Andy Cohen on Fears of Getting Canceled, 'Sustained Attack' by Bethenny Frankel, Other Housewives

That's not to say he doesn't think about it, and even take steps to avoid setting himself up for an fall. That fall, though, and the very idea of this new concept of canceling people, he finds "fascinating."

"It's fascinating to me, the idea that you could say something and everything would be pulled away from you," Cohen told Vulture in a new piece. The phenomenon has always been a part of public life, but seems to have gained a life (and speed) of its own in the social media era.

Nevertheless, Cohen shared that he'd reconsidered an excerpt from his 2012 memoir he was thinking of reading at a public event. The passage was a story about a prank he played on his parents to convince them he was Native American.

The point of the story was how a joke can go too far and go from funny to mean, but he worried the details would derail the intent. "You have to be smart about what you say because there's no nuance anymore," he explained. "People are just waiting to be outraged by every little thing."

At the same time, the radio and talk show host says he likes to be provocative. "It makes me feel alive in a weird way. It's dangerous. It's spontaneous," he told the outlet. "I think it sometimes gets to the heart of who a person is. If you navigate it well, it can become something incredible and intoxicating."

While he knowingly pushes the envelope, Cohen admits that he sometimes worries that he may have crossed a line or said the wrong thing. "I'm always waiting for the thing that's going to make it all fall down," he said.

That "reality reckoning" appeared to be heading his way after a series of lawsuits earlier this year by former Real Housewives that targeted him, the show's producers, and network Bravo. Cohen was painted as a ringleader in the show's alleged exploitations of its cast and their addictions, as well as claims he had a "proclivity for cocaine usage."

One of the attorneys leading the charge, Bryan Freedman, told Variety that leaving Cohen in his position at Bravo was reminiscent of pre-MeToo behaviors "when profits were prioritized over people." Parent company NBCUniversal and attorneys for Cohen denied all allegations.

Cohen was cleared by an internal investigation and never stopped his omnipresent role at the network, heading the various franchise reunions and talking to Bravolebrities and mainstream stars alike on WWHL every night. The lawsuits are still pending, though.

As Bethenny Frankel, who scored a $100 million payday after selling her Skinnygirl brand, tried to lobby reality stars -- including Housewives -- into unionizing amid last year's Hollywood strikes, Cohen referred to her relentless push, as well as allegations that started flying at him personally, as a "sustained attack."

What started as problematic claims, like Ramona Singer's problems with Eboni K. Williams, escalated into actual lawsuits, like those stemming from an Ultimate Girls Trip tapings gone wrong after Brandi Glanville was accused of sexually assaulted a butler and then Caroline Manzo. Glanville blamed the production for plying her with alcohol, despite her addiction.

She then turned her frustration at being targeted in these suits back on Cohen, accusing him of harassment for sending her an inappropriate joke video. Cohen has said it was a friendly exchange at the time, but apologized.

Fans have speculated that Frankel's turn stems from a contentious December 2022 WWHL appearance where she was clearly unhappy to be called out on the show for launching a podcast about the Real Housewives after she'd "been trashing" the franchise "publicly for the last three years," per Cohen.

Despite everything, he remains a staunch defender of the Real Housewives franchise as a whole, proudly touting that "we have put more women over 50 on television," and pushing back against Gloria Steinem's 2015 quote on WWHL that the show is "women all dressed up and inflated and plastic surgery and false bosoms and not getting along with each other."

Cohen sees that common take as "a lazy trope," and instead sees RH as "a feminist show," citing various forward-thinking women who agree. And he respects the women who make up each cast "because they open up their lives in a sometimes very raw way, and I think that would be really hard to do."

"I don't know if I have the constitution to do that on television. So the strength of these women ultimately to share that and then open themselves up for all sorts of conversations is something that I admire."

More significantly, he believes the longevity and ongoing popularity of the various series proves its more than that "lazy" criticism.

"I think that if it was just about women fighting, it would not still be on the air 18 years later and there wouldn’t be ten shows going," he argued. "There has to be humanity and there has to be humor, and you have to connect with these women. And so, obviously, there is drama and conflict, but there’s a whole lot more."

Watch What Happens Live airs Sunday through Thursday, while Real Housewives shows are all over Bravo's schedule.