Ratings: Ryan Seacrest, ‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve’ clobbers Carson Daly, NBC

ABC has plenty to be happy about right now, and it also appears as though the “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” franchise has not been hurt in any way by the death of Dick Clark last year. After all, how else do you justify the massive ratings for the 2012 edition of the show?

Overall, Ryan Seacrest, Jenny McCarthy, and the rest of the gang brought in their best rating in 12 years with a 4.1 in the 18-49 demographic for the 10:00 p.m. hour. (The show also ended up posting over 13 million.) There were questions about whether or not the tradition would remain intact, and the presence of so many familiar faces along with performances from Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift probably helped. (We don’t have the numbers for 11:00 p.m. just yet, but we anticipate them being even higher than this.)

As for some of Seacrest’s competition, let’s just say that not everyone is as excited to see Carson Daly’s New Year’s Eve special over on NBC. With a 1.1 rating and 3.8 million viewers at 10:00, it was a distant second place for the hour. This may just be evidence that not everyone wants to watch these shows until closer to midnight, but it may also show that “The Voice” as a show means more for ratings than its individual winner in Cassadee Pope (who sang during the show, and you can watch the performance for it here). Daly has consistently been a distant second place to Seacrest on the night, as no network has really been able to ever rival either Clark or Seacrest on December 31.

Did you get an opportunity to see who McCarthy kissed at midnight on New Year’s Eve? Be sure to check out the video for it over at the link here.

Photo: ABC