Sean Evans on 10 Years of ‘Hot Ones’ on YouTube

Sean Evans’ celebrity guests on “Hot Ones” have cursed at him. They’ve cried. They’ve expressed deep regret about agreeing to come on his show.

It’s the hottest hot seat on YouTube, and Evans and his business partners are now looking to take “Hot Ones” to the next level after buying out the company that produces the show from BuzzFeed for $82.5 million.

“Hot Ones” debuted in March 2015 with a simple conceit: to reimagine the chummy celeb interview in an extremely uncomfortable setting in which the host and guest eat progressively spicier chicken wings. (Its tagline: “The show with hot questions and even hotter wings.”) To date, Evans has hosted more than 360 episodes, and he assumes he’s easily consumed more than 3,000 wings. The size of the audience the show pulls in on YouTube rivals that of the highest-rated late night shows on TV like “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

The most popular “Hot Ones” episodes in the past year have featured “Deadpool & Wolverine” co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, Conan O’Brien, Jenna Ortega — and Donald Duck, in a bit sponsored by Disney. Other top “Hot Ones” guests over the years have included Gordon Ramsay, Billie Eilish, Scarlett Johansson, Will Ferrell, Shaq, Kevin Hart, Tom Holland, Post Malone and Millie Bobby Brown.

Evans says he wouldn’t trade his “Hot Ones” gig for anything else in Hollywood. And he says the show would not have become what it is without YouTube: “YouTube’s a streamer, but it’s the one where they don’t weigh in creatively for you.” But he does admit there’s pressure to keep delivering the hits. “Once you get on top, I think the biggest challenge then is staying up there,” he says.

Evans spoke recently with Variety’s Todd Spangler about the show and what’s next. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Let me just kick it off with the most important question: Do you actually like hot wings?

You know what? I have developed a love for hot sauce through doing this show that I did not have before doing this show. But I have been eating wings every week now for approaching 10 years. So, when this is all said and done, I’ll probably not eat another chicken wing again in my life. But I don’t want to be too mean to them because of the way that wings and hot sauce have changed my life for the better. Wings have been very good to me, so they’ll always have a soft spot in my heart… I’m locked in for a while, so many more wings to come, maybe even another 3,000.

Do you really eat all the chicken wings up to hot sauce No. 10?

Yeah, I think that’s important for the integrity of the show. I think it has to be this kind of shared experience because otherwise the show would just be like a swinging-light interrogation where I’m barking questions at somebody and then just having them eat the next scorching hot wing. So I think the shared experience is kind of what ends up creating the chemistry and the rhythm and the rapport that’s so necessary with an interview. I do think it’s important that I eat them every time. It’s like cardio: The more you do it, the easier it gets. And I think that there’s a familiarity that comes with eating the wings as consistently as you do because even when it’s uncomfortable, I’ve been there many times before, unlike our guests — sometimes the spiciest meal they’ve ever eaten is on “Hot Ones.”

And this isn’t like wine tasting, right? Like, you don’t take a bite and spit it out.

No, no, there’s no spit bucket. Well, there is a spit bucket, I guess, but it’s very rarely used. No, there’s no TV magic there. It’s just sitting down and eating some wings.

How did the show start? [“Hot Ones” co-creator] Chris Schonberger came to you and said, “Hey, I have this idea for a talk show…”

Yeah, that’s more or less basically how it came about. The intention behind it was to try to disrupt the PR-driven flight pattern that so often celebrity guests naturally have when they’re doing a press tour. So, we were like, well, what could we do to disrupt that? And his solve for that was have them eat increasingly spicy chicken wings, and it was just the best dumb idea ever. I immediately recognized its potential. And when we began shooting episodes, it wasn’t a huge hit at first, but I could see the way that people would come alive — Machine Gun Kelly doing laps around the studio and standing on the table. I’d never seen anything like that while we were shooting it. So, I always knew that once there was some sort of discovery event with the show that people would like it, and it turns out that that impulse was the right one.

Did you focus on music artists originally? What’s the strategy for booking guests?

You try to have a variety of personalities. I think in the beginning there were a lot of comedians, a lot of musicians. But what ends up happening with these things is, it’s kind of like a law of attraction situation. You know, like someone from a Marvel franchise comes in and the episode does was what it does and then you get more people in there. But I think it’s just about who you’re hot with. Like in this season alone, it’s so far a big musician season, but I think that that’s just like, “Oh, this thing with Bad Bunny went well, here’s another artist on our roster that has music coming up. Would you be interested in them?” So I think sometimes there are seasons where it leans a little movie star-ish, sometimes where it leans a little music heavy and then it’s just about lining up who’s interested in coming on the show with the time that we have and the episodes that we have available and whether or not we can hit a peg.

Did you ever pitch Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?

