Andy Cohen Shares Excitement and Insights as Co-Host of the Miss USA Pageant

Andy Cohen said it plainly: "I'm just going to bring my late-night vibe to prime time. I love sparkly things. I love beautiful women. I love a compet…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

Andy Cohen, host of Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live, co-hosted the 2011 Miss USA Pageant live from the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. The pageant aired Sunday, June 19, 2011 at 9 PM Eastern on NBC. Premier Guide Miami caught up with Andy to discuss his role as co-host alongside Giuliana Rancic.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: You seem awfully busy lately...

ANDY COHEN: It's not easy. I'm lucky because I love live TV. And my show is live. So I really just spend a few hours after work, after my day job is over, doing my live duties. From morning until night I'm focused on Bravo programming, and then kind of after hours is when I have a little fun in the Bravo Clubhouse. The reunion shows really only wind up being seven or eight days out of the year. So far it's okay. It can get a little hairy and a little stressful. But it's all fun. And I happen to have two great jobs that I love very much. So I am very lucky.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: How were you approached to host the Miss USA Pageant?

ANDY COHEN: They asked. They just came and said, do you have any interest in this? And I just thought it sounded so fun — like such a kind of ironic pop culture twist on the ringleader aspect of my job with women at Bravo. So I just thought, gosh, that's just fun. And when they said Giuliana was involved I said sign me up.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: The Miss USA Pageant has evolved over the years — how important do you think this platform is for women?

ANDY COHEN: Well I think it's a great opportunity. Rima was certainly a different Miss USA — she's the first Arab American and first Muslim to be crowned Miss USA, which was really exciting. And I think that as the pageant gets more modern, it's an opportunity for the women to have platforms to say things that maybe aren't as traditional as they have been in the past. I'm looking forward to meeting the women and hearing what they have to say, what they stand for, what they are about, and what they would use their year as Miss USA to represent. I haven't met them yet. But I certainly think it's a great opportunity to say something and represent something and put something out there that is different and challenging. And hopefully the judges will agree with me and embrace something modern and new.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What will you bring as host to the pageant?

ANDY COHEN: I will bring my personality and sensibilities to it and see if I combust along the way. I'm just going to bring my late-night vibe to prime time. And I just am going to go with it. It's all about the attitude. And I'm just excited.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Will you be sober for the show?

ANDY COHEN: I will be sober for the broadcast — so that will be a new twist. And I'm actually going to be broadcasting Watch What Happens: Live from Vegas directly following the pageant on Bravo. So I'm going to go from one show right to the other. Hopefully it will be a seamless two and a half hours that will just be nothing but fun.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What is Donald Trump like?

ANDY COHEN: I hosted a Q&A with him in Vegas a few years ago. And the thing that I found amusing and that I liked about him was that you really can ask him anything and he'll answer it. So I found that quite entertaining.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What are you looking forward to as co-host?

ANDY COHEN: I'm just looking forward to it all. Look — I love sparkly things. I love beautiful women. I love watching Giuliana. So right there that's three things I'm going to have a front-row seat to. I love a competition, so I'm just going to be invested in seeing these women and getting to know them a little bit and seeing one of them make it to the top and have her dream come true. It's just exciting and fun.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Will you have any interaction with the contestants?

ANDY COHEN: I know that we'll be around the women. And we're not judges — so that's kind of a great thing. I think that might allow us to get to know them a little bit.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: So what will you be doing during rehearsal?

ANDY COHEN: I think it's really about blocking and staging and where everybody needs to be. There are a lot of moving parts. It is a two-hour live show, 51 women — there is a lot of personality and moving pieces on that stage. And in terms of what happens, it's all live. The other cool thing is that for the first time ever, fans are going to be able to vote their favorite contestant into the semifinals online during the show. That's a cool new twist.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What do you make of pageants?

ANDY COHEN: I think they're fun. The whole process of watching a field of 51 women being narrowed down in different rounds and different competitions — it's just fun. The women are beautiful. It's sparkly, it's glittery, it's entertaining, and someone ends the night winning this big prize package. It's a format that works and works and is tried and true. Pretty simple.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Which of the housewives is a pageant chic?

ANDY COHEN: Gretchen Rossi from the Orange County Housewives. She was on a tear at the OC Reunion because her costar Alexis said she doesn't think a woman should be President — she's more comfortable with a man President. And so I asked Gretchen what she thought. And she was giving her answer about how women can do anything. And I looked at her and I said, oh my God, you are so pageant right now. She looks like Miss Texas. She looks like the ultimate Miss Texas to me — or Miss California. She's got the hair, she's got the body, she's got the attitude. I just think she could take it to the end.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Any chance of a pageant for the housewives?

ANDY COHEN: Gosh — I mean, I would like to do maybe the Ultimate Housewife Pageant. I think that would be fun, just throw all the housewives up on a stage and whittle it down. I would actually quite enjoy that. I think we just spitballed ourselves into a great idea. It might be a little shark-jumpy, but I like it. I'm going to think about it.

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