Talking. My guests tonight both turned opportunities into tv empires starting with a socalled Ring Master Of Pop Culture, andy cohen. You dont want to miss his hot take on prince harry and why discussing the Real Housewives got him hot under the collar. What do you want to say to me about that, chris . Talk about defensive. I am defensive. And Barefoot Contessa herself. How she almost passed on the biggest break of her life. I said lose my number. I didnt think anybody would want to watch me on tv. I didnt know what they saw. We have two things in common. Do i get a hint . I find cooking really hard. I find it really stressful. Do you feel your life is in danger. The love of my mother brought me here. There is a long list of bad ones. Hes the creative mind behind some of the most viral moments in reality show history sglt. The only thing that is artificial for fake me about, this. Andy cohen oversees bravos biggest hits, about a dozen shows in all. Goes to vladimir putin. While hosting his own Late Night Program pushing politicians and celebrities to spill the tea. I plead the fifth. Its been a long, strange trip from cbs news intern to wildly Successful Television executive and host. We will see you tomorrow night, everybody. And when hes not talking pop culture or ringing in the new year with his bff anderson cooper. Have you gotten high at a brisk . Andy is taking on new projects as a book author and father of two. Where is daddy . Yes so whats his reality . Were about to find out. Andy cohen, welcome. Im excited to get to talk to you and a little nervous. Well, i was going to say the same thing to be honest. Im a little worried i feel youre going in for the kill here. Im a little worried. Is there a kill to go in for . You tell me . Im a little worried youll try to turn this into Whose Talking to andy cohen . Yes. Get in there. You were on cnns new years eve special. Yes, i was. You seemed to have a great difficulty with the directive that instead of doing real shots, that you had to drink mystery nonalcoholic drinks during the course of the evening with your buddy anderson cooper. Here you are. One, two, three. Oh, that tastes what could that be . Any idea . Socks. Shoes . That is gross. Are we drinking the squeezed juice of a leather shoe . That that i need tequila, honestly so the glass was not breakable. I could i threw it. Sounded like it broke. Was it really that bad . Did you really need tequila that bad . Here is the thing. We were told not to drink much to the chagrin really of the viewers. We were very annoyed because we felt like they were saying to us, youre not capable of drinking responsibly. It just did you watch your performance the year before . I did. I went off on de blasio. The safest person to go off on in the universe. There was no one that disagreed with me. Im sorry, he had a 98 deblos owe. His wife. Look at that. Sorry. It happens. I know. Anyway, wow. That was crazy. So, you know, that was a little annoying. The mystery shots were something that we came up with to have fun. It was fun. I think the audience loves to see Anderson Grimace after he takes a shot and so this in my mind was a way to get him to do that and it was a way to have fun and like look, were still having shots. Now, yes, that was two hours into the night. It was raining. I just yeah, i had a little moment there which anderson slapped my wrist during the commercial break. He said you got to get it together, dude. That was my only moment where i was i really wanted some tequila. But andy otherwise, we had a blast and i would argue, we really didnt about differently than we act when were drinking. Except you didnt attack the current mayor of new york. I didnt but im waiting for that. [ laughter ] you going to let him earn it . Yes, exactly. Were going to put up on the Screen Everything that youre involved in. Okay. Look at this. You executive produce 11 Different Properties for nbc universal. Yes. You have two separate channels on sirus xm including the apply named radio andy and youre about to release your fifth, count them, fifth book. Someone said if youre not the architect of our celebrity culture, youre the ring master of our celebrity culture. Why do you think everything you do is so popular . I think listen. I think the housewives initially. I owe a great deal of my success to these women on this show which i think replaced the modern soap opera in our Tv Land Scape and so, thats the place that i started and i think that ive been able to connect with my audience in a way thats authentic and that is a real dialogue and somehow keeps the conversation keeps going and im grateful for it. All right. You talk about the housewives. Thats your biggest franchise. You have ten. I know. Ten. All the way from new jersey to Beverly Hills to dubai. Yes. And here is a taste of some of the more viral moments. Oh god. Now youre going to show the wine tossing and Table Flip Sglg wo flipping. Would i do that . Thats what you do. I love it. Shut your [ bleep ] mouth. I had enough of you you prbeast beast . How dare you. How dare me . Dont touch my husband ever. Dont ever touch for getting to know you better want to talk about me or everybody you know. Never get near my husband. Everybody will know. [ bleep ] do you understand that . Stay the [ bleep ] away from my husband. Folks, while were doing this, andy is looking at this going okay, okay. I mean, is that unrepresentative of Real Housewives. It is a part of it, yes. I would say listen, what youre looking at there was the climax of an entire season of the housewives of Beverly Hills. Were not going to show the boring part. That happened. That was highly dramatic and highly charged and when you get to that point, you have three episodes of talking about what happened. I mean, its all within the confines of the show but so, yes, that happened. What do you want to say to me about that, chris . [ laughter ] wow. Talk about defensive. I know. I am a little defensive. Yes. A couple of things. Okay. First of all, is that for real or are they just playing . Theyre not playing. It for real. We cast highly dramatic women. Look, are they aware the cameras are there . Are they you know, i think the Beverly Hills housewives of all of them are the most aware