Video -- Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live Premieres w/Jersey Housewife Danielle

Youch! look at that pic of Danielle's face. That's, uh ... scary tight. Could probably bounce a quarter off her left cheek.

You can call Watch What Happens: Live The Andy Cohen Show if you'd like. That's how I'll think of it and I'm sure he wouldn't care.

(He'd probably kvell over it, in fact.)

It's on Thursdays at 11 on Bravo, where Andy is the Bravo original programming chief and the person who's responsible for these women and their place in the pop culture zeitgeist in the first place.

LA Times from June 21:

Bravo is the only network with an on-air representation of the executive office. Since 2006, and because he used to send Lauren Zalaznick, the channel's boss, dishy e-mails from the sets and she was like, uh, why are these not public?, he has been its on-Web talent, conducting a vivid blog and live-streaming online program with a very gay flavor, like much of the network's programming.

At the same time, Cohen would make the rounds of TV chat shows, committing random culture punditry. They were doing it all wrong! Why should they alternately hide and give away all this content?

He began hosting the televised reunions/brawls that air in the aftermath of the most popular Bravo shows. And he was and is good at it, asking the often wounded reality folk hard questions while not appearing smug.

(snip)

Now the logical evolution: Cohen's once-a-week live show, "Watch What Happens," will begin airing July 16. He has given himself the midnight slot. "It'll be me and a couple Bravo-lebrities and maybe a real 'lebrity taking phone calls and e-mails and tweets from Bravo fanatics live at midnight. And we're going to be sipping cocktails," he said.

You can either love or loathe him, I guess, but he certainly does know how to create buzz. I guess I just have gay gossip fatigue. And sometimes it seems we spend an inordinate amount of time engaging in gossip.

Of course, none of these "real" housewives are real in the first place so you accuse of him lying or just go with it and enjoy the fly on the wall aspect. I can't get excited enough about any of them, even Atlanta's Kim with all that fake hair on top of her dome or this Danielle, former stripper and drug moll.

Real housewives. Sure.

Now, if you're anywhere but the east coast, you're gonna have trouble participating in the show (text, tweet, whatev). It IS live. I know for me, Time Warner runs an east coast HD feed of Bravo and those of you with that option are set to watch at the earlier time of 8 pm.

And, I have an idea for those of you who are participating ... why not steer the conversation on screen to something you're really interested in? You've got the power, they've in fact given it to you.

Or, pick a topic at will! Wouldn't you love to hear Danielle and Andy and the random pseudo-celeb discussing modes of alienation or the book Death in Venice or the giant collider at CERN?