Five years ago, Andy Cohen’s fledgling show on Bravo, “Watch What Happens Live,” had only a 13-episode order, was airing at midnight and had a tiny “clubhouse” studio as a set.
Today, the studio may still be miniature, but “WWHL” now airs five nights a week at 11 p.m., having solidified itself as the most interactive and outrageous show in late night.
On the eve of his five-year anniversary celebration, Cohen reflects on five behind-the-scenes memories that may surprise you.
There are often just as many celebrities in the audience as there are on-camera.
Cohen: You never know who’s going to show up to be in the audience. They’re either friends with the guest or they just kind of know that it’s a good time. There are only 22 people in our audience, so it’s really intimate and fun. It’s like a fun night out. J.Lo showed up the other night with Leah Remini, and Liam Neeson’s been [in the audience] a few times. Ralph Fiennes came for the Lady Gaga show.
The night that J.Lo was there, almost the whole audience was made up of wives of the Mets because I had been at a baseball game and they all found me.
The drinking doesn’t stop when the cameras turn off.
Cohen: We’ve had nights where the guests have stayed and we’ll have a little clubhouse party. We just kind of keep the bar going.
I remember when John Mayer was on with Dan Rather, [Mayer] stayed partying with us until three in the morning. Oprah stayed and had cocktails with her team for a good 45 minutes. I guess if you’re already on the train, why stop the brakes?
Lady Gaga once relieved herself in a trash can.
Cohen: Lady Gaga was backstage and famously peed in a trash can because she didn’t want to walk back out through the whole office and the crowd. We have all this crazy stuff in the clubhouse, [so] I told our [production assistant], “Put it in some kind of a container, and we’ll put it in the clubhouse and it’ll be like a pop artifact.” He said, “Well, this pee is going to go bad, you can’t do that.” But he found a recipe online where you can turn pee into perfume. So I guess he added a ton of alcohol and chemicals, and now it’s in a perfume bottle in our clubhouse.
The odd pairings of guests can lead to unexpected magic.
Cohen: Jenny McCarthy and Donnie Wahlberg were on the show together, and I sensed some chemistry with them. We were taking pictures afterwards and I said to Donnie, “She’s really hot. You should ask her out.” So he asked for her number, and that’s how their whole relationship started.
When you’re a live show, the building’s fire alarm can be a real bitch.
Cohen: We’ve had the fire alarm go off twice. [One time,] Patti LaBelle and Robin Quivers were on. We were in the studio with the audience and the fire alarm went off, and we had to run down all these flights of stairs.
Thankfully the alarm went off very quickly and we got back up in time to do the show. The same thing happened during the after show with Jeff Lewis and Cloris Leachman. We were like, “Well, we have to end the show. It’s a fire alarm.” That was that.