Chris Wallace in “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” put Andy Cohen in the hot seat during Friday’s episode of TODAY, asking if the reality TV mogul was embarrassed by “The Real Housewives” franchise.
In a spirited interview, the CNN anchor rolled clips of some of the Bravo series’ most dramatic moments, including physical altercations between cast members.
“Are you at all ashamed of what you do?” he asked Cohen.
“No, I’m not really,” she replied without hesitation. “Because it makes a lot of people happy.”
Cohen said that viewers get out of “Real Housewives” what they got from watching “All My Children” as a child: an escape from reality.
,[“The Real Housewives”] can be really confrontational, it can be something that’s a little hard to swallow sometimes,” she continued. “But I think it’s also about the real great moments, it’s about being a wife and a mother and It’s about being a sister and a friend and so much more.”
He added that if the show was a collection of highlight reels like Wallace’s, “it still wouldn’t be on the air and we wouldn’t have 10 [years] About to happen It’s also a lot of fun.
Moments later, Cohen admitted to being “a little defensive” during his answer to Wallace’s question because he felt he had never seen the show. In fact, Wallace watched a season of “The Real Housewives of New York City” because she knew several of the cast members.
Cohen, who oversees nearly a dozen “Real Housewives” franchises, introduced Wallace to his late-night live show “Watch What Happens Live!”
Earlier in the interview, Wallace questioned Cohen about “New Years Eve Live”, which he co-hosts with Anderson Cooper. For the 2022 event, the two took shots of a “mystery beverage” (apple cider vinegar) instead of alcohol. “The audience was really hurt,” Cohen said, after CNN asked him not to drink after he drunkenly talked about former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on last year’s show.
“I mean, we were very pissed off, because we felt like they were telling us, ‘You’re not capable of drinking responsibly,'” he said.
“Did you see my performance from last year?” Wallace pressed him.
Cohen said that de Blasio was “the safest person to step forward”: “There was nobody who disagreed with me, I’m sorry.”
“You’re a TV executive. Was it really so unfair for the new owners at CNN to say, ‘Being featured on national television, on a news network, isn’t a good sight?'” Wallace said.
However, there were no hard feelings between the media personalities, who went on to discuss topics such as fatherhood, early career moves, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Asked whether the ex-royals had become “bored”, Cohen demurred. After watching Harry promote his new book “Spare” on “60 Minutes” last week, she said, “Maybe there was a way for him [speak about Prince William] without burning bridges.
“I think William should write a book called ‘The Heir’ and tell his story,” Cohen joked.
When asked if the couple had become oversaturated in the media, he said he would buy Harry’s book regardless: “Look, living in Montecito is expensive. They’re extorting money!”
“Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” premieres Friday on HBO Max, followed by a highlights show that airs Sunday night on CNN.
