Producers Deny Mariah Carey's Sabotage Claim for New Year's Eve Lip-Sync Fail

NEW YORK, NY — Mariah Carey's new year continues to be marred with a catfight over her lip-syncing fail in Times Square — carried by ABC stations across the country as part of its "New Year's Rockin' Eve" special — with another round in the TV war of words. The singer's in-ear monitors malfunctioned, leaving her unable to hear or sing along with her pre-recorded musical tracks in front of one million partiers in New York City and 8.2 million TV viewers.

Carey's PR department put out a statement blaming Dick Clark Productions for failing to deliver her musical accompaniment to her ears and making it impossible for her to sing. The producers set the diva up to fail, a spokeswoman said.

But Dick Clark Productions responded on Sunday, noting that other performers attended rehearsals before the live show, except for Carey, and there were no indications of equipment failure.

The production company said in a statement that the Carey camp's notion of sabotage was "absurd."

“As the premier producer of live television events for nearly 50 years, we pride ourselves on our reputation and long-standing relationships with artists,” the producers said. “To suggest that dcp (Dick Clark Productions), as producer of music shows including the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and Academy of Country Music Awards, would ever intentionally compromise the success of any artist is defamatory, outrageous and frankly absurd.”

Officials at ABC Sunday trumpeted that their New Year's Eve ratings beat those of CBS, Fox and NBC combined, as the Internet exploded with clips of Carey bombing in Times Square. The singer shrugged in frustration at one point as her amplified voice continued to sing, revealing what one commentator called "the worst lip-sync failure since Milli Vanilli."

The embarrassing fail was not noticed by an oblivious ABC press machine, which put out a breathless news release crowing about the network's eyeballs.

"ABC ranked a dominant number one on the final night of 2016 over its broadcast competition, leading all six half-hours of prime," the network announced.

As for Carey, she tweeted "s---happens" and wished her fans a happy new year.

Includes reporting from City News Service; Photo: YouTube Screengrab