Comedian Whitney Cummings didn’t hold back from taking shots at Democrats and the liberal media during her guest appearance on CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live 2025 special.
Taking center stage alongside hosts Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper in New York City, Cummings issued some biting commentary to roast CNN’s dwindling viewership numbers.
While promoting her 2025 comedy tour, Cummings joked about the decline of CNN’s audience.
“I thought being a mom would mean less people want to come see me. Now I’m playing like 3,000-seat theaters, which is about the viewership of CNN these days,” she quipped.
NEW: Anderson Cooper stands completely speechless after Whitney Cummings says Dems couldn’t hold a primary because they were too busy holding up a dead body.
“It was amazing that the Pro-Choice Party didn’t give their voters one…”pic.twitter.com/EtxIcMKRXZ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2025
She quickly clarified, “Not this show, though! All eyes are on this show.” The jab highlighted the liberal network’s struggle to maintain its audience in recent years.
Cummings ramped up the energy when addressing the political chaos of 2024, delivering sharp sarcasm directed at the Democratic Party.
“The 2024 election fried our brains,” she remarked. “The Democrats couldn’t hold a primary this year because they were too busy holding a body upright.”
Pausing briefly to check, “Are we still rolling? Am I off?” Cohen encouraged her to continue, prompting her to tackle Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed presidential campaign.
“It was amazing. The pro-choice party didn’t give their voters one when it came to the presidential candidate,” she teed up.
“Kamala [Harris] was forced on us so hard, you’d think she was patented by Pfizer—or Moderna… Oh God, Andy just gave me a very scary look.”
The criticism kept coming as she poked fun at both social media scandals and Hollywood.
Cummings referenced media personalities with no reservations, gleefully joking about the weather turning sinister and tying it to Cooper’s former co-host, Kathy Griffin.
“Was that thunder? Are you sure? I thought it was Kathy Griffin screaming at you from the street? Are you sure? I think she’s cursing,” she delivered.
Cooper replied, “Well, no doubt.” This playful exchange alluded to Griffin’s contentious departure as co-host following her controversial photo shoot in 2017 depicting a severed head resembling then-President Donald Trump.
Cummings also reflected on the bizarre and infamous moments of 2024, claiming, “This was the year that people were behaving so poorly we started being wistful about murderers.”
“Remember, this was the year we were like, were the Menendez brothers so bad? Were we too hard on the Menendez brothers?” she questioned.
Her biting wit extended to a variety of topics, including celebrity news and supremacy movements.
She remarked, “Of course, our heartthrob of the year was the alleged cold-blooded killer named Luigi who is now in the same prison as Diddy which I’m very upset about cause Luigi already has a lower back issue.”
“This was the year nothing made sense, fertility was down, sales of baby oil was up,” she cracked.
Cummings even skewered white supremacist movements, saying, “White supremacy groups reached record highs. It got so bad Ariana Grande became white again.”
Naturally, big corporations such as Disney also found themselves under Cummings’ comedic scrutiny.
Speaking about controversial investments, she joked, “The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia put money into Disney, so just know there won’t be any girl characters in the next Cars movie.”
Meanwhile, fellow guest Roy Wood Jr. kept his humor sharper than the New York winter air.
Roy Wood Jr. refused tequila shot on #CNNNYE: “The Last Black Man To Drink On This Network Got Fired” pic.twitter.com/X9DeQG5gPm
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) January 1, 2025
Refusing a drink offered by Cohen, he said bluntly, “No, I don’t. The last Black man that drank on this network got fired. I’m going to keep it with water for right now. I need some stability.”
The edgy remark was an apparent dig at former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who left the network in 2023 after a 17-year career. Wood’s quick wit left Cohen and Cooper visibly startled.
Lemon, who once headlined CNN’s New Year’s Eve specials, parted ways with the network amid a turbulent few years of controversies and shifts in leadership.