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TMCNet:  SXSW crowd watches what happens when Bravo's Andy Cohen takes the stage

[March 08, 2013]

SXSW crowd watches what happens when Bravo's Andy Cohen takes the stage

Mar 08, 2013 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- AUSTIN Bravo exec and host Andy Cohen got the Austin welcome to South by Southwest Interactive Friday afternoon: he was stuck in traffic, making him 15 minutes late to his talk on his nightly late-night talk show, Watch What Happens Live.

The good news: he talked a lot about interactivity and its role in making his series successful, let it be known that he loves Friday Night Lights ("if Connie Britton came on [WWHL], I'd pee in my pants"), and talked about how the show's airing next week from Austin is going to be a major milestone for his show.

The bad news: no Real Housewives or Top Chefs showed up to take potshots at each other.

Taking the stage with WWHL producer Michael O'Brien in front of a largely female audience at Dell Hall, Cohen said the show's interactivity is a natural as WWHL started online.

"Bravo's always been pretty tech savvy. We were on one of the first channels to partner with Foursquare," he said.

Now, Twitter plays a major part on WWHL. "We're all about social media," he said. "The Housewives reunion shows are driven by viewer questions [on Twitter]." O'Brien said that while WWHL's TV audience has been growing in single-digit percentages, its online following has been growing at 30 per-cent a year.

In fact, Cooper took questions via Twitter during the session, most of which dealt with the show though one cheeky questioner asked, "Have you ever kissed [friend and WWHL guest] Anderson Cooper " The answer was decidedly not tabloid-ready. "No," he said. "We're friends." As for the Austin shows next week, he's promising a particulary Bravo-ready lineup including Real Housewife Kenya Moore and comedian Sarah Silverman.

Cary Darling, 817-390-7571 Twitter: carydar ___ (c)2013 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Visit the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at www.star-telegram.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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