Getty Andy Cohen with the RHONY cast.
Andy Cohen is spilling the tea on some behind-the-scenes drama that has happened to him during his “Watch What Happens Live” hosting career.
During an Oct. 14 “Ask Andy” panel at BravoCon 2022, Cohen was asked by moderators Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie about his experience hosting “Watch What Happens Live.” Kotb, in particular, wanted to know more about the live polls that happen during the show. Typically, during a “Watch What Happens Live” episode, Cohen runs live polls about the various shows for fans to vote on, asking questions such as, “Who is the hottest househusband?”
Kotb pointed out that sometimes, the live polls can be about the actual “Housewives” that are appearing as a guest that night, which prompted Cohen to launch into a story involving former “Real Housewives of New York” star, Jill Zarin.
“There was a period of time in the early years, when, you guys who know Bravo will know this, where Jill Zarin thought that the polls were rigged, and we were in cahoots with AT&T,” Cohen revealed during the panel. “She had a whole conspiracy theory because she was not winning any of the polls. And I was like, we’re not rigging the polls, I don’t know how to rig a poll.”
Viewers can catch “Watch What Happens Live” every Sunday through Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Bravo.
Andy Cohen Admitted That He ‘Hit a Wall’ Hosting ‘Watch What Happens Live’ at One Point
During an April 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cohen revealed that he “hit a wall” during his fifth year of hosting “Watch What Happens Live,” where he felt like he was just going through the motions. When the outlet asked him how got over the hump, he explained that it was actually his fans who helped him through and reinspired him.
“Bravo does research on every show,” Cohen explained to the outlet at the time. “And there was a poll or report where something like 3 or 5 percent of people said, ‘Andy seems kind of over it.’ When I saw that in print, my heart sank. I was so embarrassed. This is my absolute dream job. How dare I? That was all it took. It’s funny because I’ve had long conversations with other talk show hosts that have all been doing this for over a decade, and all of them identified certain points in their run where they felt that.”
Jill Zarin Could Be Making a Return to ‘the Real Housewives of New York’
Even though Zarin left “The Real Housewives of New York” after season 4, she could be returning to the series in the future. In March 2022, Andy Cohen announced to Variety that the “Real Housewives of New York” will be rebooting into two separate shows: one featuring an entirely new group of women, and one featuring the “Legacy” cast members of the franchise, like Luann de Lesseps and Zarin.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter what I think,” Zarin told Entertainment Tonight in June 2022. “I think a ‘Legacy’ show will be great to show where all the girls are, so many years later and who’s evolved and who hasn’t and fights are the same, girls are the same. I always say nothing happens that didn’t happen in kindergarten. It’s all the same.”
READ NEXT: How Captain Sandy Met Her Girlfriend, Leah Shafer