Given their similar career paths, many assume there's a secret rivalry between Carson Daly and Ryan Seacrest -- not so, says The Voice host.

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"Ryan and I have been friends for a long time, and the press assumes that there's some competitive spirit there, but not at all," Daly, 38, tells New York Magazine's Vulture. "Ryan and I try to get together every year to have a drink around New Year's Eve because it's the only time that we're both around."

Daly and Seacrest, who hosts FOX's American Idol, invited comedienne Kathy Griffin and CNN's Anderson Cooper to join them at their annual get-together in December 2011. The four TV personalities met up at Crown in New York City.

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"I'm sure Simon Cowell eats there -- a boldfaced sort of place," Daly says of the swank Manhattan hotspot. "I walked in, like, looking for an application to bartend there, and then Anderson came in just wearing a white T-shirt, which made me love him."

Cooper, 44, won Daly over with stories about his recently purchased firehouse in Greenwich Village, which he's converting into an apartment.

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"We really had a great dinner, and Ryan was great. He was a gracious host; he picked up the bill," Daly says. "It was a fun dinner that I think we'll try to do every year, and we just got to laugh and bullsh-t and talk."