Scott Van Pelt nearly went viral for the wrong reason on New Year’s Eve SportsCenter

ESPN’s late night SportsCenter almost had a moment it did not need as the calendar flipped from 2025 to 2026, and it all happened in real time with Scott Van Pelt sitting in the chair.

Van Pelt has hosted the late edition of SportsCenter since 2015 and has seen just about everything. Still, live television always finds a way to test you. As midnight approached, ESPN allowed its parent network ABC to cut in with coverage of the Times Square ball drop.

Thousands of people packed into New York City to ring in the new year, and the cameras did what they always do, panning the crowd as couples celebrated with kisses.

Scott Van Pelt acknowledged the moment right away, noting that this was not exactly standard SportsCenter programming. “Yeah, live makeouts on SportsCenter. Get into it,” he joked as the shots rolled.

Then came the moment where things got dicey.

ABC’s feed landed on two men kissing, and Scott Van Pelt’s initial reaction was very clearly loading in his brain. For a split second, it looked like he was about to say something that would instantly become a headline for all the wrong reasons.

You could almost see the internal alarm bells going off.

To his credit, Scott Van Pelt recovered at the last possible moment.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Here’s Scott Van Pelt getting visibly repulsed by seeing two gay men kissing in Times Square and then deftly catching himself before saying what he’s thinking. pic.twitter.com/Ku3fhLFh7K

— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) January 1, 2026

“Oh… what are we, what do we got?” he said, quickly recalibrating. “We’ve got love in the air. We’ve got makeouts. Who’s having a good time? Happy New Year everybody!”

Crisis averted.

It was an all time live television save.

The pause, the pivot, the sudden embrace of vague positivity. Anyone watching knew exactly how close that was to becoming a problem, and that is what made it so funny.

Scott Van Pelt played it off smoothly enough to keep the show moving, but the internet immediately clocked how tight the window was.

SportsCenter survived, Scott Van Pelt survived, and somewhere in Bristol, a producer probably exhaled for the first time in about ten seconds.

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