Yahoo News Andy Cohen Denies Snubbing Ryan Seacrest on NYE: I Was Just ‘Dealing with the Show’
Andy Cohen is done with Ryan Seacrest’s long-running New Year’s Eve drama.
Seacrest previously said on “Live! with Kelly and Ryan” that Cohen ignored Seacrest’s attempt to say hi to him during the broadcast. While Cohen’s CNN co-host Anderson Cooper waved to Seacrest, the “American Idol” producer claimed Cohen gave him the cold shoulder and “did not turn around” to acknowledge him 10 feet away from the stage.
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Bravo mega-producer Cohen reacted to Seacrest’s statement, calling Cooper to clarify whether or not Seacrest was spotted during the live broadcast, on a recent episode of SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live” podcast.
“I didn’t see Anderson turn around and wave. Usually what Anderson will do, and I should, 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 said. “And then I’ll turn around and wave, or I’ll say, ‘There’s Ryan,’ but he didn’t do that. Should I call him and yell at him about it? OK. Hold on. OK, here I go. Oh god, he’s gonna be so mad at me. Oh god. I’m kind of scared.”
To Cooper, Cohen said, “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. My point that I was just making on the show was usually if one of us sees Ryan and turns around and waves, we’ll say to the other, ‘Oh, there’s Seacrest.’ So I’m saying, you didn’t say that to me this year.”
Cooper confirmed, “No, I didn’t. I just happened to turn. There were a couple times I looked to see if he was around and I hadn’t seen 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. I saw him, and we both waved, and I said, you know, ‘Have a great New Year,’ and you were talking, I don’t know, you were involved in like some producer…”
Cohen replied, “I was, like, dealing with the show? Right.”
Cooper continued, “Right. And I mean, it all happened so fast, it wasn’t a big deal. Every year we always say hi to him, so I assumed maybe you had previously, and I was just catching up…I’m sorry if that was a failing on my part, but I hope that didn’t contribute or anything. I mean, I think that I thought I saw you, you know, waving or something.”
Cohen added, “I was trying to get Duran Duran’s attention. All right. Well, I don’t want to keep you from your busy day. Thank you though, for clarifying that. That’s OK. This was a better call than the first call.”
Radio guest John Hill summed up to Cohen, “So you didn’t purposely not say hi to Ryan?” to which Cohen said, “No, I didn’t see him.”
Seacrest, whom Cohen called a “loser” last year while intoxicated on-air and later apologized, supported CNN’s new controversial ban on alcohol with Cooper and Cohen to ring in 2023.
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