Andy Cohen had a very blunt response when Ryan Serhant asked him to make a cameo in the second season of Owning Manhattan.
When Serhant visited DECIDER’s studio this week, he looked back on selling Cohen’s West Village apartment for just over $10 million to actor Danny Strong last summer. The purchase came soon after the price of the 3,500 square foot penthouse duplex was slashed from $14 million to $12 million to “meet the marketplace,” per Serhant.
“The best part about working with Andy is that he is the consummate professional, and he understands that when he hires people to do a job, they will do the job,” Serhant told us. “I have a lot of clients who are incredibly successful that micromanage everything, and they call me 57 times a day. ‘What are you doing now? Did you do this? How come you suck? I didn’t realize Ryan is spelled F-A-I-L.’”
“Andy would only touch base with me when he needed a little bit of assurance on the marketplace,” Serhant added, noting that the marketplace, in conjunction with the space’s unique setup, was why they decided to lower the original price.
“He had also combined multiple apartments in a co-op that doesn’t allow washer/dryers over two floors to make his own incredible compound, which is a specific home for someone special, which we found and got that deal done,” Serhant said.
The real estate mogul—who surprised Cohen with a listing agreement when he appeared on a July 2024 episode of Watch What Happens Live—wasn’t sure that he agreed with the Bravo icon’s statement claiming their behind-the-scenes interactions “would make for its own show,” though he did ask Cohen to make a cameo in Owning Manhattan Season 2, which was filmed while the apartment was listed for sale.
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“I asked him to do the show, and he was like, ‘Bravo’s better,’” Serhant—who got his reality TV start on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York—revealed. “I was like, ‘I didn’t realize it was a battle.’”
According to Serhant, there were a lot of factors going into selling Cohen’s apartment—from differing personalities, to co-op boards —that made him think the deal “probably could have or should have died at the 11th hour.” However, he promised Cohen he would “get this deal done”—and, as always, he delivered.
“Now it’s done. It’s fine. And you don’t remember all those little things,” Serhant said. “But yes, maybe in one of his books he can write about it.”
Owning Manhattan Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.