ESPN will stage daredevil stunts to ring in 2009

New Year’s Eve in Times Square is too old-school for ESPN: The sports network plans to ring in 2009 with a motorcycle jump and truck flip in Las Vegas.

ESPN was pleasantly surprised by the success of a similar daredevil program on New Year’s Eve last year, even though one of its planned stunts fell through when Rhys Millen broke some vertebrae during a practice run.

Millen will be back this year, trying again to do a complete back-flip of an off-road truck. Robbie “Maddo” Maddison will try to jump to the top of the 96-foot-high replica of the Arc de Triomphe in front of the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.

ESPN tried a few years back to have a traditional New Year’s Eve program, with music and partying from Times Square. But it wasn’t particularly distinctive, said Joan Lynch, the network’s vice president for content development.

Last year’s daredevil episode – where Maddison leaped more than the length of a football field on his motorcycle – brought in more than 5 million viewers, Lynch said.

“Watching the ball drop is fun,” she said. “But it doesn’t leave you on the edge of your seat. This does.”

Actually, the ESPN show will break briefly to show the ball drop in Times Square before getting back to the stunts.