Andy Cohen Explains Why RHONY And RHOBH Won’t Drop Early Despite Pleas From Bravo Fans! Plus Andy Reveals How Coronavirus Is Affecting Upcoming New Seasons Of RHOC & RHONJ, Including Reunion Specials For RHOA, Shahs Of Sunset And Vanderpump Rules!

While we all are social distancing, self-isolating, and quarantining at home to stop the novel coronavirus spread, many Bravo fans were hopeful that the network would release the premiere episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and The Real Housewives of New York City in the wake of the outbreak — similarly to how Hulu accelerated the release of Little Fires Everywhere and how Disney dropped Frozen II and Onward to Disney+ early.

But on Thursday’s episode of Reality Checked with Amy Phillips, Andy Cohen explained why airing them ahead of their April debuts is not an option.

“The issue is there’s only a certain amount of episodes totally color-corrected and locked right now, for both of those shows,” he told Amy Phillips on the SiriusXM show, according to PEOPLE. “I think for RHONY there’s like, eight or nine done and for RHOBH, there’s like, five done. Something like that.”

Cohen then shared that the show’s production companies were putting plans in place to have those shows edited remotely, but that the process to do so was “more labor intensive” and “slower.”

“If we released all those now, we would wind up screwing ourselves in the end, so that’s the issue,” Cohen said. “The truth of the matter is, if this [coronavirus crisis] is going to go on for a while, just think of how much more we’re going to be ready for RHONY when it premieres! I just think we need to be focused.”

Cohen also discussed about the Real Housewives of Atlanta season 12 reunion, which was supposed to film last week but was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Obviously that’s not happening,” Cohen said. “Hopefully we will be able to shoot it just as soon as we possibly can. People are saying, ‘Why don’t you just do it remotely?’ I don’t think that that would work. I don’t think it would work well. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

In a separate interview, Andy revealed how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected multiple productions for new upcoming seasons of various Bravo hit reality series.

According to Variety, two “Real Housewives” had to shut filming down — being “Orange County” and “New Jersey” — because of the coronavirus. But others, such as “New York City,” “Beverly Hills,” “Potomac” and the new “Salt Lake City,” had finished filming, though they need to establish how to edit them and finish filming confessional interviews with the cast.

The taping of the reunion for Season 12 of RHOA was postponed but Cohen plans to do it as soon as possible. “It’s my hope that once this fog is lifted, I literally go do ‘Vanderpump,’ ‘Shahs’ and ‘Atlanta’ just one after the other,” he told the publication.

Cohen himself was meant to return to Bravo on Sunday, with new episodes of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen streaming live from his New York City apartment. However, hours after the plans were announced, he revealed that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

“After a few days of self-quarantine, and not feeling great, I have tested positive for coronavirus,” Cohen shared on Instagram. “As much as I felt like I could push through whatever I was feeling to do #WWHL from home, we’re putting a pin in that for now so I can focus on getting better,” he continued. “I want to thank all the medical professionals who are working tirelessly for all of us, and urge everybody to stay home and take care of themselves.”

Photo Credit: Bravo