Cohen began his career in television as an intern at CBS News. He spent 10 years at the network, eventually serving as senior producer of
The Early Show, a producer for
48 Hours, and a producer for
CBS This Morning. He joined the television network
Trio in 2000, later becoming vice president of original programming at
Bravo in 2004, when the network purchased Trio. Cohen was a regular guest on
Today and
Morning Joe, and has co-hosted
Live! with Kelly, and
The View. He has made various guest appearances on other talk shows. He has made several guest appearances on television shows playing himself, such as
The Comeback and
Saturday Night Live. In summer 2009, Cohen began hosting a weekly midnight television talk show,
Watch What Happens Live. The show was later expanded into a weeknight series. Cohen's autobiographical memoir
Most Talkative (
Henry Holt and Company), released in May 2012, became a
New York Times Best Seller in the hardcover, paperback, and combined non-fiction categories. On August 15, 2013, he declined to co-host the
Miss Universe pageant in Russia, due to the country's recent adoption of anti-gay laws. Before that, he hosted
Miss USA 2011 and
Miss USA 2012. On March 22, 2014, he portrayed
Zeus in
Lady Gaga's music video for "
G.U.Y.". In November 2014, Cohen published his second memoir,
The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year, inspired by the similarly titled
The Andy Warhol Diaries. The book spans a year of journal entries beginning in September 2013.
The Andy Cohen Diaries became a
Times Best Seller in the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction category. and
Doug Emhoff on the set of
Watch What Happens Live! in 2024 On September 14, 2015,
SiriusXM launched a new radio channel curated by Cohen, known as Radio Andy. The channel features shows hosted by Cohen (Andy Cohen Live, and Andy Cohen's Deep & Shallow). Cohen also hosts a series of special broadcasts for his station known as Town Halls in front of a live studio audience. The channel also features shows hosted by
Sandra Bernhard,
Bevy Smith,
Dan Rather,
Michelle Collins,
Jim Parsons, Jeff Lewis, Amy Phillips,
Jonathan Alter (together with his family),
John Hill, the producers of
Watch What Happens Live, and the producers at
World of Wonder. The channel has also produced specials, including: Radio Andy Theater, a parody of the
Real Housewives franchise; AC2 Live: Andy and Anderson on the Road (a behind-the-scenes show following Cohen and
Anderson Cooper on their live tour); and the
Love Connection Diaries (also a backstage docu-series featuring Cohen and
Love Connection producer (and Radio Andy host) John Hill). Cohen and close friend
Anderson Cooper announced that they would be going on a national tour to perform their conversational stage show
AC2 beginning in March 2015. The tour opened in Boston, followed by Miami Beach, Chicago, and Atlanta. Since then, the two-man show has reached over 50 cities; the next set of tour stops are scheduled for early 2026. On December 31, 2015, Cohen hosted a one-off live edition of
Hollywood Game Night (''New Year's Eve Game Night
), and co-hosted New Year's Eve with Carson Daly'' for
NBC. In 2016, the publisher Henry Holt and Company announced it was launching the imprint Andy Cohen Books. Cohen's third memoir
Superficial: More Adventures From the Andy Cohen Diaries was published in November 2016. A sequel to
The Andy Cohen Diaries, the book covers diary entries for the subsequent two years.
Superficial became a
Times Best Seller among books written by celebrities. In January 2017,
Fox ordered a revival of
Love Connection hosted by Cohen. The hour-long game show premiered on May 25. The same month, Cohen played himself on the
Netflix series
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. In August 2017, Fox announced that it would renew
Love Connection for a second season. Later that year, Cohen succeeded
Kathy Griffin as co-host of CNN's
New Year's Eve coverage alongside Cooper. In 2018, Cohen played himself on the show
Riverdale as a friend of the Lodge family. He made a March 2018 appearance as a guest judge in an episode of the
VH1 reality-television series ''
RuPaul's Drag Race''. Since December 2018, Cohen has co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper. On April 16, 2022,
The Real Housewives star
Nene Leakes filed a federal lawsuit against
NBCUniversal,
Bravo, production companies True Entertainment and Truly Original, and series producer Cohen for violating federal employment and anti-discrimination laws. She dismissed the action and claims on August 19, 2022. Early in 2024, former
Real Housewives stars
Brandi Glanville and
Leah McSweeney made headlines when they accused Cohen of sexual harassment and inappropriate and abusive behavior, specifically alleging that he pressured his cast to drink and to do drugs, and made sexually inappropriate comments (the latter of which Cohen reportedly characterized as a joke and apologized). In March 2024, an internal investigation by Bravo reportedly found that claims of harassment and misconduct made against Cohen by co-stars and cast on his shows were "unsubstantiated". In November 2024, U.S. district judge
Lewis J. Liman heard a case brought by McSweeney against Cohen, other producers, Bravo, and NBCUniversal. In March 2025, Liman dismissed the portion of the case brought against Cohen and three other producers while allowing three civil counts against the network to proceed. McSweeney filed an amended lawsuit against Cohen in May 2025, accusing him of orchestrating a coordinated campaign to discredit her. Cohen did public service announcements on
MTA's
New York City Transit's
subway system in December 2025. == Personal life ==