Andy Cohen talks about possibly losing his career for saying the wrong thing, a fine line he walks in Bravo’s sometimes salacious reality TV universe.
“It’s fascinating to me,” the 56-year-old St. Louis native said. Vulture On Monday, “the idea that you could say something and they would take everything away from you.”
The Real Housewives executive producer in the article, titled The Last Inappropriate Man on TV How Andy Cohen Survived Reality Reckoning (At Least For Now), explained how he has already toned down aspects of his act so as not to offend people.
“You have to be smart about what you say because there’s no nuance anymore,” Cohen said. “People just expect to be outraged by every little thing.”
See what happens live! The presenter said in the article that he likes “being provocative” and the spontaneity and danger that comes with it.
Andy Cohen, 56, opens up in a new article about potentially losing his career for saying something inappropriate, a fine line he walks in Bravo’s often salacious reality TV universe. Photographed last month in New York.
See what happens live! The presenter said in the article that he likes “being provocative” and the spontaneity and danger that comes with it.
“It makes me feel alive in a strange way,” he said. ‘I think sometimes it gets to the heart of who a person is. If you navigate it well, it can become something incredible and intoxicating. It’s like dancing on water: are you going to pass or not?
Cohen, who also hosts the Radio Andy network on SiriusXM, admits there are times when he wonders if he said something that day that could lead to cancellation.
“Sometimes at night I’ll be in bed and think, ‘Hey, did I say something?'” Cohen said. “I’m always waiting for what will make everything collapse.”
The article noted a lawsuit filed by RHONY star Leah McSweeney earlier this year, alleging that Cohen was at the center of drug use (he shared cocaine with members of the Real Housewives cast), as well as playing favorites and encouraging a toxic work culture.
Cohen told Vulture that he has “never done cocaine with cast members” and has been candid about his entire drug history in the books he has written.
In the weeks that followed, NBCU revealed a workplace investigation, Vulture reported, as “rumors swirled that Cohen was hiring a crisis PR team and negotiating an ‘exit package.'”
The outlet cited that amid what appeared to be a growing professional crisis for Cohen, “Nothing happened,” while he remained streaming without interruption on his outlets, appearing at the Met Gala while his show Watch What Happens Live was renewed until next year. anus.
From there, Cohen was eventually cleared by Bravo and NBCU “in their outside investigation,” the outlet noted, adding that Cohen appeared to take a victory lap with a cover story in The Hollywood Reporter with the Mad Magazine-inspired headline, ‘What, Do I Worry?’
Cohen appears to have survived a potential career crisis that arose with a lawsuit filed against him and Bravo by a former RHONY star.
Cohen said in the article that he is “always waiting for the thing that will make everything come crashing down.”
The profile noted that it served as “a testament to Cohen’s great interpersonal skills, the fact that he was able, for many years, to preside over a large number of exceptionally volatile personalities before they began to turn on him” in the form of lawsuits. and other accusations. .
It described the Real Housewives stars as “essentially workers who had lost control of their images in the service of jobs that offered them high status but didn’t even provide them with health insurance,” and cited Bethenny Frankel as the only notable who used the fame of the show to reap enormous wealth in business.
The outlet noted a number of additional headaches for Cohen with many of the reality stars he had created with the Real Housewives franchise.
Cohen told the outlet that he had been caught off guard by a “sustained attack” led by Frankel through an effort to unionize reality stars amid last year’s entertainment industry strikes.
Lawsuits mentioned in the story included a 2022 lawsuit by The Real Housewives of Atlanta alum Nene Leakes against him, Bravo and NBCU alleging racism.
Another highlight was Dorinda Medley’s butler Marco Vega filing against Bravo and NBCU over the conduct of Real Housewife of Beverly Hills alum Brandi Glanville during production of the Bravo series Ultimate Girls Trip: Return to Bluestone Manor on 2021.
Real Housewives of New Jersey alum Caroline Manzo filed another lawsuit against Bravo and NBCU over Glanville’s conduct during production of Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.
Glanville publicly accused Cohen of sexual harassment earlier this year.
Cohen photographed at last month’s Met Gala in New York in the wake of multiple lawsuits
Cohen told Vulture that he “didn’t like” being at the center of the storm, adding that “there was a lot of noise” and that he was “definitely sad about it.”
He added that his experiences in person differed greatly from the tensions described online.
“I’m telling you, and it sounds like bullshit, but when I walked into BravoCon,” he said, “I was like, ‘Dude, get off Twitter. That’s a lot of clickbait.’ That’s sanity.’
In the article, Cohen said he enjoys the fame that comes with his high media profile.
“I lived in New York for 15 years without being able to get restaurant reservations, so yeah, of course I’m going to enjoy it,” Cohen said, adding that he “had a sense of how to behave” once he started. being recognized.
He added: “Then there were many people who were normal people who were becoming famous, housewives who were becoming beasts as a result.” So ultimately, I really appreciate the whole thing. And you have to maintain that perspective. You can’t go all out. Because everything can disappear tomorrow.
