MiamiNewTimes.com:
Andy Cohen's got the 411. But come April 16th, he'll also have the 305 when he acts as the Grand Marshal of the Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade and Festival.
And in case you've already written Cohen off as nothing more than an overly happy, cross-eyed referee for dueling Housewife reunions, let us just say he's so much more. Think of him as the Wizard of Oz of Bravo, taking over the network's development and production slate and bringing on a bevy of reality gems.
In the following Q&A, he explains why Real Housewives of Miami was only six weeks, why they had to do the reunion live, and what Elsa Patton has in common with a hairless pomeranian named Jiggy.
New Times: Did you ever imagine you'd become an on-air personality?
Andy Cohen: I did not. When I went to college, I wanted to be a reporter or an anchor man but I kind of gave that up when I graduated because I moved straight to New York and got a job right out of college at CBS New York and I was like 'Wow, I'm not going to beat this'. I wasn't going to go to Dubuque [Iowa] and try to work my way up from small market to small market. So for this to happen now, 21 years into my career, it's wild. And exciting. And fun.
What's your favorite part about your job?
Too many to count! Just talking to people and getting to know people and having fun with them, being on Watch What Happens Live!, I don't even call that a job. My mom came to the show with me last night and we were getting home at 12:30 and I was like 'Can you believe that's even considered work, what I just did?' It's just fun.
Least favorite part about your job?
I hate negotiating contracts. It just gets really personal and nasty, not nasty, but very personal and sensitive.
Is there going to be a reality show in the future about Andy Cohen? What would it be called?
It would be called "Enough of Andy". I mean, I already over-share, I'm very active on Twitter, I have a blog, I have a live show that's on twice a week where I throw my opinions around, so I don't think there's a market for it. I don't think there's a need for it. Yeah.
Are there any shows you took a chance with and were surprised they became successful?
The Real Houswives. It was something that we all thought could be interesting but you just never know what's going to resonate. And Top Chef! And that the title of 'Top Chef' actually means something to a lot of people and a lot of chefs is something we're all very proud of here.
It seems like Bravo shows shot in Miami [Miami Social and the Real Housewives of Miami] have some ratings challenges. Any insight on this?
I don't know, I feel pretty good about the Miami Housewives. We threw it on with not a lot of promotion and I think those woman are great characters. The truth of the matter was, we put it on because everyone in America was going through such a horrible winter and we just kind of realized we had Miami on the shelf, ready to go, and we needed a little more time to finish New York [Housewives] to make it perfect. Let's throw it on as a six-week kind of antidote to all the winter madness.
And then by the time we decided to do a reunion show, we were three weeks in and didn't have time to post it properly, so we decided to do one live. And I think the fact that we [did] a live reunion show speaks to our wanting to do something to celebrate the end of the show.
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