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By
Suzanne

Interview with Andy Cohen of "Love
Connection" on FOX 5/22/17
I was invited to this call, but due to some email mixup,
I didn't get the dial-in information in time to be on the
call. Too bad! He's a hoot and does a great job with this
show.
Final Transcript Conference Call with Andy Cohen of
Love Connection May 22, 2017/2:30 p.m. PDT
SPEAKERS Andy Cohen Michael Roach
PRESENTATION
Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing
by and welcome to the Conference Call with Andy Cohen of
Love Connection. [Operator instructions]. As a reminder,
this conference is being recorded.
I’ll now turn the
conference over to Michael Roach for opening remarks. Please
go ahead, sir.
Michael Thanks, Cathy, and good
morning and thank you for joining us on this conference call
with Andy Cohen, Host and Co-Executive Producer, on the
revival of the classic dating series of Love Connection from
Executive Producer Mike Fleiss. As a reminder Love
Connection premieres this Thursday May 25th at 9.00/8:00
Central just before Beat Shazam on Fox.
That’s all I
have, Cathy, we are ready to start with the first question.
Moderator Thank you and first we’ll do another
reminder. [Operator instructions]. We’ll go to Jerry Nunn
with Windy City Times. Please go ahead.
Jerry Hi,
Andy, I loved all the Chicago people on there on the first
episode.
Andy Yes, there were a lot.
Jerry
Are we going to have some LGBT folk on your show, have some
gay match-ups?
Andy Yes, you bet. We have some great
lesbians and great gay guys and actually the gay guys are
from Chicago.
Jerry Nice, okay. Just as a follow-up,
who influenced you more, was it Patti Stanger or Chuck
Woolery?
Andy Really, myself, I think Chuck Woolery
is kind of ease and I liked his ease, just that he was very
calm and seemed really relaxed and mellow. But, I’m pretty
excitable, so that goes away. And then I really love asking
people personal awkward questions, so I think Patti is a
little tougher in her style than I am.
Jerry
Absolutely. Well, we’ll see you in Chicago soon, on tour,
hopefully.
Andy You bet.
Moderator Our next
question is from Jamie Ruby with scifivision.com. Go ahead
please.
Jamie Hi, thanks for talking to us today.
Andy Hi.
Jamie I was going to ask about if you
had watched the old ones, but you just talked about that a
little bit. Can you talk about sort of how it’s been updated
to make it more modern than the original?
Andy Yes,
we’ve got a $10,000 twist at the end of the show where if
the audience chooses someone different than the dater then
they have to decide between a love connection or money and
rejection, which is amazing. They also go on way more dates
this time. They date each of the potential three suitors,
and we have them score the dates at the beginning of the
date based on their first impressions of each other’s looks.
And the rest is he said/she said about dating.
Jamie
And then as a follow-up, this is a slightly different
question. You’re used to be being kind of on the other side
of these interviews and talking to celebrities and all that,
so I’m just curious, is it strange when you are being
interviewed to you?
Andy No, I think, talk show hosts
love to talk, so there you go.
Jamie Okay, thank you
so much.
Moderator Thank you. [Operator
instructions]. We have a question from Madison Brodsky with
Too Fab. Go ahead please.
Madison Hi, Andy, between
the Real Housewives and Watch What Happens Live, I think
it’s pretty safe to say that you’ve seen it all, but has any
contestant on the show so far surprised you with anything?
Andy There were a lot of surprises on Love Connection,
but in the first episode, I don’t know if you’ve seen it,
we’ve got an African-American woman named Sheena, who goes
on her first ever date with a white guy. It actually elicits
some really great comedy and there’s a really sweet ending
to the story, and so that was really kind of surprising and
fun to me.
Madison A little bit unrelated, but as a
follow-up question, the contestants get to choose what they
want to do on their dates, correct?
Andy Yes, they
plan the dates. We give them $500 and say do anything with
it.
Madison That’s awesome. Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question is from Alexander
Kacala with Hornet Unicorn Booty. Go ahead please.
Alexander Hi, Andy, how are you?
Andy Good.
Alexander What makes you an authoritative voice on dating?
Andy I don’t know that I am an authoritative voice on
dating. I love—I’m enthusiastic about matchmaking and
hearing about people’s dates and talking to people about
their dates and love lives. I just think that I’m like the
friend that wants to get in there and talk to people about
it. I think Mike Fleiss, who produces The Bachelor, who is
also one of our producers, is an authority on dating. So I
leave the matchmaking up to him and the questions up to me.
Alexander Just as a follow-up, have you had a real life
matchmaking success in your personal life?
Andy I’ve
had matchmaking successes for people who have wound up
having great dates or hooking up, but I have not hooked up a
couple that has wound up getting married.
Alexander
So you’re just with a one night hook up.
Andy Well a
few nights.
Alexander Thank you.
Moderator
Thank you. We’ll go next to Stacy Roberts with OMG.com. Go
ahead please.
Stacy Hi, Andy, I really enjoyed the
first episode. It reminded me a lot of the original, but my
question is like you said the second contestant surprised us
all with who she picked. What other previews can you give us
for the upcoming season?
Andy Oh my God, we’ve got a
great lesbian group of daters, one of whom comes out to her
mother on the air. We’ve got a man who is in his 70s who
went on his first Tinder date or a first online date
recently and the woman stood him up. So we set him up with
three dates. We’ve got the gay guys; we have a surprising
real housewife. We have a lot of big ones.
Stacy
Wow. What was it about Love Connection that made you say I
have to host this?
