Andy Cohen gives in to CNN’s New Year’s alcohol ban

Fans who enjoy watching Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen get drunk and intoxicated as CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live goes on, expect a more sober affair this year.

“We’re not drinking, but we’re going to have a blast,” Cohen told Page Six this week after speculating a lot about whether the hosts would get drunk this year.

In November, reports surfaced that CNN’s new chairman and CEO, Chris Licht, would ban correspondents and anchors from drinking during the New Year’s Eve show. But Cohen said at the time that the ban didn’t apply to him and his co-host, noting, “I think people like to watch me try to plaster Anderson, and I will.”

Cohen doubled down in a Rolling Stone story published Wednesday, telling the magazine that only the “correspondents” were barred from drinking and that he and Cooper “would party even harder on their behalf.”

But he backtracked on that claim in his interview with Page Six, saying he made his comments on Rolling Stone a month ago. The Washington Post, citing “a network source,” confirmed that the ban also extends to Cooper and Cohen.