as a mini-reunion for the Black Eyed Peas of which Fergie was the lead singer.
Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am is scheduled to perform his latest song, "It's A New Day," which was a tribute to President-elect Barack Obama. "It's A New Day" follows on the success of Will's Emmy Award-winning "Yes We Can Song," which received over 15 million views on YouTube.
Over on NBC, Carson Daly will host a celebration beginning at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. He'll also have reports from Times Square. His musical guests include Katy Perry and rapper TI.
Fox will have talk show host Spike Feresten -- I suppose someone finds him funny -- headlining the countdown at 11 p.m. Guests include "American Idol" 2008 winner David Cook and Scott Weiland.
And as counter-programming against Clark, MTV will have one of the world's youngest stars. Way past her bedtime, Miley Cyrus will help usher in the New Year. She'll surprise a viewer by showing up at his or her home and performing.
The MTV party starts at 10:30 p.m. The Veronicas and Metro Station are on hand.
(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)
