Bravo and Real Housewives franchise guru. Watch What Happens Live host. New Year’s Eve Live co-host. Emmy winner. SiriusXM broadcaster. Author. Book publisher. And now, Super Bowl star and certified Nerd.

Andy Cohen, one of the most reliably entertaining humans working in entertainment, is making his Super Bowl commercial debut on Feb. 8 during Super Bowl LX as part of an ad spot for Nerds, the chewy, colorful candy.

The Seattle Seahawks, the New England Patriots and Bad Bunny are obviously the biggest stars of game day, but a Super Bowl commercial is a substantial feather in Cohen’s cap. Last year’s Super Bowl averaged 127.7 million viewers, many of whom tuned in just to watch the ads, which are often as buzzy and viral as the game itself. In 2025, Nerds made headlines with their Shaboozey-starring Super Bowl commercial, and the year before that, Addison Rae appeared in a spot for Nerds Gummy Clusters — so he’s in good company.

Ahead of the Big Game, Cohen hopped on a Zoom with Billboard. With a gorgeous portrait of Dolly Parton in the background, the Bravo host talked about the “organic” collaboration with Nerds (yes, he’s a fan, and yes, so are his two kids), the recent death of Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir (Cohen is a lifelong Deadhead), and whether he’d ever compete on The Traitors.

A Super Bowl ad is a huge thing, congrats. How did this one come about?

I’ve been a Nerds fan since I was a little kid. It made absolute, perfect sense. Most of what I do in my career is pretty organic, and this was super organic. It’s really exciting to be in a Super Bowl ad. I’ve never been in one before — this is a huge thrill for me and my kids. And they’re excited about having Nerds around the house, for sure.

So you do share? You’re not one of those vegetables-for-snacks parents.

If they behave, they get candy. If they don’t behave, they don’t get candy.

Is this Nerds spot a multipart Super Bowl ad?

There are some teasers in advance of the big spot which will be on the broadcast.

Any Bravo crossover beyond yourself in the commercial? Nerds are candy… Kandi Burruss?

Well done. Not really, no, I think I’m the crossover. Nerds are juicy and gummy and delicious, and so is everybody on Bravo,

Exactly. So Bad Bunny is the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show performer — are you a fan? Are you looking forward to his show?

I am a fan, but also I’m excited because it’s just the greatest showcase for an entertainer. Whatever degree of fan we are going into it, I feel like we’re gonna all come out of it even bigger fans. I’m excited to see what he does.

Do you have an all-time favorite Super Bowl halftime show?

That is a really good question. I mean, the theatricality of Diana Ross leaving the field in a helicopter singing “I Will Survive” [in 1996]. By the way, this was in the ‘90s before people were doing huge things.

Right — it used to be basically marching bands during the halftime show.

That was a huge thing. I loved Madonna’s Super Bowl halftime show. I thought [Lady] Gaga was incredible. I loved Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige and U2 after 9/11. And Beyoncé, oh my God.

I know you’re a big Deadhead, and Bob Weir passed away recently. When that sad news hit, was there a particular recording — studio or a live recording — that you went to listen to, to either mourn or celebrate his life?

I just went to the Grateful Dead channel on SiriusXM, let them kind of curate my playlist for the next… well, it’s on right now. I was in San Francisco for the memorial on Saturday (Jan. 17), and it was just so beautiful to see this community come together. I didn’t expect to be as moved as I was on Saturday. It was really big, and to see people that I had been going to these shows with for the last 11 years of Dead & Company arrive in black suits, it just really hit me. It was a beautiful, beautiful memorial befitting a beautiful man.

When the news hit, who was the first person you reached out to?

My phone blew up with Deadheads. I mean, my Deadhead crew overlaps with my day-to-day crew. Anytime the Dead’s on tour, or I’m doing something Dead-related, or I had Bobby [Weir] on my show, or John [Mayer] doing something, I would always hear from the same group of 25 people. That’s who I was commiserating with that night. And, of course, John a lot. His speech was so beautiful on Saturday.

You mentioned your kids when we were talking about Nerds. Have you incepted them into Deadhead fandom?

They’ve been listening to it all their lives, and it’s cool because now we’ll be hanging out, and I’ll see Ben starting to sing along to “Ramble on Rose” or just random songs. And I’m like, “Yes, he knows them. It’s sunk in.” So it’s great. They’re really into the Grateful Dead and they’re really into Nerds. So my influence permeates this home.

Any new music coming this year you’re particularly excited for?

I’m really excited about Confessions 2 from Madonna. Confessions [on a Dance Floor] is one of my favorite Madonna albums and I think she’s gonna do it.

I think so, too.

For me, you never, ever write Madonna off. I’m really excited about it.

