Times Square will be crowded

Viewers will have their choice of New Year’s Eve television specials on Dec. 31 when both ABC and MTV host countdown celebrations in Times Square with live performances from top musical artists.

Mariah Carey is scheduled to close ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2006” with a live performance outside in Times Square, the first singer to do so on the program. The perennial show -- hosted this year by Clark and Ryan Seacrest -- will also feature Hilary Duff, the Bangles, Chris Brown, Sean Paul, the Pussycat Dolls and 311.

Meanwhile, MTV veejays will host “MTV’s New Year of Music” from another stage in Times Square. The cable network’s New Year’s Eve special will feature appearances by Kanye West, Shakira, Fall Out Boy, Young Jeezy, All-American Rejects, Common and Adam Levine, from the cozy confines of MTV’s Times Square studio.

Both shows are tape-delayed on the West Coast.

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Matea Gold