‘Hot Ones’ Host Sean Evans Is on a Heater

It’s a hot one. I’m meeting Sean Evans during, of all things, a record New York City heat wave, and I am soaked in sweat when I arrive for our interview. Yet the Hot Ones host is (surprise, surprise) sitting comfortably. After all, the thirty-nine-year-old host spends time on his viral YouTube show grilling celebrities—with, as the slogan goes, “hot questions and even hotter wings”—as they both eat their way through a slate of progressively spicier chicken. He doesn’t overheat easily.

My plan to make him sweat? Some probing questions about his interview techniques. But that doesn’t work either. Although Evans isn’t used to getting questions about his craft from the other side, he welcomes it. “It’s funny how many interviews I do, and no one really talks to me about interviewing,” Evans says. “It’s like sitting down with a baseball player and not asking them about baseball once.”

Since 2015, Evans has interviewed a feast of Hollywood A-listers, including Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, Cate Blanchett, and Michael B. Jordan, as well as Gordon Ramsay, Ariana Grande, and Stephen Curry, over more than 300 episodes of Hot Ones and countless dabs of a hot sauce called Da’ Bomb: Beyond Insanity. Three thousand wings later, the series now garners millions of views per episode. Given that YouTube is considered the number-one TV network by audience, if a press tour doesn’t include an appearance on Hot Ones, then someone fell down on the job.

The show’s secret sauce? It’s Evans. He’s a natural at guiding celebrities through an on-camera task so completely outside their comfort zone as the hot sauces break down their guard and distract them from their media-rehearsed lines. “We had Jennie from Blackpink on recently, and she was suffering as much as I’ve ever seen anyone,” Evans tells me. Still, he encouraged the pop singer to conquer her remaining wings and “express herself in a human way that you could never get from a typical question-and-answer interview setting.” Plus, he’s in hot-sauce-drenched hell right along with them—hoping to “take an uncomfortable setting and try to make it as comfortable as possible.”

Here’s another secret. Next time you watch an episode of Hot Ones, notice how often Evans mirrors the guest. “If they go for a glass of milk, I try to have the first sip. Just to let ’em know that it’s okay,” Evans says. “[It’s like] holding their hand through an ayahuasca trip. As much as we torture them, I put it on my shoulders to protect them as well.”

A Chicago native, Evans is an easygoing, “generic-looking bald guy,” as he describes himself. Off camera, he’s the sports-bar buddy you’d want to grab a beer with after work to talk about the state of the White Sox bullpen, bond over collecting baseball cards (his new hobby), and maybe even score a free plate of wings. “It doesn’t really matter what I order on the menu,” says Evans. “If they make wings, eventually some will come out.”

Evans went to broadcast-journalism school in hopes of emulating his TV idols: David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. His father was a human-rights judge, and his mother worked for the Department of Justice’s antitrust division. Evans didn’t see himself doing anything quite so serious as an adult. When Mom was away on business, Dad would let a young Evans stay up and watch TV. “The hardest I ever heard my dad laugh was when he was watching Letterman,” he remembers.

Evans views Hot Ones as his own take on the late-night talk show. And he successfully petitioned to submit for the Outstanding Talk Series category against Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers at last year’s Emmy Awards (though he didn’t snag a nomination). Still, the most ironic part of Evans’s origin story is that he isn’t some superhuman with an iron stomach. At first, scarfing down wings was just another shtick for a guy trying to make it in media.

Before he became a hot-sauce-drenched talk-show host, Evans was interviewing Snoop Dogg and 2 Chainz at the 2014 NBA All-Star Weekend and trying out Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s workout diet for videos published by Complex Media. The idea for Hot Ones was originally pitched to him by the CEO of First We Feast—the online food and culture brand behind the show—as just a funny, situational gag for a video interview. You won’t find Evans dissing his signature dish, however. “In a lot of ways, I love chicken wings,” he tells me. “They’ve changed my life in ways that I could have never dreamed of in a million years.”

At this point, you probably already know Hot Ones’ most viral moments by heart. Chef Gordon Ramsay famously spat expletives at Evans after a few rounds of hot sauce. (“This fucking program’s not normal. Fucking hell!”) Coolio poured half a bottle of hot sauce onto a single wing—“I actually don’t even know if you’ll survive that,” Evans told him—before he reportedly passed out backstage. And actress Aubrey Plaza snorted milk out of her nose after just one taste of Da’ Bomb. “Am I having a stroke?” she joked.

Behind the scenes, Evans became a co-owner and the chief creative officer of First We Feast this past December. A little less than a year prior, the company launched a new spin-off series, Hot Ones Versus, which pits celebrity guests against each other. Hot Ones is also planning its first live show—an event that wasn’t up for discussion under the two previous owners, Complex Media and BuzzFeed. “Up until this point, this show has gone out and hunted every meal that we’ve ever eaten,” Evans tells me. “In fact, the money that we would make before would go to paying down the debts of media companies for decisions that have nothing to do with us.”

Evans has fought through more blistering battles before, though. “It was a soul-crushing place to be as a creative person, but I don’t have any of those feelings anymore,” he says. “It taught us to be resourceful, and now we can take that into this new venture.”

But can Evans stomach another decade of hot wings? “If LeBron James can play in the NBA for twenty-three years, then maybe I can do Hot Ones for twenty,” he says. As much as it pains him to eat Da’ Bomb once a week, he’s nowhere near his last dab.

Story by Josh Rosenberg
Photographed by Micaiah Carter
Styled by Chloe Hartstein
Grooming by Jenny Sauce using Orveda Skincare and Oribe
Set Design by Michael Sturgeon
Tailoring by Yana Galbshtein
Visual Director: James Morris
Entertainment Director: Andrea Cuttler
Video Director: Amanda Kabbabe
Video Senior Producer: Brian Murray-Real
Director of Photography: Alvah Holmes
Associate Cinematographer: Jay Aguirre
Video Producer: Ali Buchalter
Video Editor: Jeff Sharkey

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