Tag Archives: Andy Cohen

Housewife Shake Up!

We all know of my slight obsession with Bravo and the Real Housewives of (Insert: Obscure Affluent Community) series. About 0.0005% of me died a bit when I caught word (via Huffington Post) that New York Housewives Jill Zarin, Kelly Bensimon, Alex McCord, and Cindy Barshop (she seems nice) were fired Thursday morning.

If we want to break it down honestly – they were expendable personalities to the show. Zarin and McCord were cast members from the series inaugural season and their shift in personalities over the years have been quite evident. Zarin, who was once portrayed as a reliable friend, someone you’d want on your side, became snippy after the fight with Bethenny. She claimed she was still a nice person, but the show certainly did not air her in that light. McCord on the other hand started the series as a mousey personality from Brooklyn (gasp!) looking for a spotlight in someway. She got stepped over numerous times and out shined by the brighter personalities (Bethenny Frankel<3) but eventually came to put those hives to good use when she was able to defend herself in social scenarios.

Kelly Bensimon was an interesting addition to the cast a few seasons back. I can’t really talk smack about someone whose professional career I actually respect. Same goes for Cindy – it was a shame that her Housewives stint was brief, but she’s a real businesswoman so career > crazy.

The remaining cast members are Countess (does she still get that title after a divorce?) LuAnn de Lesseps, Ramona Singer (the only original cast members left) and Sonja Morgan. Being a huge fan of the show, I can completely say that I’m okay with this transitional phase. They honestly almost lost me after Bethenny left to get hitched and live happily ever after, but got me back with all of Sonja’s financial woes, The Countess’ raspy voice, and Ramona’s grape infused rants. I’m excited to see what kind of socialitey personalities they take on to complement the three remaining Housewives. 

Is anyone else banking for Tinsley Mortimer?

“Bravo” for Bravo

One of my wonderfully opinionated friends, Mizz  JLSandler, has officially joined the blogosphere. You can find her at http://jlsandler.wordpress.com/. In the meantime, I want to bring attention to one of the articles my now fellow online scribe wrote a bit ago about the resurgence of Bravo TV entitled, ”Bravo is Art.”

Anyone who watched Bravo prior to 2000 knows that it was pretty much the channel for television shows to find a second wind (or die) and movies. They didn’t really have any original content – rather, original content that was buzz-worthy and worthwhile – and did not have any sort of idea of what its brand’s potential was.

Somewhere around 2005 the clouds parted, the sunlight shown through and Bravo brought on Andrew “Andy” Cohen on as it’s Vice President of Programming and Production after it taking over his previous employer, Trio. (Info which I learned here).

Mr. Cohen, currently owner to a slew of Executive Producer credits to the majority (all?) of Bravo’s programs, is not only a genius at bringing on buzzworthy (read: addicting) programming for the network, but is also one of it’s brightest stars through his hosting gig on “Watch What Happens: Live”, now renewed for a fifth season on the channel. Admittedly, Mr. Cohen has turned a non-Jew into a constant praiser of people’s actions through offering them what are deemed never-appropriate “Mazel’s” – a recent congratulations was sent to a friend for not regressing after a seemingly questionable weekend. Catchphrases aside, WWHL also offers incredibly entertaining interviews, performances (Danielle Staub’s “Close to You” scarred me for life), and games – anyone remember when Anderson Cooper tried to guess NeNe Leakes’ quips?

Any article about Bravo and Mr. Cohen would be remiss to not include the Housewives series, or as Mizz S affectionately calls, “Really Rich Housewives of insert selected city here.” This franchise, the most successful and longest running of all Bravo’s programs, is now the cornerstone of the channel’s non-competitive based reality programs and is apparently trying to expand north to Toronto. Housewives of DC aside, viewers can always rely on the series to provide constant entertainment by following around a number of well-to-do women in their daily lives. While the feuds between all of the “Bravo-lebrities” help fuel the show (Camille v. Kyle, Danielle v. the state of New Jersey, NeNe v Kim, etc) it’s the interaction of all these women as well as their flock of gays, which helped to propel the Housewives series into upper echelon of reality television.

I have to disagree with my friend on one thought though. Bravo has not reinvented reality television – it has now set the standard for what reality based entertainment should achieve to be.