Stephen Colbert with guests Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, and Louis Cato (Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)
Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen shared a shotski with Late Show host Stephen Colbert and band leader Louis Cato, ahead of a sit-down during which they revisited tipsy CNN New Year’s Eve Live specials of years past.
Cohen is known for busting out a shotski on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, but for this special occasion, Colbert furnished a Late Show-branded version.
Watch a clip below.
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) December 17, 2025
Cooper and Cohen are set to again headline CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen countdown special, which kicks off Wednesday, December 31, at 8 p.m. ET, and this year features guests such as Colbert, SNL‘s Sarah Sherman, Leanne Morgan, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, B.J. Novak, Amy Sedaris, and mentalist Oz Perlman.
After kicking back the “very big” shots (as Cohen observed), Colbert opened Tuesday night’s Late Show Q&A by asking Cooper what he remembers about hitting Patti Lupone’s New Year’s Eve party following last year’s CNN special.
Cooper started to form an answer when Cohen interrupted to remind, “You remember none of it! You were so drunk!”
“I may have been drunk,” Cooper allowed, saying that he doesn’t really imbibe except “when I’m with this guy” on New Year’s Eve.
“Let me say this…,” Cohen jumped in. “Around 10:45 on New Year’s Eve every year, I become the straight man of our broadcast. I am driving the ship of CNN starting at 10:45.
“I hear the slur in his voice, I know his voice so well,” Cohen said of detecting when the hourly on-air shots start to impact co-host Cooper. “And last year, I really did get him a little drunk, so by the time we went to Patti Lupone’s house—.”
“I was fully in control,” Cooper insisted. “I don’t remember much, but it was fun.”
Cooper in turn dished that he spends “the last 30 minutes” of every CNN New Year’s Eve Live broadcast “looking at things online to see in what ways has [Andy] screwed us over. In what ways I’m going to have to clean up after [him].”
The two then shared a knowing chuckle over a Drudge Report headline from a past NYE outing.
“Will the headline be the next morning, ”This Is CNN?’ with a picture of this guy”? Cooper recalled.
