Andy Cohen sent the Watch What Happens Live control room into a panic when he made the rare decision to restart a pre-taped show. According to Cohen, his executive producer thought he was “having a stroke” as he fumbled his way through his guests’ introductions.
Cohen explained on this morning’s broadcast of his Sirius XM radio show Andy Cohen Live that he pre-taped this upcoming Wednesday’s (June 24) episode of WWHL with Cindy Crawford and Colman Domingo earlier this week.
However, he was forced to wear “a not great contact lens prescription” since he couldn’t get an earlier appointment with his eye doctor — thus, he couldn’t see the teleprompter.
“We were sitting there, I’m starting the show, it’s like 5:30 p.m. and I look up at the teleprompter to begin the show and I really — not only can’t really see, but I’m kind of seeing double,” Cohen said. “I barely know Cindy Crawford, Colman Domingo I just met, it was a full audience and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, boy. What am I gonna do?’”
The Real Housewives executive producer told his co-host John Hill that he was looking “quizzically” at the teleprompter as though he was trying to find his words.
“I’m looking at it and I’m kind of reading — but I’m looking at the camera as though it’s saying something to me and I don’t really understand what it’s saying,” he said. “That’s the only way I could explain to you the expression on my face.”
Cohen muddled his way through his introductions of both Crawford and Domingo, but things only worsened when he introduced the bartenders (who were from Cats: The Jellicle Ball) and couldn’t read what theater they were performing in.
“I just thought, ‘This is terrible.’ And I stopped the show, which I never ever stop a show. I just never stop a show,” Cohen explained. “And I said, ‘I can’t see.’”
That’s when Cohen’s executive producer turned on the microphone in his ear.
“When she opened it up, I hear chaos in my ear,” he said. “And she says, ‘We all thought you were having a stroke.’ They thought I was stroking out.”
Cohen added, “They were not laughing. It sounded like chaos. They did not know what to do. They were like, ‘What has happened to him?’”
The late-night host ultimately fixed his contact problem by closing his eyes and letting them reset.
“We restarted the show and that was that. And it wound up being a great show. Cindy Crawford pleads the fifth. Colman Domingo does a brilliant Clubhouse Playhouse,” he said. “I’m so excited for y’all to see this episode but when I tell you, it was scary.”
Watch What Happens Live airs Sunday through Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.