UPDATE 1/4/23 4:25 PM: Andy Cohen took to his radio show, SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, on Jan. 4, to clear the air on Ryan Seacrest’s claims that the 54-year-old snubbed him during the NYE celebrations. Andy called his NYE co-host, Anderson Cooper, to confirm the story. “I don’t even know what I, 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?'”, he said before calling the CNN reporter.
“No, I didn’t. Yeah, yeah. No. I just happened to turn, like, 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,” Anderson explained. Then he went on to say that Andy was occupied with other matters. “You were talking, I don’t know, you were involved in like some producer…,” he added before Andy clarified, “Right? I, yeah. I was like dealing with the show? Right.” Andy’s guest, John Hill, then asked, “So you didn’t purposely not say hi to Ryan?,” to which Andy concluded, “No, I didn’t see him.”
ORIGINAL STORY: It seems that Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host Ryan Seacrest, 48, thought he got the cold shoulder from Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen, 54, on New Year’s Eve! The 48-year-old took to his show with Kelly Ripa, 52, on Jan. 3 to claim that Andy “did not” turn to look in Ryan’s direction that evening. “I just wanted to wave and say hi. They have a great show. And Anderson [Cooper], the best. He turns around and he says, ‘Have a good show.’ Class. Class. Andy did not turn around,” the American Idol host said. “It was funny because my big stage was right in front of Anderson and Andy,” Ryan added at the 3.23-minute mark. “When I was not working, I was trying to get their attention.”
Despite Ryan feeling left out in the cold by the Bravo executive, their mutual friend, Kelly, aimed to set the record straight. “That’s not true. He said he was trying to get your attention,” the blonde beauty chimed in. “Really?”, Ryan asked in response. “Honestly…we’re within 10 feet of each other doing the show.” Andy has not responded publicly at the time of publication.
The NYE drama comes just days after Andy took to Times Square with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper to ring in 2023. Notably, this year both of the TV hosts celebrated a dry holiday. Per a CNN protocol, as reported by Variety in Nov. 2022, the two hosts were not able to drink alcohol during the taping of the New Year’s Eve special. And, of course, Andy had plenty to say about it in the weeks prior. “Anderson and I are going to party harder than we’ve ever partied before!”, the 54-year-old exclaimed during a Dec. episode of WWHL.
Although Andy claimed he was going to “party harder”, he later spoke to Page Six about his plans on Dec. 29, 2022. “We aren’t drinking, but we’re going to have a BLAST,” he said at the time. The booze ban comes one year after Andy and Anderson rang in 2022 with Andy’s plethora of buzzed-filled rants during the CNN broadcast. During Dec. 31, 2021, Andy dissed former Mayor Bill de Blasio in addition to other shade.
Andy did follow the rules this year, but on Dec. 28, 2022, he told Rolling Stone that he had other plans. “CNN said the correspondents will not be drinking,” he told the magazine. “Anderson and I will be the people partying on CNN [though] we will be partying responsibly,” Andy added. “My job is to take Anderson out of his comfort zone [and] my job is to be a party ringleader for everyone watching us on New Year’s Eve. And that is what I will continue to do. And as a matter of fact, if the correspondents are not drinking this year, I will be partying even harder on their behalf.”