that theyre on a television show. So but yes, of course theyre aware the cameras are there and but come to a Reunion Taping sometime, chris. You will see that they feel the way they feel, they just happen to feel things maybe stronger than your neighbor next door. One of your books. Yeah. Is titled super official not by opinion. Thats your title. Another book is a deep look at a shallow year. Yes. Are you at all embarrassed by what you did . No. Im really not. Because it makes so many people happy. I go back to me being in st. Louis as a kid watching All My Children for years and years and years and i loved All My Children. It was The Great Escape for me. I think this show represents that for a lot of people and i think it is it can be really confrontational. It can sometimes be something thats a little difficult to swallow but i think its also about in the real great moments, its about being a wife and a mother and a sister and a friend and a whole lot more. So yes, theres all that and then theres a whole lot more. Jennifer shaw. Yes. Who was a member of the salt lake city. Yeah. Real housewives series was sentenced to 6. 5 years in prison for defrauding thousands. Youre on the record last november as saying you hope she would get no jail time and the question i have is why would you take her side against the thousands of people she defrauded including a lot of elderly i think i was hoping she was actually innocent. She pled guilty. That was before she pled guilty that i said that. I would think. No, i think it was after. Oh, really . Yes. Oh, god. Anyway, wow, this is fun. You were easy to crack there. I know, exactly. Look, i think i dont know what the context of me saying that was but i think that the context was people kept demanding of me what is her status with the show . Im like its up for the its up to the judge. Shes about to get sentenced to a lot of jail time. Youre saying she didnt do something bad. Yes, she did. So she should go to jail. I was saying look, i you know, sometimes if you get to know someone and get to like them you hope that they are not guilty of something horrible. Okay. Okay . Yes. So. Then there is your show watch what happens live. Yes. Five nights a week. You going to come on as a guest. Have you ever asked me to be a guest . Im asking you now. Youd have fun. I know. Dan rather has been on several times. I know that. What do you think is the appeal of the show . It authentic and fun and takes Late Night Television and turns it inside out. There is no preinterview. Theres there its just fun and its spontaneous and, you know, you never know whats going to happen. One of the things thats a secret to success is great guests and i want to show a clip of you with meryl streep. Yes. Dustin hoffman. Yeah. Jack nickel son. Yeah. Robert medford, marry one, shag one, kill one. Radford marry maybe. Okay. Yeah, okay. And jack, shag. Okay. And dustin ex nay . Dustin very good. First of all, how big a deal to get somebody like meryl streep on the show and how big a deal that she played along . I mean, i love when she said shag jack. Yes. Very big deal. That was actually about four years into our were now 14 years into doing watch what happens live. That was early in the run and a huge Turning Point for us to get meryl streep to do the show. Big deal. Still to come from the professional to the personal, andy opens up about how fatherhood at 50 has changed him. And he doesnt hold back when i ask about the royal pr blitz. 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I think that maybe there was a way for him to do it without torching the bridge but also telling a story, which is so compelling. What a fascinating life but i you know, the torching everything and all the details and i cut my back on the fight with my brother. I mean, i know a lot of brothers who have beat the crap out of each other, you know. Hiss his brother is now the future king of england. Right. I think the move is for william. Harrys book is called spare. Yes. I think william should write a book called heir and tell his story. I dont think thats what they do. I dont, either. No, i guess part of what im asking is oprah interview, okay. Okay. The sixpart series on netflix. Now youre writing a book. I mean, at a certain point, doesnt this show need to be cancelled . Well, im buying the book, by the way. As much as im seeing, im getting the book, but yeah, theyre look. Its expensive to live in california. You know . Theyre cashing out. Theyre cashing out. And they got one story to tell and theyre going to tell it. Theyre going to tell it all right now tha. Theyre not leaving anything on the table. That, Ladies And Gentlemen is from the Ring Master Of Pop Culture in america today. Right. You grew up in st. Louis. I did. Your two idols were susan lucic. You talked about the fact you loved All My Children. And Sam Donaldson. And sam dan ndonaldson. Im the Sam Donaldson of housewives. It erica cane, susan lucic, shes now Lisa Vanderpump on the Real Housewives and and youre Sam Donaldson. Its in the diagram im right there in the middle between lucic and donaldson. I backed right into it. Its kind of incredible. In college, you got to interview susan lucic and you say and we have a picture of it. You say it changed your life. It did. It i was in a news writing and reporting class. I was a broadcast journalism major at Boston University and i had a professor who said okay, this assignment is interview someone and write a profile of them as an interview. He said shoot for the stars. And so i sent letters to Sam Donaldson and susan lucic and i wish i had a copy of the letter i sent to lucics publicist but it was good enough she said yeah, you can do this. And i flew to new york and susan lucic took me to lunch and wow. It really did because i was at that time such an All My Children fan and i was like wow, there say whole business behind this universe and its not just fun and games that i see on tv and it just it pulled back the curtain in a way and it also showed me that i could do it and, you know, i have the interview on tape on audio tape. I am just talking over her the whole time. I mean, its just as bad as it could be. It did change my it showed me the possibility of the world out there and