After Ryan Seacrest claimed that Andy Cohen declined to say hello during their competing New Year’s Eve broadcasts, the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen host has defended his actions.
“Ryan, I don’t know, he’s got a big up about me two weeks in a row,” Cohen, 54, said during a Wednesday, January 4, episode of his “Radio Andy” show. “I don’t even know what. … I didn’t see Anderson [Cooper] turn around and wave. Usually what Anderson will do, and I should call him back and ask him about this, frankly. But I think he’ll yell at me if I do. Usually, if he’s waving at Ryan, he’ll say to me, ‘Hey, there’s Ryan.’ You know what I mean?”
Cohen and Cooper, 55, cohosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live while Seacrest, 48, helmed Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. Both broadcasts were filmed live in Times Square in New York City, with the Real Housewives producer noting that normally they will all greet one another at some point.
“And then I’ll turn around and wave or I’ll say, ‘There’s Ryan,’ but [Anderson] didn’t do that,” Cohen said on Wednesday about his longtime pal. “Should I call him and yell at him about it?”
He then dialed up the Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty author to ask about the Saturday, December 31, incident.
“You probably don’t even know this because you’re dealing with, like, the House vote and all that,” Cohen said, referring to Congress’ voting process to elect a new Speaker of the House, before trying to ask Cooper about Seacrest’s comments on Live With Kelly and Ryan.
Cooper quickly interrupted his buddy to ask if he was going to “get me involved in a thing with Seacrest.”
“This is between you and I. This is a you and I thing because he said on the show that you very politely turned around and waved to him and mouthed to him have a good show and that I didn’t turn around,” Cohen continued, with the CNN anchor noting that Seacrest mouthed, “Happy New Year” from his Rockin’ Eve perch.
While Cooper had, in years past, nudged Cohen to follow his lead in waving to Seacrest, he didn’t last month because he thought he was “catching up.”
“I just happened to turn, like, there were a couple times I looked to see if he was around and I hadn’t to see him. And then there was one time I just turned and he was there over by where they, you know, do that hourly, like, countdown,” Cooper explained on Wednesday. “I saw him and we both waved and I said, you know, ‘Have a great new year’ or a ‘Have a great show.’ … [Andy,] you were talking [and] were involved in some producer [thing] and so I just didn’t [tell you to say hi]. I mean, it all happened so fast, it wasn’t a big deal. I mean, every year we always say hi to him. So I assumed maybe you had previously and I was just catching up.”
He continued: “I’m sorry if that [was a] failing on my part, but yeah, I hope that didn’t contribute or anything. I thought I saw you, you know, waving or something.”
The Most Talkative scribe told Cooper that he hadn’t greeted Seacrest, but “would have” if he had seen him. “I was trying to get Duran Duran’s attention,” Cohen quipped of the moment he waved toward Seacrest’s stage.
The Bravo host initially made headlines at last year’s New Year’s show when he referred to the ABC’s broadcast performers as “Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers,” which he later regretted.
“You know, those guys, we’ve been friends for so many years and we’re all in it together,” Seacrest exclusively told Us Weekly last month. “We’re all out there blocks away from each other, bringing in the new year, trying to have a good time and convey that sort of fun. So I wish them the best of luck and a great show.”
As the three men hosted their respective Saturday broadcasts to usher in 2023, Seacrest allegedly wanted to say hello mid-show.
“It was funny because my big stage was right in front of Anderson and Andy,” the American Idol host recalled on the Tuesday, January 3, episode of Live! With Kelly and Ryan. “When I was not working, I was trying to get their attention. I thought maybe I was in the shot. I just wanted to wave and say high. They have a great show. And Anderson, the best. He turns around and he says, ‘Have a good show.’ Very nice. Andy did not turn around.”
Kelly Ripa chimed in that her pal Cohen was not trying to snub Seacrest. “That’s not true. He said he was trying to get your attention,” the former soap star, 52 said on Tuesday. “Usually, ABC and CNN go to commercial at the same time. This year, they did not which was enormously helpful [as I went back-and-forth between programs].”
