SXSWORLD

Andy Cohen: Breaking Down the Wall Between Television and Viewers by Emily Farris A responsible for creating original content, scheming innovative formats and fi nding new "Bravolebrities." He is also the executive producer of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning cooking reality show Top Chef, As Executive Vice President of Development and Talent, Cohen is a week, recapping a variety of original programming, WWHL is just as interactive as ever and reaching a much larger audience. Comedians like Joan Rivers and Michael Showalter stop by to chat. Sometimes, a contestant seen booted off Top Chef 10 minutes earlier is on set mixing drinks. Th ere are polls. Th ere's a drinking game. Viewers can still submit questions via Facebook and Twitter, and many actually get answered live, and even call into the show to ask a question or make a comment. "People can join in, and it's almost like we're proving to people, 'Yes, Real Housewives franchises. But to viewers, he is perhaps best known as the kooky host of the network's reality reunion shows (when those feisty housewives try to be on their best behavior) and its inter- active late-night talk show, Watch What Happens Live, during which Cohen and a series of famous guests and Bravo personalities talk TV, current events, politics and anything else that comes up. "We started as a web show," Cohen says. "Th e idea was that we were going to be live on the Internet interacting with fans of Top Chef right after episodes would end." Th e audience could send in questions via email, Twitter or the website before or during the show and, as he says, "kind-of dictate what the conversation is." Now on Bravo TV fi ve nights as well as Th e Andy Cohen t the Bravo television network, audiences, executives and advertisers all play nice. And for Andy Cohen, that is the way it should be. knows and ultimately accepts that there will be some product place- ment in the show. In addition to host Padma Lakshmi announcing a cash prize "furnished by Healthy Choice" about twice weekly, con- testants off er up commentary like, "And then we all hopped in the Toyota Sienna and went to Whole Foods." Th ese plugs permeate every episode but are trans- parent enough to somehow feel okay, as if Bravo isn't trying to pull the J. Crew over its audience's eyes. "Th ey are the most educated audi- ence and the most upscale audience on all of cable," Cohen brags. Th ey're also the most engaged, which is why Bravo decided to try a new model for bringing in advertising dollars with season nine of Top Chef, set in Texas. Bravo debuted a new web series, Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture will be available from Henry Holt and Company starting May 8, 2012). But tweeting doesn't pay the bills. Anyone who watches Top Chef Last Chance Kitchen, which was shot alongside the episodes of Top Chef Texas. Every eliminated chef was given a chance to battle it out with another and work his or her way back to the fi nale. Viewers could watch online, or on Bravo's mobile app. Th e story was shared over social media. On the web, fans got to watch the very emotional but talented Beverly Kim reclaim her spot in the fi nale after being eliminated a few episodes earlier, then see her reap- pear on TV to the surprise of her fellow contestants. "[Th e fans] expect us to kind of be we're here right now, you're at home and we're here and we want to talk to you,'" Cohen says. "And it's just fun, too." Th e fun doesn't stop there. Cohen also tweets and blogs at BravoTV. com. He answers reader mail in video blog posts, and in January, used that platform to reveal the title of his forthcoming memoir (Most 26 SXSW ORLD / M ARCH M USIC 2012 as Bravo has coined it, was sponsored exclusively by Toyota. Th is past Saturday (March 10), SXSW Interactive attendees watched what happened live when Cohen, along with a team from Bravo (including Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and Lisa Hsia, Aimee Viles and Dave Serwatka), gathered in the Austin Convention Center to talk about how the transmedia model is changing TV. And in his typical interactive style, Cohen found a way to include people who weren't able to make it through the door by inviting them to accept a tweet invitation to tweet him questions. ■ Th ey're meeting their own while they're at it. Th is "transmedia play," right there with them, so we're just trying to meet our audience's needs," Cohen says. BRAVO MEDIA

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