| 100% | FRESH | 5 | New beginning, with 7-Across |
| 64% | FRESH | 5 | With 28 Across, a new beginning (and with how 2020 has gone, we might all need it) |
| 56% | OLD | 3 | With 7-Across, father |
| 56% | SMART | 5 | With 7-Across, wiseacre |
| 56% | GAME | 4 | With 7-Across, strategy |
| 56% | SNL | 3 | Show that begins with "Live from New York...": Abbr. |
| 55% | OPEN | 4 | With 7-Across, go "Aaaaaaah" |
| 55% | BLANK | 5 | With 7-Across, unrhyming poetry |
| 55% | BROWN | 5 | With 7-Across, sycophantic type |
| 55% | LABOR | 5 | With 7-Across, employment pool |
| 55% | CLOSE | 5 | With 7-Across, near proximity |
| 55% | SILLY | 5 | With 7-Across, total goofball |
| 55% | SALES | 5 | With 7-Across, product lines? |
| 55% | MADE | 4 | With 7-Across, proved profitable |
| 54% | FIT | 3 | With 7-Across, dovetail with, say |
| 54% | DAVID | 5 | With 7-Across, "Space Oddity" singer |
| 54% | OUTOF | 5 | With 7-Across, kind of tuition |
| 54% | MELLO | 5 | With 7-Across, rhyming citrus soda |
| 54% | BOSOM | 5 | With 7-Across, really close friend |
| 54% | PAPER | 5 | With 7-Across, pulp processing places |
| 54% | PRICE | 5 | With 7-Across, consumers' cost catalogs |
| 54% | AVANT | 5 | With 7-Across, artistically envelope-pushing |
| 54% | BLOCK | 5 | With 7-Across, fun neighborhood event |
| 54% | LIVED | 5 | With 7-Across, had no roommates |
| 54% | NET | 3 | With 7-Across, assets minus liabilities |
| 54% | FOWL | 4 | Beasts with 7-Acrosses |
| 54% | STARTSPREADIN | 13 | With 65-Across, beginning of Sinatra's "New York, New York," and an apt instruction for this puzzle |
| 53% | BANANA | 6 | With 7-Across, something to start with |
| 53% | OCEAN | 5 | With 7-Across, Rhode Island, with "the" |
| 53% | APRIL | 5 | With 7-Across, exclamation much heard today |