{"id":476313,"date":"2025-12-28T03:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476313\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T03:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T03:59:18","slug":"the-times-square-ball-drop-will-happen-twice-for-2026-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476313\/","title":{"rendered":"The Times Square ball drop will happen twice for 2026. Here’s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Times Square numerals installed ahead of New Year’s Eve ball drop<\/p>\n

Numerals were installed atop historic One Times Square in preparation for the city’s iconic New Year’s Eve ball drop and celebration.<\/p>\n

The “ball”<\/a> is dropping twice to ring in 2026.<\/p>\n

Days ahead of the iconic Times Square New Year\u2019s Eve Ball Drop<\/a> in New York City, America250<\/a> announced a “post-midnight moment” to mark America’s 250th anniversary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the ball makes its 60-second descent to signal<\/a> the start of the new year<\/a>, the ball will be relit with an America250 design above the illuminated “2026” numerals and be dropped again at approximately 12:04 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

In addition to the second ball drop, a new video titled “America Turns 250,”<\/a> a red, white, and blue confetti drop and a “dynamic pyro finale set” to the tune of Ray Charles\u2019 rendition of “America the Beautiful” is slated to occur.<\/p>\n

America250 will build “anticipation”<\/a> for the moment with a series of features over the course of the evening, including a reveal of the America250 Ball Design atop One Times Square during \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner” beginning at 6:04 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

According to America250, the nonpartisan entity charged with organizing the celebration, the moment will also mark the start of a partnership that will include another Times Square Ball Drop on July 4.<\/p>\n

From Labubus to the Coldplay kiss cam: <\/strong>See most viral moments of 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

“America250 will kick off the semiquincentennial year on New Year\u2019s Eve in Times Square \u2014 the most watched celebration on the planet \u2014 signaling that the largest and most inspiring celebration and commemoration in our nation\u2019s history is underway in 2026,\u201d Rosie Rios, Chair of America250, said in a statement. “Our goal is to inspire all 350 million Americans to join in this moment to celebrate our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to watch the Times Square ball drop<\/p>\n

While major commercial networks<\/a>, including ABC and CBS, will air the New Year’s Eve celebrations live on their respective channels and streaming services, viewers also have the option to watch a live webcast on Times Square’s official website<\/a> starting 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n

“Enjoy commercial-free, webcast coverage of the festivities leading up to the Ball Drop at midnight, including backstage access, behind-the-scenes stories and interviews with performers and other celebrities,” the agency said on its website.<\/p>\n

A livestream with open captions and American Sign Language interpretation will also be available on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Another ball drop scheduled for July 3<\/p>\n

According to America250, Constellation Ball\u00a0drop again on Friday, July 3. It will be the first time in history the ball won’t only drop on New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n

“The Fourth of July countdown moment will anchor America250\u2019s nationwide Independence Day celebrations and reinforce New York City\u2019s central role in the nation\u2019s Semiquincentennial,” the organization said.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Times Square numerals installed ahead of New Year’s Eve ball drop Numerals were installed atop historic One Times…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":476314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[209652,5229,8015,215773,15328,28889,627,64821,2879,19819,472,11090,85397,7709,19820,11652,3466,4289,40848,938,948,942,635,145751,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,450,950,1457,1451,19817,1409,36337,637,9307,939,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,102646,7827,636],"class_list":{"0":"post-476313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-209652","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-american","11":"tag-american-sign-language","12":"tag-cbs","13":"tag-cbs-corp","14":"tag-corp","15":"tag-eve","16":"tag-events","17":"tag-events-u0026-listings","18":"tag-history","19":"tag-holiday","20":"tag-holiday-marketplace-hub","21":"tag-holidays","22":"tag-holidays-u0026-seasonal-events","23":"tag-hub","24":"tag-language","25":"tag-listings","26":"tag-marketplace","27":"tag-network","28":"tag-network-trending","29":"tag-neutral","30":"tag-new","31":"tag-new-years-eve","32":"tag-new-york","33":"tag-new-york-city","34":"tag-news","35":"tag-newyork","36":"tag-newyorkcity","37":"tag-ny","38":"tag-nyc","39":"tag-overall","40":"tag-overall-neutral","41":"tag-overall-positive","42":"tag-positive","43":"tag-seasonal","44":"tag-sign","45":"tag-square","46":"tag-times","47":"tag-times-square","48":"tag-trending","49":"tag-u0026","50":"tag-united-states","51":"tag-united-states-of-america","52":"tag-unitedstates","53":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","54":"tag-us","55":"tag-usa","56":"tag-usa-250","57":"tag-years","58":"tag-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}