An on-air moment from ESPN’s New Year’s Eve coverage is going viral, after host Scott Van Pelt reacted awkwardly to a same-sex kiss during the Times Square ball drop. As confetti fell and couples kissed, Van Pelt joked, “Yeah… Live makeouts on SportsCenter. Get into it.” Moments later, two men appeared kissing on screen. Van Pelt hesitated, saying, Ohhhhhhhh! What are we…. before pivoting to, “What do we got? We got love in the air.” He then shrugged and added, “Who’s having a good time? Happy New Year, everybody!” The clip has racked up more than 7.1 million views on Twitter. Reactions are mixed. One user wrote, “You can literally see the moment he realizes ‘oh this is LIVE live… act normal.’”
Others argued the issue wasn’t the kiss, but the chaos of live TV.