I think the combo of her and Stuart Price together is different: He gets something really special out of her, and she gives him something she doesn’t give most producers. So you host The Traitors reunion at the end of each season — as you’re watching the episodes unfold on Peacock, are you taking little notes, preparing on what to grill people on during the reunion?

I’m watching it as a fan, and I’m seeing what everybody’s saying online about things. I mean, this is what I do, so I know what to ask. I can probably look at each person and think of the four things that are notable. But I find it absolutely delicious. I always watch the show, and I always have great pride for the Bravo people because they’re just so good on TV. They’re so unique, and they’re such stars. I’m watching it right now with someone who doesn’t know anything about Bravo and just watching him laugh at [Lisa] Rinna and Candiace [Dillard Bassett]. It makes me really happy.

They really are the lifeblood of the show. The gamers are maybe a little more strategic, but it wouldn’t be as watchable if not for the Housewives. And of course, when you get to the reunion, you gotta see if Michael [Rappaport] knows the definition of “commiserate” yet.

You know, I didn’t know. My friend was like, “commiserate, he’s using that wrong.” I go, “No, commiserate means-” and he said, “No, you’re saying it wrong.” And then the fact that the hot guy from Love Island is like, “You’re defining it wrong” [during the show]? I was like, whoa.

Rob Rausch. The hot guy knows his dictionary! So I know you do the reunion and you host, but would you ever consider competing on the show?

I think that I would get voted off immediately. I just think I’m such a mark. I was an executive producer of Top Chef for years and of Project Runway, so I have produced competitive reality shows. I think that makes me a mark, just because I know how the sauce is made a little bit. I don’t think they would have me on, but even if they did…. By the way, for these Housewives to be able to vote me off? I think they would revel in that opportunity. I would be wasting a slot.

Spoiler alert: This story contains details about plot twists in Heated Rivalry.

Gus Kenworthy sees a lot of himself in the mega-viral hockey romance hit Heated Rivalry. And not just because he’s gay and happens to also participate in a cold weather sport.

As the HBO Max series continues to heat up a brutal winter where the polar vortex — and the chilling nightly news out of Minneapolis — have inspired a lot of people to hunker down and stay inside to binge the series chronicling the unlikely romance between Canadian Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams) and his Russian rival, Ilya Rozanov (played by Connor Storrie), Kenworthy told the New Yorker that he has his own Heated story to tell.

“I actually wrote a message to [series creator Jacob Tierney] because I was so moved, and didn’t expect to be. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself reflected onscreen like that, in such a substantial way,” said Kenworthy. “The parallels are kind of insane. I also had a secret relationship, with these clandestine meetings and hookups.”

In Kenworthy’s case, after helping to introduce freestyle skiing to Olympic competition in 2014, where he took silver in Sochi in slopestyle, the skier and photogenic media darling was briefly linked to Miley Cyrus. “And Miley Cyrus was my own Rose, this famous person that I was suddenly linked to, and as much as I kind of wanted it — because that’s the person you would want to be with if you’re straight, someone successful and beautiful and talented — it’s not the same as when you’re with a guy.”

In case you haven’t been drawn in to the six-episode series yet, Kenworthy is referencing Hollander’s brief fling with actress Rose Landry (Sophie Nélisse), which ends when Landry susses out that the hockey hunk is possibly more interested in her gay BFF than her.

Kenworthy, 34, who is gearing up to make his comeback at next month’s Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, came out in a 2015 ESPN The Magazine interview and, in another (kind of) parallel to a Rivalry plot point, made news in 2018 when NBC showed footage of him kissing his then-boyfriend Matthew Wilkas before a qualifying run at the Winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

That moment is similar to one in the show where another closeted hockey star, Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) shocks the world by kissing his secret boyfriend on center ice after winning a championship. “And then the Scott Hunter character — I really related to him,” Kenworthy said. “He wanted to be out, but really, just truly felt like he couldn’t be, because of his circumstances. That was me for so many years. I had the same yearning — to be in love, to be public, and to not have to hide.

In fact, Kenworthy said, like Hollander in the show, he was both closeted and had a boyfriend while competing in Sochi, where the U.S. team received media training about confronting Russia’s anti-LGBTQ policies with advice to stick to talking about just sports. “And I remember I was, like, ‘F–k that.’ I wasn’t out, and I wasn’t ready to be out, but I had a boyfriend. I had this dream that I was gonna land the winning run, ski up to him, and kiss him,” he said. “And then that was gonna be my coming out to everybody, and my silent protest. But it didn’t happen.”

Then, because his event took place on Feb. 13th that year, the next day, Valentine’s Day, he kept getting asked who his dream date or celebrity crush was, so instead of jokingly saying Jake Gyllenhaal, he “kind of panicked” and said Cyrus’ name instead. “[Teammates] Nick Goepper said Taylor Swift, and Joss Christensen said Emma Watson. And all these people tweeted it out,” Kenworthy recalled. “Neither of those girls responded to those guys, but Miley tweeted at me and followed me. It was surreal for a number of reasons, but I was also digging myself this deeper and deeper hole.”

