When it comes to Real Housewives reunions, no one is more in the hot seat than Andy Cohen.
The king of Bravo recently joined Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy and gave fans a rare, unfiltered look into what really goes down before — and during — those infamous reunion tapings.
“It used to be a really big deal for me”
Reunions are the Super Bowl of Bravo, and Cohen used to approach them like an athlete prepping for the big game.
“Leading up to the reunion, [I’d have] hours-long prep calls with the producers,” Andy told Alex. “Speaking to the women in advance. The morning of, I would take a run. I mean, like, I was in the thing.”
But after hundreds of reunions, Cohen admits he’s streamlined his process — and it’s refreshingly normal.
“To be honest, what do I do now? I drop my kids off at school. I go, I’m like, ‘What color suit do you want me to wear? What is the set?’ I bring three ties. I go. I’m like, ‘Come on, let’s do it.’”
Even though the day is more relaxed for him now, there’s still strategy involved. “I have one call with the production team and the network,” he explained. “We talk about the seating for the reunion… where the women are… when the husbands are coming out. Sometimes I’ll say, ‘X and Y is the elephant in the room. Can we please do it at the top of the day?’ Sometimes we save the biggest mess until the end.”
Then, when the cameras roll? “Day of, it’s game day. I’m ready to play the game,” Cohen said. “I have done hundreds of reunions at this point.”
“It’s crazy, it’s crazy.”
Alex laughed at how wild that sounds — hundreds of reunions filled with drama, tears, walk-offs, and screaming matches. “How crazy is that?” she asked.
“It’s crazy, it’s crazy,” Andy admitted, laughing.
“I don’t like screaming at women. It’s a bad look.”
Of course, no reunion is without chaos — and Cohen isn’t shy about admitting when it tests his patience.
“The last couple Jersey reunions, I had a really hard time with,” he confessed. “And by the way, I don’t like screaming at women. It’s a bad look. But there are moments — and they left them in the show — where I’m like, ‘Shut the fuck up’ or whatever, or ‘Be quiet.’”
He added, “Sometimes the only way that I can get people to be quiet is to literally go crazy. And there are times I’ll say to the producers, ‘Can you mark that? You’re not using that.’ Because, you know, there are enough that are in the show, but some are just me talking over a cacophony.”
Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “It actually looks like they’re your children! Like you’re at a little school event trying to keep these kids in fucking line.”
Cohen agreed — and admitted that it takes a lot to push him to that level. “It takes more than a second,” he said.
Alex teased, “But when you get there, you go fucking feral.”
Andy laughed. “Yeah, yeah.”
“Who talks over people the most?”
When Alex pressed him for the worst offender at talking over others, Andy didn’t hesitate to name names — with love, of course.
“I think Lisa Barlow,” he started. “It’s just harder for some people to have the intake of what someone’s saying and then speak back and then figure it out. I think Lisa Barlow might be one. I think Teresa historically has — that’s been a growth area for her.”
He continued, “I feel like maybe Toya on Married to Medicine could be in there. Love you Toya, no disrespect. I think that Dr. Simone also, now that I’m in the Married to Medicine universe. Who else? I mean, I kind of feel like Jacqueline Laurita on Jersey may have been there.”
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