I don’t think we’ve ever pitched them. I think that in some ways politics has kind of infiltrated so many spaces in pop culture. What I grew up on was true escapism television, and I think that as the news becomes louder and the static becomes more intense it’s nice to have kind of a pure place from all of that. So, that’s not something we’ve been totally interested in, but I do think like a “Hot Ones” debate would be amazing.

I love the Gordon Ramsay episode. That’s your most popular one. Was he legitimately pissed off?

You know what? People know that side of him on TV, but I just know him as a big teddy bear. I love Gordon so much, and we’ve been able to keep a relationship long after that epic episode. He came back and did the holiday special. I’ve done “Master Chef” and we’ve crossed paths many times over the years, and it’s always so much love. So he might play that up for TV a little bit in my opinion, but at the end of the day, I just know him as a big sweet teddy bear.

He dropped a lot of f-bombs, which you can’t do on Fox.

Yeah. Thank goodness for YouTube because when the wings are hitting, sometimes you have to express yourself at a most human level.

What did you originally think your career path would be?

I grew up obsessed with TV shows and talk radio. I was a massive Howard Stern fan. Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla. Those were kind of the personalities that shaped me and inspired me at a young age. And I went to college to pursue a broadcast journalism degree [at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]. You know, I think there was always a part of me that thought maybe I could play around in this sandbox a little bit, but it’s hard to just get a TV job. It’s not like majoring in accounting or something where like you get your degree and then there’s the four major firms. So, I was doing freelance articles for different magazines and publications. And then in 2014 at [the NBA] All-Star Weekend, I had interviews lined up with NBA players and rappers like 2 Chainz and Snoop Dogg [for Complex magazine].

At that time they were like, “Hey, can we just put these interviews that were supposed to be for print for the magazine, can we just put them on video?” So I was like, “Yes, please do. That would be like the coolest thing that’s ever happened in my pathetic life so far if I can get a 2 Chainz interview on YouTube.” So they put the interviews on the channel. A couple days later they’re like, “Hey, we really like these. We’re kind of building out a video team. Would you accept a job?” So I said yes. I sold all my stuff. I broke my lease in Chicago. I was in New York 30 days later in a West Village apartment with four roommates I’d never met before in my life. It was kind of that quintessential welcome to New York moment. And I was doing on-camera interviews for Complex at the time and First We Feast was one of the brands that was in the office. Me and Chris Schonberger were just kind of like watercooler buddies at that time. Then he approached me with that idea about a year into working there and we shot a pilot [for “Hot Ones”] and we just have not stopped shooting episodes since.

Where is the show shot?

So, it can kind of go wherever. That’s what’s nice about this budget, black-curtain set. We shoot a lot of episodes in L.A., shoot a lot of episodes in New York, but we’ve shot in London before. We’ve shot in Miami before, we’ve shot in Hawaii before, like wherever we find space. And I think that’s kind of how we punch above our weight class in terms of guests, is because we can be opportunity-seeking in our company. We just go wherever we think we can do the best episode.

I was going to ask about the minimalist set concept. Was that intentional to create this intimate environment or you guys just didn’t have the budget?

Yeah, the latter. You know, it was just born out of necessity. But I actually think it was the best thing for us. Like number one, because of that competitive advantage that we have, where we can just pop up the set at any time, any place. Like we’ve literally rented out hotel suites before, taken the bed out and just hung the curtains from the ceiling and shot an episode and nobody knows the difference. So it was born out of necessity, but I also think it’s a great backdrop for an interview. Like just everything stripped down, no set, no distractions, just the person, the guest, and then it allows the reactions in the way that the gas of the show kind of fills up the screen in a really organic way.

“Saturday Night Live” has done parodies of the show. Have you been asked to be on “SNL”?

No. No, they’ve never asked me to be on “SNL,” but they don’t need me because Mikey Day [who has portrayed Evans in the sketches] does a great job. I do enjoy the impression and I love the sketches with Maya Rudolph [as Beyoncé], who’s obviously a comedy icon. So to be parodied on “SNL,” it’s just one of those things that, you know, you’re officially part of the culture.

Sean, earlier you said, “Thank goodness for YouTube” in the context of not being subject to FCC swear-word rules. But more broadly, would “Hot Ones” be possible without YouTube?

Well, it certainly would not have been launched without YouTube. You know, like I said, I dreamed of being on TV, but it’s not like you can just say, ‘Oh, my first job is just going to be hosting a talk show.’ But here, we were allowed to do it. And I think that there are a couple ways that YouTube was very important to this. Like first off, when we started it kind of coalesced with YouTube becoming one of the go-to streamers. YouTube has stayed the most consistent all the way through that, where every Thursday at 11 a.m. we’ve been able to do an upload and it’s never been a problem.

The other side of it too is how quick we move. Like we’ve had situations where we’ve shot an episode on Friday and then that’s the following Thursday’s upload. You know, you could never do that anywhere else. And YouTube’s a streamer, but it’s the one where they don’t weigh in creatively for you. So you can just do the things that you want to do and let your compass lead you, and you know your audience better than anyone else. It allows for a really direct sort of creator-to-audience relationship. Another thing is [YouTube] is global. No matter where I travel to, there are “Hot Ones” fans that approach me on the street. It doesn’t matter if I’m in this country or outside of the country.

