newly renovated<\/a> to the tune of $1 billion. The segment will air live aboard a Sanlorenzo yacht, said Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s no better way to ring in the new year than by sharing Greater Fort Lauderdale\u2019s energy, diversity, and joy with a global audience,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it at Pier Sixty-Six on a yacht to feature the luxury lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The previous two years, Key West was featured on CNN\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve broadcast, Ritter said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stole it from Key West,\u201d she said Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible the reach the show has. There are 1 million people in Times Square alone, not to mention the millions watching here and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
To extend the national spotlight, Visit Lauderdale also will launch ads on digital billboards in New York City\u2019s Times Square. Spots will air during the New Year\u2019s Eve telecast and continue in the weeks following the broadcast.<\/p>\n
Those three minutes in the spotlight won\u2019t come free. But Ritter wasn\u2019t able to say just how much that marketing fee is costing.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a media buy that goes throughout the year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe live feature will highlight the energy of Greater Fort Lauderdale after dark, with stunning marina views, a festive New Year\u2019s Eve atmosphere, and appearances by local personalities joining the celebration,\u201d Visit Lauderdale said in a news release.<\/p>\n
Ritter said she was not at liberty to say which local celebrities have gotten an invite.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you yet,\u201d Ritter said. \u201cCNN embargoes a lot of this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ritter and her staff will be on the yacht along with employees of Pier Sixty-Six.<\/p>\n
Pier Sixty-Six is picking up the cost of the yacht rental and also comping the food and D.J., Ritter said.<\/p>\n
Dean Trantalis, mayor of Fort Lauderdale, says he\u2019s glad the city is getting three minutes of fame on the last day of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows us that our branding efforts throughout the year resonate nationally and internationally,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper see Fort Lauderdale as a place of interest for their viewers is validation of the good work everyone does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trantalis will be elsewhere: He plans to ring in 2026 at the \u201cAnchor Drop,\u201d Fort Lauderdale\u2019s signature New Year\u2019s Eve Downtown Countdown in Himmarshee Village. As part of the festivities, a large, illuminated anchor drops at midnight to ring in the new year.<\/p>\n
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale will be in the national spotlight come Dec. 31, snaring a spot on CNN\u2019s \u201cNew Year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-93684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-broward-county","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale","11":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","12":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}