Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Beyonc set for 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'

Forty years ago, Dick Clark's New Year's Eve special was created to give young people an alternative to a seasonal institution, bandleader Guy Lombardo.

Now Clark's annual show is the institution.

"New Year's Rockin' Eve," with Clark and Ryan Seacrest, pays tribute to its own history during a sprawling, nearly six-hour program Saturday night. The celebration takes up all of prime time on ABC, breaks for a half-hour of local news, then comes back on the air for 2 1/4 hours that include the ball dropping in New York City's Times Square to mark the beginning of 2012.

Clark's special shows no sign of slippage, after collecting its biggest audience in five years last year. The 18.8 million people who were watching ABC during the last half-hour of 2010 and first half-hour of 2011 were more than NBC and Fox's audiences combined, the Nielsen ratings company said.

The show isn't designed to be a recap of the year in music, but that's almost what it turns out to be, said Larry Klein, who has been producing the show since 1977.

In all, 29 musical performances are planned. Lady Gaga gets the prime slot in Times Square just before midnight. Justin Bieber, Pitbull, Hot Chelle Rae, Florence + the Machine, Gym Class Heroes, Nicki Minaj, Taio Cruz and Beyonc are among the other featured performers from New York, Los Angeles and London.

During the first two hours, ABC will show clips of performances from past New Year's Eve specials, which Klein describes as a fascinating trip through hair, clothing and musical styles. Al Green, Helen Reddy and Three Dog Night starred in the first "Rockin' Eve."

New Year's Eve also marks the annual appearance of Clark, once a ubiquitous presence on television. A stroke makes it difficult for Clark to communicate, but he doesn't want to miss this show, Klein said.

"His communication is a little bit more difficult, but he's still involved in contemporary music," he said. "He listens to a lot, he knows a lot, he's still involved in the ! producti on. This is very important to him. This is one of his children."