Where’s the most random place somebody stopped you on the street?

This wasn’t out of the country, but the most random was one time I was walking to dinner on Sunset Boulevard and a fight broke out outside a bar. These three guys were fighting in the street and then they stopped. One of them recognized me and they asked for a picture. All three of them stopped fighting for a picture of me on Sunset Boulevard. And I’d like to think that I diffused the situation. But as walked away, they started fist-fighting again on the street. So that was definitely the most random.

Because you’re on YouTube there’s nobody saying like, “Hey, Sean, your numbers are down. Sorry, we’re going to have to cancel the show.”

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You’re able to work it all out. So, very blessed. I think in any of these things, like no matter what it is, like there’s just dominoes that have to fall in a million different coincidences that have to happen in order for any sort of rose to grow in the concrete. So everything happened exactly how it had to happen in order for us to have the success that we have now.

Why does it make sense to keep the show on YouTube? I’m sure you’ve had offers to sell the show to a TV network or streaming service?

Yeah. Well, I mean, for like the reasons that I said about how it truly is your own world on YouTube, and you run it, and you run the business, and there’s no network notes or anything like that. You put your own pressure on yourself, but there’s also not this direct ratings pressure that you would have in those other places. And you can make money. Like, you can make a lot of money on YouTube. YouTube’s a huge streamer. Being on it is awesome. So I think all of those things kind of work together to where there’s no one that I look around at an entertainment and think to myself, “Oh, I’d rather have that.” I just like being king of my castle over here. And you can do that on YouTube, and you can reach a huge audience on YouTube, and you can book huge guests having a YouTube show.

There were talks with Netflix at one point for some kind of “Hot Wings” live show. Anything you can tell me about that?

I think if the right opportunity comes up then I think it makes sense but otherwise, no. Like, YouTube’s awesome and it’s been very good to the show and very good for me.

How did the deal to buy First We Feast from BuzzFeed happen?

The way the deal came about is, it was just right-time-right-place, right atmospheric conditions. Obviously the macroeconomic conditions of the digital media industry have been kind of trending downward for a while — not us, you know, like, the trajectory of us has been going in the complete opposite direction. So, in a lot of ways, I felt like my career up until this point was almost like the final scene in “Fight Club” where all the big buildings are falling down around you, and you wonder when your building’s going to give way as well. It was kind of one of those situations where we had this unique situation where BuzzFeed owed some money and they had a cash cow in “Hot Ones.” It was like a 14-month-long process and like its own season of “Succession,” but somehow, someway we were able to land that plane. And I’m excited for this kind of new, independent “Hot Ones.” Which always kind of operated that way anyway to be honest with you.

What does it let you do now that you’re independent?

Well, [as part of BuzzFeed] we were never in a position that we were getting investment, you know what I mean? Like the success of the show was more or less like going to like pay down debt for other things, you know, and which I wouldn’t trade anything about our journey because it made us scrappy. But now I think we have the opportunity to build out a programming flight that’s a little bit more robust. We can do other shows. We can do new things. We can try our hand at live events and do all these different things that we’ve always wanted to do.

Let me ask about industry awards. Is that sort of recognition something that would help the business? Last year “Hot Ones” became eligible in the talk series category for the Emmys. And you were nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award this year [but didn’t win].

You know, this is a show that on paper is so ridiculous and so silly, but we do take it seriously. And when I was at the Critics’ Choice Awards, I’m like, “Oh, this is like a night where it feels like people are taking it seriously along with us for once.” When you look at a show like “Hot Ones,” when you look at the guests that we have on, when you look at its place in culture, when you look at the viewership, when you look at the ratings, we are absolutely worthy of comparison and competition with all of the major talk shows.

Any advice you would give your 2015 self about any of this?

I was so intense and anything felt like the end of the world, all the time. You have like a down performance as an interviewer, and you have the impostor syndrome that takes over your whole life, like, “I’ve just gotten lucky up to this point, and I actually suck, and I’m not worth this, and like blah blah blah.” But I guess it was that kind of frantic energy and youthful ambition that kind of inspired this insane work ethic and everything that I needed in order to build this thing to where it is now. So again, wouldn’t change anything about the journey, but I’d definitely tell my old self to chill the f out a little bit.

I never lose sight of the fact that my job is eating scorching hot chicken wings with celebrities. I’m in the worlds of TV, in the worlds of film, Hollywood, music, you know, I’m interviewing people that I’m a fan of, and we provide so much joy and laughter and entertainment to people at scale who’ve loyally showed up for us week over week over week. So, I think about all of those things holistically and what am I going to complain about? Like, my life is amazing. And when I die, I want to be reincarnated as myself just so I can do it all over again.