Andy Cohen Gets Into On-Air Disagreement Over RHOC Casting

Heavy/Bravo/Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen/YouTube Andy Cohen and the RHOC season 17 cast

Some casting news for “The Real Housewives of Orange County” season 18 has already been announced. It’s been made public that season 17’s “Friend of the Housewives” Taylor Armstrong was not asked back to the show, and Vicki Gunvalson has not received a contract. Now, in a December 20 clip from his radio show “Jeff Lewis Live”, Lewis questioned Bravo bigwig Andy Cohen about these decisions, leading to an on-air disagreement between the two men.

“I heard who’s coming back, allegedly,” Lewis said. “Why not bring back Taylor Armstrong? That just seems like a good value. You weren’t paying her that much. I think she was giving you guys a lot. Why would you not bring her back? What is that reasoning?”

Andy Cohen Thought Season 17 Had Just the Right Amount of Vicki Gunvalson

Lewis doubled down, also asking Cohen, “With Vicki, go ahead and just give her an orange, for f*** sake. You just keep bringing her back as a friend, she doesn’t want to come back as a friend.”

Gunvalson was a full-time Housewife for the first 13 seasons of RHOC before being demoted to “Friend of” in season 14, not appearing in seasons 15 or 16, and then returning in a guest capacity in season 17. She told Page Six earlier in December 2023, “I went on as good faith thinking I would show the network that I love them, I love filming, my value. But if I go back [as a ‘friend’], it looks thirsty.” Gunvalson said in the same interview that all of the casting calls for season 18 had been made by that point.

“I thought last season was a great amount of Vicki,” Cohen told Lewis on-air, “I thought she came in, she came out, she was fun, she was light as a feather. I thought she was great.”

Lewis agreed, asking Cohen, “Now what are you going to do?” and Cohen said, “Wait and see.”

Andy Cohen Talks Alexis Bellino & John Janssen

Lewis went on to ask Cohen, “What about Alexis [Bellino] is she coming back?”

“You know that’s wild. John Janssen is heading into Slade Smiley territory,” Cohen responded.

Former RHOC star Alexis Bellino has made headlines over the past few weeks as her alleged relationship with Shannon Beador’s ex John Janssen became official following Beador and Janssen’s breakup in late 2022.

“You know, what’s interesting about Alexis is — and I saw this at BravoCon — she and Tamra made up at BravoCon,” Cohen added, “and then she and Heather have gotten close over the last few years, which I already knew about. But she actually has a lot of ties with the group.”

Tamra Judge and Heather Dubrow, both season 17 RHOC cast members, took photos with Bellino at BravoCon 2023. This comes after multiple seasons of tension between Bellino and the other women during her original run on RHOC from seasons five through eight.

“Reunited and it feels so good. 🍊” Judge captioned a November 4 Instagram post featuring photos of herself, Bellino, Dubrow, and season one cast members Lauri Peterson and Jo De La Rosa.

READ NEXT: Fans Think RHOBH Alum Carlton Gebbia Might Join a New ‘Housewives’ City