Bravo Andy Cohen defended his career.
Andy Cohen was on the defense during an interview with Chris Wallace.
During a January 15, 2023 sitdown with the CNN journalist, Cohen explained his long career on Bravo as well as the five books he has penned, including “Superficial,” which Wallace described as “a deep look at a shallow you.”
After a clip of a volatile, wine-tossing argument on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” was shown as an example of a Housewives scene, Cohen defended what was shown onscreen when Wallace asked if that was “unrepresentative” of the Real Housewives.
“Listen, what you’re looking at there was the climax of an entire season of The Housewives show,” he told Wallace. “Yes, that happened. That was highly dramatic. That was highly charged. … So yes, that happened. What do you want to say to me about that, Chris?”
“Talk about defensive!,” Wallace cracked, to which Cohen replied, “I am a little defensive.”
Cohen also admitted that some scenes on the Real Housewives shows can be “really confrontational.” “It can sometimes be something that’s a little difficult to swallow,” he said. “But I think it’s also about the really great moments. It’s about being a wife and a mother and a sister and a friend and a whole lot more.”
“Are you at all embarrassed by what you do?” Wallace later asked Cohen.
“No, I’m really not, because it makes so many people happy,” the Bravo host said. “I go back to me being in St. Louis as a kid, watching ‘All My Children’ for years and years and years. And I loved All My Children. It was just the great escape for me. And I think that [The Real Housewives] represents that for a whole lot of people.”
Wallace also grilled Cohen for previously saying he hoped “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah would get no jail time after pleading guilty to fraud charges in a telemarketing scheme that targeted the elderly.
After admitting that he was unsure of the context in which he made the comment about Shah, Cohen stumbled over the timeline and explained, “You know, sometimes, if you get to know someone and you get to like them, you hope that they are not guilty of something horrible.”
Andy Cohen Said He is “Grateful’ for the Real Housewives
Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise started in 2006 when “The Real Housewives of Orange County” first made its debut. There are currently 10 Real Housewives cities on the air.
In his interview with Wallace, Cohen compared the Housewives shows to a “modern soap opera in our TV landscape.”
“And I think that I’ve been able to connect with my audience in a way that’s authentic and that is a real dialogue and somehow the conversation keeps going. And I’m grateful for it,” he said.
Cohen previously told Yahoo Finance that the Real Housewives franchise is “a massive cultural phenomenon that shows no signs of letting up” because it’s a “brand” that viewers “care about.”
This is Not the First Time Andy Cohen Defended the Real Housewives
BravoSomeone from RHOBH won’t be at the reunion taping.
Cohen previously had to defend the Housewives—and himself. In 2018, the Bravo producer addressed fitness trainer Jillian Michaels’ negative comments about the Real Housewives franchise.
“I never watch it,” Michaels told Life & Style in 2018. “I hate watching women tear each other apart. Anybody who watches it, shame on you. It’s like [the franchise] was created by someone that hates women. I mean, the guy hates them. He’s an a**hole.”
Cohen defended himself while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter. “I love women,” he said. “Housewives is a show about women and it’s predominately for women, even though so many men watch it so I think that’s a really good question for the millions of women who watch the shows. … It’s a show about friendship. It’s a show about being a wife. It’s a show about being a mother. It’s a show about being a sister. And sometimes the experience of being a friend and a mother and a wife and a sister isn’t pleasant and sometimes it’s wonderful.”
Cohen guessed that Michaels had “probably never watched” the show. “I think she’s probably seen a clip of Teresa [Giudice] flipping a table,” he said.
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