MW Andy Cohen's goal for New Year's Eve? Get Anderson Cooper giggling.

By Charles Passy

The 'Real Housewives' host also dishes his financial advice and spending habits - like running up big bills on this youthful hobby

Andy Cohen is getting ready for another round of New Year's Eve hijinks.

Cohen is the garrulous gadfly who produces and hosts Bravo's $(CMCSA)$ "Real Housewives" franchise, and is behind the same network's "Watch What Happens Live" late-night talk show. But every Dec. 31, he also co-anchors CNN's $(WBD)$ New Year's Eve coverage from New York City's Times Square, joining his friend Anderson Cooper in what has become an often wild, wooly and slightly intoxicated affair. Over the years, Cohen has offered critiques of well-known individuals - he delivered a memorable takedown of former NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio - and has generally aimed to bring lots of levity to the occasion.

The 56-year-old Cohen, a native of St. Louis, has also built quite the media empire in other ways. He has his own SiriusXM $(SIRI)$ channel, dubbed Radio Andy. He has authored books - most recently, "The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up," a New York Times bestseller. He also serves as a pitchman for Fresca Mixed, the canned cocktail connected to the soda brand.

Ahead of his New Year's Eve gig, MarketWatch caught up with Cohen at a Fresca Mixed promotional event in New York. He shared some thoughts about the big night as well as some of his views on money-related matters. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

MarketWatch: If you weren't spending New Year's Eve on CNN with Anderson Cooper, how would you be spending it?

Cohen: With friends. And a great thing about doing it with Anderson is I'm with one of my great friends. We've celebrated New Year's off-air together as many times as we have on-air. I'm good for a low-key New Year's with friends or like a house party.

MarketWatch: And what would you be serving?

Cohen: I'd be serving what I've always served, which is Fresca and tequila. I drank that for years before Fresca approached me [about Fresca Mixed].

MarketWatch: Any surprises for this year's New Year's Eve show?

Cohen: Now that Anderson has been publicly hit by debris [while covering Hurricane Milton], people feel that he's really been through it this year and I agree. And we've all had a long year. And I think people deserve to see him really let go under my jurisdiction and supervision. So that's the mandate. I just want to get him giggling and loosening him up.

MarketWatch: What explains our continued fascination with the "Real Housewives" franchise, which is now nearly 20 years old?

Cohen: I think it's replaced the soap opera, which are barely on the air now. And it's an unscripted soap opera. We live in an age where truth is stranger than fiction and that's the reason people love reality TV. I think it's also very funny; the women are very watchable, and we keep it fresh and bring people in and take them out. It's kind of ever-evolving, but it's also the same in a comforting way.

MarketWatch: Under your guidance, this show has been set in countless places. Is there any city where "Real Housewives" wouldn't work?

Cohen: Oh, I think there are tons of cities where it wouldn't work. I mean, a city where there's nothing happening. It's not "Real Housewives of the Prairie." We haven't done that yet. That would be interesting. It would just be a different show.

MarketWatch: What's the best piece of financial advice that you ever got?

Cohen: My mom was just like: "Know what you're spending your money on." The way to rankle my mother would be to get her to think that I was wasting my money. And I think because of that, travel was really the only thing I ever really spent money on once I started making it. And real estate.

MarketWatch: Was there something you spent your money on that got your mother really angry?

Cohen: I would go to camp and take riflery. She would write me letters and say, "We got these bills for your bullets. How many bullets do you need?"

MarketWatch: What's the biggest money mistake you've ever made?

Cohen: A couple of years ago, I got defrauded by scammers. It shows how easy it is to get scammed. They got me to kind of authorize money being wired out of my account.

MarketWatch: What do you hate spending money on?

Cohen: I hate spending money on stupid fees. I'm okay that this ticket or this experience costs this much, but [it's the] added fees at hotels or for tickets.

MarketWatch: What's a favorite possession of yours?

Cohen: My shotski that Jimmy Fallon and his wife made for my clubhouse.

MarketWatch: Do you think you'll ever retire?

Cohen: By natural evolution, things will go away or stop happening. I love to work obviously, so I think I'll always be working on something, even if I'm just writing.

-Charles Passy

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December 31, 2024 08:08 ET (13:08 GMT)

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