We Need To Talk About Andy Cohen

The Bravo hitmaker and executive producer of the global television franchise “Real Housewives” has built an empire off the backs of women around the world.

The smash franchise launched in 2006 with The Real Housewives of Orange County and has since expanded to ensconce groups of diverse women from 11 different US cities and 21 International hotspots. The series was created by producer Scott Dunlop, but has been predominantly shaped by Bravo TV executive Andy Cohen.

You probably know Cohen, who has leveraged the popularity of the show and its colorful cast of women to cast himself as a late night TV talk show host, author and overseer of his own sprawling Sirius Radio Channel, cleverly titled “Radio Andy,” home to many of the quirky Bravo personalities crutching up the Cohen empire.

With the recent writers guild and actors strike, the Bravo hitmaker has found himself under a microscope as former Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel (Real Housewives of New York City) raised a red flag and asked why Reality TV stars aren’t unionized. It was a valid question that fetched tremendous support from former and current colleagues across the genre that has become a cultural phenom spawning over a dozen spinoffs of the central series (Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake, Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.)