Andy Cohen Loves To Stir The Pot

Q&A with Andy Cohen from Movie Line.

by Julie Miller
If you haven’t yet caught on, Movieline is completely fascinated with Andy Cohen, the senior vice president of production at Bravo who also hosts a late-night talk show for the cable network and recently posted a blog entry on the network’s site called We’re All Going to Die. So when I spotted the exec and star during a Top Chef demonstration at this week’s TCA Press Tour, I cornered him to ask about his dream talk show guest, his attraction to controversy, and the guest who indulged a little too much in the Watch What Happens Live open bar.


I watched you and Stephen Colbert re-enacting the Real Housewives of New York City the other night on the Colbert Report. That was brilliant.
I know, wasn’t that fun? Wait, do you guys write about the Stupid Andy Cohen Moments each week?

Yes!

Awesome. High five.

So, Colbert Report… did Stephen come up with that idea, or was that something you wanted to try?
He did. He came to me in the green room and they had picked the scene. It was a cold read. No rehearsal.

Did you talk to Bethenny or Kelly after?
I talked to Bethenny this morning and said “You have to watch this.” She asked me, “Well did you get this part and this part?” We got some of her good lines, though.

When did you realize that you wanted to host a talk show? Did that come before your behind-the-camera aspirations?
Oh, I always knew — even before I got into production — that I wanted to be myself on TV, whatever that would be. So I worked in TV news at first, and my dream would have been to be on the Today Show or something like that. Then, I worked at CBS News for ten years and I’ve been at Bravo for six and [before that,] Trio for four. This whole thing came about so organically. [Bravo head] Lauren Zalaznick knew that I wanted to do this, so this kind of organically happened as a result of my blog and my online show.

Who is your dream guest?
My dream guest is Madonna or Michelle Obama.

You always play games with your guests. If Madonna was on your show, what game would you coordinate for her?
Oh my God. I think she likes lemon drops, so I would play some kind of a drinking game with lemon drops. I think I would want to go head-to-head with her in Madonna pop culture questions.

You and your guests drink on your show. Has anyone gotten really inebriated on air?
Yes, well, Bethenny arrived fairly drunk last week. Ricki Lake was hammered. She turned to me at the beginning of the show and whispered, “I am hammered.” And actually, early in the run of the show, I probably used to drink more than I should have been drinking on the show. Now, I only sip — like, I hosted this Millionaire Matchmaker live reunion show like five months ago, and it was on at 9 o’clock but I was in the Bravo clubhouse and I didn’t drink at all. I didn’t drink at all because it was on at 9 and you know what, headline news: You’re actually much sharper when you don’t drink beforehand. I’ve been really cutting back since then. I really only sip, but last week was my finale and during the break before the last act I guzzled my whiskey. So, it depends on the guest, it depends on the vibe.

What prepared you to deal with all of these big personalities growing up?
For some reason, I’ve always just navigated minefields of big personalities. That’s always been something I’ve been good at. Friends, family…

Are you drawn to conflict in your personal life? Real Housewives and the Real Housewives reunions thrive off it.
You know what, I’m a sh*t-stirrer. I am a legendary sh*t-stirrer. If I go to a dinner party and it’s kind of boring, I’ll be like, “Let’s all say who we would want to sleep with in this room.” It’s so funny how natural doing those reunions is because I am a sh*t-stirrer. That is what I am and that is what I’ve always done.