'NEW YEAR'S ROCKIN' EVE' When the ball drops, we'll be watching

Dick Clark and Co. will make their annual return, right on time.
By DAVE MASON
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Nothing -- not oranges falling in Miami, not orchestra members made up like KISS in Australia -- can compete with the dropping of the giant ball in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve. Dick Clark said it's amazing how the attention over that ball, which is dropped exactly at midnight, has grown.
"It started off very simply years ago with my wife [Kari] and I and a cameraman and a step ladder," Clark, 74, said about his annual Big Apple special on ABC. "Now we have 100 or more people [in the crew]; it's a major production."
Clark will be in New York Wednesday night for the annual countdown for "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2004." Meanwhile, Jessica Simpson and her husband, Nick Lachey, host the segment of singers performing at CBS Studio Center in Studio City. Simpson and Lachey starred this fall in the MTV reality series "Newlyweds."
The New Year's Eve special, tape-delayed for the West Coast, begins at 10 p.m. with "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin Eve," followed by his "New Year's Rockin' Eve 2004" at 11:35.
Who's playing
Performers before the audience in Studio City include Donna Summer, The Black Eyed Peas, Hall & amp; Oates, Jagged Edge, Jason Mraz and 3 Doors Down. Simpson and Lachey also will sing.
From Australia, the Melbourne Symphony will perform with KISS.
"The symphony performers will be in KISS makeup. It's going to be a little bizarre," Clark said.
Clark's special doesn't feature any singers in New York City, but the giant ball is enough to draw crowds.
"It will depend on the weather. If it's good, they will start coming out at 2 or 3 o'clock and stand for nine hours," Clark said. "If it's cold, nobody is there; then miraculously, they come out from nowhere.
"There are barricades and there's no drinking; it's more of a family-oriented affair than it used to be," Clark said. He said the additional controls began before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Competition
Other cities have tried to compete with New York City for the attention; Miami, for example, has dropped oranges from buildings. But Clark said nothing tops that big ball, which has been dropped since 1944. Today computers are used to make certain the ball is dropped exactly at midnight.
"It's a moment in time for being retrospective," Clark said.
Clark, meanwhile, isn't the only one with a New York City-based special on New Year's Eve.
It's tough to compete with Times Square, but that won't stop other networks from trying. Other New Year's Eve programming includes celebrations on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in Burbank and CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman" in New York City. Both shows begin at 11:35 p.m. and are taped several hours in advance of midnight.