NBC has broadcast coverage of New Year's Eve festivities since the 1940s, the majority of which focusing on the "ball drop" event at New York City's Times Square . NBC's coverage was initially anchored by Ben Grauer, airing in simulcast on NBC radio and television. Eschewing a standalone special, its coverage would later become part of special New Year's Eve episodes of NBC's late-night talk show The Tonight Show. This arrangement lasted through the tenure of Johnny Carson, and continued into the tenure of Carson's successor Jay Leno.