Andy Cohen – Love Connection

By starrymag | May 24, 2017

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) Are we going to have some LGBT folk on your show, have some gay match-ups?

 

Andy                           Yes, you bet.  We have some great lesbians and great gay guys and actually the gay guys are from Chicago.

 

Q) Who influenced you more, was it Patti Stanger or Chuck Woolery?

 

Andy                           Really, myself, I think Chuck Woolery is kind of ease and I liked his ease, just that he was very calm and seemed really relaxed and mellow.  But, I’m pretty excitable, so that goes away.  And then I really love asking people personal awkward questions, so I think Patti is a little tougher in her style than I am.

 

Q) I was going to ask about if you had watched the old ones, but you just talked about that a little bit.  Can you talk about sort of how it’s been updated to make it more modern than the original?   

 

Andy                           Yes, we’ve got a $10,000 twist at the end of the show where if the audience chooses someone different than the dater then they have to decide between a love connection or money and rejection, which is amazing.  They also go on way more dates this time.  They date each of the potential three suitors, and we have them score the dates at the beginning of the date based on their first impressions of each other’s looks.  And the rest is he said/she said about dating.

 

Q)  You’re used to be being kind of on the other side of these interviews and talking to celebrities and all that, so I’m just curious, is it strange when you are being interviewed to you?

 

Andy                           No, I think, talk show hosts love to talk, so there you go.

 

Q) Between the Real Housewives and Watch What Happens Live, I think it’s pretty safe to say that you’ve seen it all, but has any contestant on the show so far surprised you with anything?

 

Andy                           There were a lot of surprises on Love Connection, but in the first episode, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, we’ve got an African-American woman named Sheena, who goes on her first ever date with a white guy.  It actually elicits some really great comedy and there’s a really sweet ending to the story, and so that was really kind of surprising and fun to me.

 

Q) A little bit unrelated, but as a follow-up question, the contestants get to choose what they want to do on their dates, correct?

 

Andy                           Yes, they plan the dates.  We give them $500 and say do anything with it.

 

Q) What makes you an authoritative voice on dating?

 

Andy                           I don’t know that I am an authoritative voice on dating.  I love—I’m enthusiastic about matchmaking and hearing about people’s dates and talking to people about their dates and love lives.  I just think that I’m like the friend that wants to get in there and talk to people about it.  I think Mike Fleiss, who produces The Bachelor, who is also one of our producers, is an authority on dating.  So I leave the matchmaking up to him and the questions up to me.

 

Q) Just as a follow-up, have you had a real life matchmaking success in your personal life?

 

Andy                           I’ve had matchmaking successes for people who have wound up having great dates or hooking up, but I have not hooked up a couple that has wound up getting married.

 

Q)  So you’re just with a one night hook up.

 

 

Andy                           Well a few nights.

 

Q) Like you said the second contestant surprised us all with who she picked.  What other previews can you give us for the upcoming season?

 

Andy                           Oh my God, we’ve got a great lesbian group of daters, one of whom comes out to her mother on the air.  We’ve got a man who is in his 70s who went on his first Tinder date or a first online date recently and the woman stood him up.  So we set him up with three dates.  We’ve got the gay guys; we have a surprising real housewife.  We have a lot of big ones.

 

Q) Wow.  What was it about Love Connection that made you say I have to host this? 

 

Andy                           It’s just I loved the format, I loved asking awkward questions.  It just felt like the perfect marriage of a show for me, of format.

 

Q) Did you watch other game shows like this or anything when you were younger?

 

Andy                           Yes, I sure did, absolutely.  I watched everything when I was younger.

 

Q) I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the celebrity—I know you can’t maybe say who it is, the real housewife.  But the process of getting someone like that involved in a process like this how hard or easy it was?

 

Andy                           I don’t want to overblow it because this is really about real people looking for real love.  We did one little format twist where we had someone from my universe on the show, and it was really just about us getting together and figuring out who that right person was.  But it really is more about—that was more of a one-off and it really is more about us trying to find love for real people.

 

Q) What was it like working with Mike, the king of dating, basically?

 

Andy                           It was great; it was really great.  He’s amazing, and he and I are both the dead heads so we have that in common.  He’s not that familiar with Housewives Nation and I’m not that familiar with Bachelor Nation so it was perfect.  We came together about Love Connection and about this show and The Grateful Dead.

 

Q)  Since you were just talking about Bachelor Nation and Mike Fleiss, I was wondering if there’s a possibility of getting Chris Harrison on Love Connection.

 

Andy                           Is he single?

 

Q)  I think he’s still single, right?

 

Andy                           Isn’t that funny?  I would love it.  You’d have to talk to Mike Fleiss and Chris Harrison about that.  I have a feeling Chris Harrison at this point does not want to date on television.

 

 

Q) You’re probably right about that.  Then my follow-up is, what was the casting like for this and what specifically were you looking for in people to be on the show? 

 

Andy                           The casting process was we just put out word that—you just had to be looking for love, but we are really embracing diversity of any and all kind.  That was it, just looking for love.

 

Q) Okay.  Is casting still open or is it done?

 

Andy                           We already shot the show, so hopefully there’ll be a Season 2 and we can do more.

 

 

 

Q) Did you keep in touch with any of the contestants to find out if their relationship lasted past the first date?

 

Andy                           Yes, you have updates on everybody and it’s incredible how many people are still dating and we’re keeping the updates kind of up to the minute.

 

Q) Was there any couple you were surprised didn’t happen?

 

Andy                           Yes, there were a few.  But, for some interesting twists in the updates I was really gratified, every update I see I am like, wow, this is great.  We actually made some real couples I feel like.

 

Q) Would you go on the three dates to meet a new boyfriend?

 

Andy                           I would go on three dates but I don’t know if I would do it on TV.

 

Q) Well, we’re familiar with how you worked your way up in Bravo and now Watch What Happens Live.  I’m curious, how does this show fit into your bigger carrier ambitions?  What’s next?

 

Andy                           Well, this is kind of it.  I mean I don’t want to say that I have no more ambitions after this but I do have to say that I’ve been wanting some kind of real estate in prime time that worked for me just conceptually.  This was the perfect show for me.  With the radio and Watch What Happens Live and the Housewives and the book imprint and all that other stuff, I feel absolutely kind of great about everything that I have going on and I think Love Connection is the perfect addition and topper to it all.

 

Q)  Have you ever considered doing a gay house husbands?

 

Andy                           We’ve talked about it on and off, but no.  I think the Housewives is already a pretty gay show if you watch it, so I think it’s good.

 

Q) Would you consider bringing this is in with Anderson Cooper in your AC2 shows?

 

Andy                           I don’t understand—

 

Q) Doing a live Love Connection?

 

Andy                           That will be fun, yes, sure.

 

Q) What about the housewives, would you ever bring any of them onto the show Love Connection?

 

Andy                           Yes, I would.  I absolutely would.

 

Q) Who would be your dream housewife to have on the show?

 

Andy                           Anyone who’s single.

 

 

Q)  I just wanted to follow-up a little bit on moving forward.  Now you’ve had a taste of the game show hosting, do you think a time might come when this is what you want to do and just totally do game shows?

 

Andy                           You never know.  I really am happy with everything that I’m doing right now.

 

Q) One of those never say never things?

 

Andy                           Exactly.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*