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Ryan Seacrest publicly addressed Mariah Carey's New Year's Eve disaster for the first time during Thursday's broadcast of his radio show "On Air With Ryan Seacrest."
And apparently the "Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve" host was fortunate (unlike the rest of the world) in that he didn't actually see Carey bombing in Times Square as it was happening live.
"Interestingly, from where I was, I remember after I introduced the artist, I immediately physically moved from that stage back down several blocks to the other stage. So I didn't have a visual," Seacrest said of Carey's performance.
"I'm just catching up on all this. But there's been a lot reported about the performance in Times Square for Mariah. And, you know, just to talk about it for a second, it is difficult to perform in Times Square," he said.
"She had done it before because she was the first musical guest that we had had live when I started doing the show ... about a decade ago. So she had seen it. She knows what Times Square's about. It's complicated. Imagine every single outlet -- TV outlet -- in the world is there, so there's all kinds of technical things going on."
As TooFab reported, Carey walked aimlessly around the stage during large portions of her ""Rockin' Eve"" performance because she claimed her earpiece was not working. Throughout the live gig, Carey told the audience she couldn't hear and was "trying to be a good sport."
"We didn't have a [sound]check for this song, so we'll just say it went to number one," she added.
Carey ended the performance by saying, "That was ... amazing," and "It just don't get any better," before walking offstage.
Carey's team placed the blame on producers of "Rockin Eve," Dick Clark Productions, saying they intentionally sabotaged the pop diva.
In Carey's first post-performance interview, she said: "All I can say is Dick Clark was an incredible person and I was lucky enough to work with him when I first started in the music business. I'm of the opinion that Dick Clark would not have let an artist go through that and he would have been as mortified as I was in real time."
In a statement obtained by TooFab, Dick Clark Productions denied allegations that its staff sabotaged Carey's performance in order to boost ratings.
"As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists. To suggest that DCP, as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year's Rockin' Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd."
"In very rare instances there are of course technical errors that can occur with live television," the statement continued, "an initial investigation has indicated that DCP had no involvement in the challenges associated with Ms. Carey's New Year's Eve performance. We want to be clear that we have the utmost respect for Ms. Carey as an artist and acknowledge her tremendous accomplishments in the industry."
Watch the performance (below) and see more celebrity new year celebrations in the gallery (above).