Cyrus, a beloved gay icon, was a smart choice and seemed ready to play along with Kenworthy’s shell game. “I actually love her. But then there was some flirty texting, and I remember thinking, ‘What am I doing? I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to keep waking up and lying,’” he recalled thinking. At the time, Kenworthy wasn’t out to this family or his teammates, fearing the revelation could impact their performance.

Cyrus was super-supportive when Kenworthy came out, saying at the time that he was her “hero” and that she’d never been prouder to call him “my friend.” In a Facebook post at the time, the singer wrote that Kenworthy was “showing all of us what it means to be courageous and PROUD of who we are! You have won so much more than any medal … You have won FREEDOM!”

She added, “You are making it possible to shine light on the LGBTQ community in front of a whole new world! So much respect for you. I looooove looooove looooove you! Ughhhhhhhhh heart is fluttering, feels like a million little cocoons just busted open and I am filled up with butterflies.”

Kenworthy said he was retiring from skiing after the 2022 games in Beijing, focusing instead on acting in shows including the Will & Grace reboot, season nine of American Horror Story and being a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race. But last week it was announced he’d made his fourth Olympic roster.

Hoodoo Gurus have publicly condemned the use of their music at a recent Australia Day rally linked to One Nation, issuing a blunt statement distancing themselves from the right-wing political party and its supporters.

In a post shared on social media on Jan. 26, the Australian rock icons said they were “disgusted” to learn that one of their songs had been played during the rally, which coincided with events marking Australia Day — also widely recognised by many as Invasion Day.

“Like most Australians, we have always been appalled by Pauline Hanson and the toxic nonsense she spouts,” the band wrote. “We want nothing to do with you. In fact, we wouldn’t p*** on you if you were on fire.”

The statement continued with a direct message to the party and its supporters: “Don’t play our music, don’t listen to our band, do not pass go!”

The Gurus’ remarks arrive amid renewed scrutiny over how artists’ work is used — and often weaponised — in political settings without consent, particularly around Jan. 26. In recent years, the date has become increasingly polarising, with many Australians choosing to mark it as Invasion Day in recognition of the impact of colonisation on First Nations peoples.

Only days earlier, Men at Work frontman Colin Hay publicly objected to the use of his band’s signature song, “Down Under,” at anti-immigration demonstrations.

“Let me say that I most strenuously disapprove of any unauthorised, unlicensed use of ‘Down Under’, for any ‘March for Australia’ events,” Hay wrote in a separate statement. “ ‘Down Under’, a song I co-wrote, does not belong to those who attempt to sow xenophobia within the fabric of our great land, our great people.”

Hay went on to describe the track as “a song of celebration,” adding that it stands for “pluralism and inclusion; unity, not division.”

He concluded his message with a pointed sign-off, telling organisers to “go write your own song, leave mine alone,” before signing his name followed by “(immigrant).”

Together, the statements reflect a growing trend of Australian artists drawing clear boundaries around how their music is used in political contexts — particularly when those uses clash with the values they associate with their work and legacy.

ENHYPEN member Sunghoon has been selected as a torchbearer for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, marking a rare crossover between K-pop and the Olympic movement.

The Winter Games are set to open Feb. 6, 2026 (local time), with Sunghoon participating in the official torch relay following an invitation from Samsung Electronics, a Worldwide Olympic and Paralympic Partner.

Sunghoon’s selection carries added significance due to his athletic background. Before debuting with ENHYPEN, he trained as a competitive figure skater and was part of South Korea’s national reserve team. Since 2025, he has also served as a promotional ambassador for the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, helping bridge elite sport and pop culture.

Bringing together his history in winter sports and his global reach as an artist, Sunghoon will carry the Olympic flame as a symbol of unity, peace and international connection. He becomes just the second K-pop artist to participate in an overseas Olympic torch relay, highlighting the genre’s growing cultural footprint on the world stage.

Reflecting on the moment, Sunghoon said: “I know how much passion and effort national athletes have put into preparing for the Winter Olympics, and I sincerely want to support and cheer for them. Competing in the Olympics was once my dream as an athlete, so being connected to that dream now as a singer is truly meaningful and an incredible honor.”

ENHYPEN will also be represented at the Games through music. The group’s track “SHOUT OUT,” from their 2022 mini-album MANIFESTO : DAY 1, has been selected as Team Korea’s official cheer song for the Milano Cortina Games.

The announcement arrives amid a strong commercial run for ENHYPEN. The group’s seventh mini-album THE SIN : VANISH debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, earning 122,400 equivalent album units in its first week. The release marked ENHYPEN’s fifth consecutive Top 5 entry, further cementing their status as one of K-pop’s most consistent global performers.