New Year’s Eve December 9 2011

It’s New Year’s Eve. What channel should you watch to ring in 2011? Should you spend the closing moments of this year and the start of the next with Drake, David Archuleta, Lil Wayne or the cast of “The Jersey Shore”?

Here’s a guide to what’s on.

New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly (NBC): Daly has been trying to be the face of the New Year’s Eve franchise for years. Tonight, his show has a promising lineup with Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj and My Chemical Romance on the bill. The show will also feature Bono and the Edge talking about their new musical “Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark.” Let’s see if Daly has the guts to ask the pair about the show’s safety record. Let’s also hope they sing “New Year’s Day.” The show starts at 10 p.m. ET.

Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2011 (ABC): Sorta weird and cumbersome having both of their names in the show’s title. In any case, Clark and Seacrest’s lineup features Jennifer Hudson, Drake, and Train, and a bunch of other Top-40 mainstream “American Idol”-ish types. Willow Smith is also among the guests, but the whole thing is likely to take place way past her bedtime–unless she’s on the West Coast. The show starts at 10 p.m. ET.

New Year’s Eve Live! (Fox): Nancy O’Dell hosts this show, which features “American Idol” runner-up David Archuleta. The program, which will broadcast from New York and Las Vegas, kicks off at 11 p.m. ET. Also, Mariah Carey will debut a new music video, “Auld Lang Syne.” Maybe she should have released it a couple days ago?