“I’m not out to get someone – I’m out to make interesting television,” says Andy Cohen. We’re discussing his culture-axis-spinning, controversy-laden reality TV franchise Real Housewives in the cloistered lobby of an exclusive west London hotel. Surrounded by low-voiced business meetings and phone-lit brunches, the TV exec-turned-host is readying to drop a bombshell sure to set the internet alight.
In its 18th year, after 11 separate franchises across the US, 27 spin-offs and 21 international editions globe-trotting from Athens to Melbourne, the Housewives universe is expanding again. Real Housewives of London is officially in the works, a show that will chronicle the lives of the city’s most affluent – and as the templates reflect, highly opinionated and hilarious – women. Cohen is the mastermind behind the franchise that’s become one of the world’s most successful runs of reality TV, and he’s in town for the first-ever Hayu FanFest – a megafan reality TV convention where the British edition to the Real Housewives universe is to be announced.
Tens of millions watch the wives navigate their family units, marriages, social scenes and each other, and this heavyweight mogul acts as Housewives’ executive producer, and hosts its rowdy reunion specials. “We cracked the code years ago,” says the 56-year-old of Housewives ’ evolving success, which includes high-stakes storylines ranging from shock divorces to arrests, anonymous troll reveals to a pro.