Andy Cohen is opening up about feeling like an outsider in the late-night TV landscape.
Cohen, 56, is celebrating 15 years of Watch What Happens Live this year, but admits he has in the past felt “salty” about the show being left out of the late-night conversation.
For example, in 2015, various late-night talk show hosts including Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien and Trevor Noah appeared in a photoshoot together for Vanity Fair. Cohen wasn’t included.
“I was very conscious that I wanted to be part of the late-night conversation,” Cohen told Deadline in an interview published on Friday, June 21.
“I know what we’re doing. I know what it means to people and I know what it means to me,” he told the outlet.
Cohen said that he thought at the time, “This kind of sucks.”
Cohen added that one of the reasons he believes he’s “discounted” from the late-night conversation is because he’s not a comedian like his fellow talk show hosts, but an interviewer.
Still, WWHL has managed to lure some major guests over the years, including Hillary Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence.
“Late-night [TV] is a very intimate thing for people because they’re going to bed and sometimes you’re the last person that they see,” Cohen said, reflecting on 15 years of the Bravo show. “They’re also choosing you, and they’re comfortable enough to be with you. The connection that you have with your viewer is really special. I have a tremendous amount of gratitude. I know it sounds very hokey, but I really do.”
Cohen also said that he hit a stumbling block hosting WWHL around the six-year mark. ”I think it was in Year 6, I started to hit the wall a little bit,” he said. “Craig Ferguson said that’s very common. I started to feel like I was kind of ticking a box. But I came to, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, dude, you have your absolute dream job. This is a show of your imagination and everything about you,’ and I just kind of snapped out of it. I haven’t looked back since.”
