Andy Cohen denies ignoring Ryan Seacrest on New Year’s Eve amid feud: ‘I didn’t see him’

Andy Cohen has refuted Ryan Seacrest’s claims that he snubbed Seacrest on New Year’s Eve.

On (31 December), both Seacrest and Cohen hosted ABC and CNN’s respective coverage of the evening approximately 10 feet away from each other in New York’s Times Square.

Afterwards, Seacrest told his Live! with Kelly and Ryan co-host Kelly Ripa, on Tuesday’s (3 January) episode, that Cohen, who was presenting alongside Anderson Cooper, ignored him when he tried to wave hello.

Seacrest claimed that while Cooper “turned around” and told him to “have a good show”, Cohen “did not turn around”.

Responding to Seacrest’s account of the night, Cohen has now offered his side of the story, denying that he had intentionally ignored Seacrest’s greeting.

“I didn’t see Anderson turn around and wave,” Cohen explained on a new episode of his Andy Cohen Live podcast.

“Usually if [Cooper’s] waving at Ryan, he’ll say to me, ‘Hey there’s Ryan,’” Cohen said. “And then I’ll turn around and wave, or I’ll say, ‘There’s Ryan,’ but he didn’t do that.”

Cohen then rang Cooper to corroborate his account, telling his CNN co-host: “This is a you-and-I thing because [Seacrest] said on the show that you very politely turned around and waved to him and mouthed to him have a good show and that I didn’t turn around. My point that I was just making on the [podcast] was usually if one of us sees Ryan and turns around and waves, we’ll say to the other, ‘Oh, there’s Seacrest.’ So I’m saying, you didn’t say that to me this year.”

“No, I didn’t. I just happened to turn,” Cooper confirmed. “There were a couple times I looked to see if he was around and I hadn’t seen him. And then there was one time I just turned, and he was there over by where they, you know, do that hourly, like, countdown. I saw him, and we both waved, and I said, you know, ‘Have a great New Year,’ and you were talking, I don’t know, you were involved in like some producer…”

“I was, like, dealing with the show? Right,” Cohen clarified.

Cooper responded affirmatively: “Right. And I mean, it all happened so fast, it wasn’t a big deal. Every year we always say hi to him, so I assumed maybe you had previously, and I was just catching up… I’m sorry if that was a failing on my part, but I hope that didn’t contribute or anything. I mean, I think that I thought I saw you, you know, waving or something.”

After hanging up, Cohen’s radio show guest John Hill reiterated: “So you didn’t purposely not say hi to Ryan?”

“No, I didn’t see him,” Cohen said.

Seacrest and Ryan have been involved in an awkward dispute since 2021’s NYE broadcast when Cohen, who was inebriated on-air, joked: “If you look behind me, you’ll see Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers performing. I’m sorry but if you’re watching ABC, you’re watching nothing.”

Cohen later issued an apology, saying he “regrets” criticising the ABC broadcast, and called Seacrest “a great guy”.