Andy It’s just I loved the
format, I loved asking awkward questions. It just felt like
the perfect marriage of a show for me, of format.
Stacy Did you watch other game shows like this or anything
when you were younger?
Andy Yes, I sure did,
absolutely. I watched everything when I was younger.
Stacy Very cool, thank you very much.
Andy
Thanks.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question is
from Steve Gidlow with mediavillage.com. Please go ahead.
Steve Hi, Andy, I was wondering if you could talk a
little bit about the celebrity—I know you can’t maybe say
who it is, the real housewife. But the process of getting
someone like that involved in a process like this how hard
or easy it was?
Andy I don’t want to overblow it
because this is really about real people looking for real
love. We did one little format twist where we had someone
from my universe on the show, and it was really just about
us getting together and figuring out who that right person
was. But it really is more about—that was more of a one-off
and it really is more about us trying to find love for real
people.
Steve What was it like working with Mike, the
king of dating, basically?
Andy It was great; it was
really great. He’s amazing, and he and I are both the dead
heads so we have that in common. He’s not that familiar with
Housewives Nation and I’m not that familiar with Bachelor
Nation so it was perfect. We came together about Love
Connection and about this show and The Grateful Dead.
Steve That’s funny. Thank you.
Moderator Thank
you. Our next question is from Elizabeth Collins with
Reality Wanted. Go ahead please.
Elizabeth Hi, Andy,
how’s it going?
Andy Great.
Elizabeth Good.
Thanks for talking with us today. Since you were just
talking about Bachelor Nation and Mike Fleiss, I was
wondering if there’s a possibility of getting Chris Harrison
on Love Connection.
Andy Is he single?
Elizabeth I think he’s still single, right?
Andy
Isn’t that funny? I would love it. You’d have to talk to
Mike Fleiss and Chris Harrison about that. I have a feeling
Chris Harrison at this point does not want to date on
television.
Elizabeth You’re probably right about
that. Then my follow-up is, what was the casting like for
this and what specifically were you looking for in people to
be on the show?
Andy The casting process was we just
put out word that—you just had to be looking for love, but
we are really embracing diversity of any and all kind. That
was it, just looking for love.
Elizabeth Okay. Is
casting still open or is it done?
Andy We already
shot the show, so hopefully there’ll be a Season 2 and we
can do more.
Elizabeth Okay great, thank you.
Moderator Thank you. [Operator instructions]. Okay we do
have a follow-up from Stacy Roberts with OMG.com. Please go
ahead.
Stacy Hi Andy. Did you keep in touch with any
of the contestants to find out if their relationship lasted
past the [indiscernible] date?
Andy Yes, you have
updates on everybody and it’s incredible how many people are
still dating and we’re keeping the updates kind of up to the
minute.
Stacy Was there any couple you were surprised
didn’t happen?
Andy Yes, there were a few. But, for
some interesting twists in the updates I was really
gratified, every update I see I am like, wow, this is great.
We actually made some real couples I feel like.
Stacy Would you go on the three dates to meet a new
boyfriend?
Andy I would go on three dates but I don’t
know if I would do it on TV.
Stacy Okay, thank you.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question is from James
Arnold with South Florida Gay News. Please go ahead.
James Hi, Andy. Well, we’re familiar with how you worked
your way up in Bravo and now Watch What Happens Live. I’m
curious, how does this show fit into your bigger carrier
ambitions? What’s next?
Andy Well, this is kind of
it. I mean I don’t want to say that I have no more ambitions
after this but I do have to say that I’ve been wanting some
kind of real estate in prime time that worked for me just
conceptually. This was the perfect show for me. With the
radio and Watch What Happens Live and the Housewives and the
book imprint and all that other stuff, I feel absolutely
kind of great about everything that I have going on and I
think Love Connection is the perfect addition and topper to
it all.
James Have you ever considered doing a gay
house husbands?
Andy We’ve talked about it on and
off, but no.
James Okay.
Andy I think the
Housewives is already a pretty gay show if you watch it, so
I think it’s good.
James Thanks so much.
Moderator Thank you. Our next question is from Madison
Brodsky with Too Fab. Go ahead please.
Madison Hi,
Andy. Would you consider bringing this is in with Anderson
Cooper in your AC2 shows?
Andy I don’t understand—
Madison Doing a live Love Connection?
Andy That
will be fun, yes, sure.
Madison What about the
housewives, would you ever bring any of them onto the show
Love Connection?
Andy Yes, I would. I absolutely
would.
Madison Who would be your dream housewife to
have on the show?
Andy Anyone who’s single.
Madison All right, great.
Moderator Thank you. We’ll
go back to Steve Gidlow with mediavillage.com. Go ahead
please.
Steve Hi, Andy. I just wanted to follow-up a
little bit on moving forward. Now you’ve had a taste of the
game show hosting, do you think a time might come when this
is what you want to do and just totally do game shows?
Andy You never know. I really am happy with everything
that I’m doing right now.
Steve One of those never
say never things?
Andy Exactly.
Steve Okay,
thank you so much.
Moderator [Operator instructions].
Michael I think we’re good. Thanks, Cathy. Thanks,
everyone, for participating in the call today and thank you
so much, Andy, for your time and to remind everyone Love
Connection premieres this Thursday May 25th at 9:00/8:00
Central on FOX. Thanks, everyone.
Moderator Thank
you, ladies and gentlemen. That does conclude our conference
for today. Thank you for your participation and for using
AT&T Executive TeleConference. You may now disconnect.
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