Ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square, new CNN CEO Chris Licht made the call that less boozing would be had from on-air hosts. Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen did make mention of this omission while taking “mystery shots,” and Cohen joked about edibles, but the real point of this post is to discuss the apparent beef between Cohen and Ryan Seacrest.
This largely sources back to one year ago when Cohen made on-air noises about how “Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers that are performing behind us.” And while recently speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Seacrest approved of how CNN hosts wouldn’t be getting wasted, and he added, “I think they had something to say about my show at one point, which was I’m sure from the alcohol because, I don’t think they would say what they said about our performers if they weren’t drinking.”
Fast forward to the most recent Times Square shindig, and something else did happen. Or rather, it didn’t happen in a way. As Seacrest claimed on Live! With Kelly And Ryan, Cohen allegedly failed to acknowledge his existence on NYE while Anderson Cooper did wave towards Ryan. Via Decider:
“My big stage was right in front of Anderson and Andy and so when I was not working, I was trying to get their attention,” Seacrest said. “I thought maybe I was in the shot. I just wanted to wave and say hi. You know, they have a great show.”
The host, who called Cooper “the best,” said the CNN anchor turned around and mouthed, “Hi, how are you?” and told him, “Have a good show.” Seacrest then sharply added, “Andy did not turn around.”
To that, Kelly Ripa responded, “That’s not true. He said he was trying to get your attention,” which was met with this from Seacrest: “Really?”
Oh, but there’s more. Cohen addressed Seacrest’s claim during Andy Cohen Live. Via Deadline, Cohen attempted to set the record straight: “I didn’t see him.” Then he maybe excused himself by pointing out that Anderson usually is good about mentioning these things. “[U]sually if he’s waving at Ryan, he’ll say to me, ‘Hey, there’s Ryan.’ You know what I mean? Yeah. And then I’ll turn around and wave or I’ll say, ‘There’s Ryan,’ but he didn’t do that.’”
Yeah, this is a total mess. Cohen then claimed, “He’s got a bug up against me.” You can listen to that go down below.