JONAS BROTHERS, TAYLOR SWIFT AND LIONEL RICHIE TO PERFORM LIVE FROM TIMES SQUARE ON "DICK CLARK'S NEW YEAR'S ROCKIN' EVE WITH RYAN SEACREST 2009," DECEMBER 31ST ON ABC

Special Broadcast Will Also Feature Performances from Hollywood by Natasha Bedingfield, Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney, Ne-Yo, Pussycat Dolls, Solange and Robin Thicke and Hosted by Fergie

ABC and dick clark productions announced today that "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009" will ring in the New Year Wednesday, December 31 on ABC with special live performances from Times Square by teen sensations the Jonas Brothers, one of country music's hottest performers Taylor Swift, and one of the all-time great hit-makers, Lionel Richie, in front of hundreds of thousands of people in Times Square and millions more viewers at home. As previously announced, Natasha Bedingfield, Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney, Ne-Yo, Pussycat Dolls, Solange and Robin Thicke will perform during the Hollywood Party segments of the broadcast, which will be hosted by Fergie. The evening's festivities will be supported by country music star Kellie Pickler, who will report on what's happening live in and around Times Square.

The specials will be hosted by Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest from New York. They will kick off with "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009" (10:00-11:00 p.m. ET). After taking a half-hour break for local news, the specials will resume at 11:30 p.m., ET for reports on the final minutes of the year 2008, the traditional Times Square countdown to midnight and more special musical performances.

Airtimes are:

"Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009" (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET)

"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009" Part 1 (11:30 p.m. � 1:08 a.m., ET)

"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009" Part 2 (1:08 � 2:11 a.m., ET)

Orly Adelson, president of dick clark productions, said: "Celebrating the New Year with good friends and great music is a tradition. 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009' will give worldwide viewers an opportunity to do just that by featuring performances by some of the biggest names in entertainment."

The Jonas Brothers have experienced a meteoric rise into a pop culture phenomenon following their eponymous Hollywood Records debut. A multi-platinum selling act, Jonas Brothers also have two sold out headline tours, become Disney Channel TV stars and penned their first book. The release of their latest blockbuster CD, "A Little Bit Longer," was highlighted with a record attendance of over 20,000 people at "Good Morning America's" Summer Concert Series in Bryant Park and three sold out shows in New York's famed Madison Square Garden. Jonas Brothers created more history by having three albums in the top 10, with #1 "A Little Bit Longer," # 8 "Camp Rock" soundtrack and # 10 "Jonas Brothers." Their 3-D concert movie is set to debut in theaters in February, followed by their own television series, "JONAS," scheduled to debut on Disney Channel in Spring of 2009.

Taylor Swift solidified her position as one of the most important artists to emerge on the popular music scene this decade when her sophomore album, "Fearless," debuted at #1 atop Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart in November. With sales of over 592,000 units, that gave her the largest opening U.S. sales week in 2008 by a female artist in all genres of music and the fourth biggest sales debut overall, while also landing the biggest Country digital album sales debut in the history of Nielsen's SoundScan. "Fearless" has since scanned over 1,000,000 units in just three weeks. Taylor, who is Nashville's most critically-acclaimed artist this year, writes all of her own songs and she co-produced her latest album. She also recently broke the all-time Billboard record for the number of Top 20 debuts on the Hot 100 in a calendar year by any artist in any genre with six Top 20 debut singles. Sales of her self-titled debut are rapidly approaching four-times platinum and it is the best-selling country title this year. Widely recognized as the first superstar of the MySpace generation, Taylor recently surpassed the 150 million mark for music streams on MySpace.

Lionel Richie's new release, "Just Go," will be released in February. Richie is a pop icon who has sold more than 100 million records worldwide in his career, and has had the honor of winning an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award (both for "Say You, Say Me," from White Knights) and a total of five Grammys (collectively for "Truly," "Can't Slow Down" and "We Are The World"). Richie has the distinction of being the only songwriter in the modern pop era to write #1 song hits in nine consecutive years: 1978 ("Three Times a Lady" with the Commodores), 1979 ("Still" with the Commodores), 1980 ("Lady" for Kenny Rogers), 1981 ("Endless Love" duet with Diana Ross), 1982 ("Truly"), 1983 ("All Night Long"), 1984 ("Hello"), 1985 ("We Are the World" with Michael Jackson for USA for Africa) and 1986 ("Say You, Say Me").

The specials are presentations of dick clark productions, inc. Executive producers are Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest and Orly Adelson. Larry Klein produces. Barry Glazer and Bruce Gowers direct. Production designer is Bruce Ryan. Talent producers are Melissa Trueblood and Julie Donsky. Executive in charge of production is Bob Bardo.