{"id":1228359,"date":"2025-03-06T16:09:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1228359"},"modified":"2025-03-06T16:09:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:09:38","slug":"sean-evans-on-10-years-of-hot-ones-on-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/sean-evans-on-10-years-of-hot-ones-on-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Evans on 10 Years of \u2018Hot Ones\u2019 on YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tSean Evans<\/a>\u2019 celebrity guests on \u201cHot Ones<\/a>\u201d have cursed at him. They\u2019ve cried. They\u2019ve expressed deep regret about agreeing to come on his show.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the hottest hot seat on YouTube, and Evans and his business partners are now looking to take \u201cHot Ones\u201d to the next level after buying out the company that produces the show from BuzzFeed for $82.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHot Ones\u201d 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: \u201cThe show with hot questions and even hotter wings.\u201d) To date, Evans has hosted more than 360 episodes, and he assumes he\u2019s 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 \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d and \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most popular \u201cHot Ones\u201d episodes in the past year have featured \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine\u201d co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, Conan O\u2019Brien, Jenna Ortega \u2014 and Donald Duck, in a bit sponsored by Disney. Other top \u201cHot Ones\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tEvans says he wouldn\u2019t trade his \u201cHot Ones\u201d gig for anything else in Hollywood. And he says the show would not have become what it is without YouTube: \u201cYouTube\u2019s a streamer, but it\u2019s the one where they don\u2019t weigh in creatively for you.\u201d But he does admit there\u2019s pressure to keep delivering the hits. \u201cOnce you get on top, I think the biggest challenge then is staying up there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tEvans spoke recently with Variety\u2019s Todd Spangler about the show and what\u2019s next. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

\n\tLet me just kick it off with the most important question: Do you actually like hot wings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou 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\u2019ll probably not eat another chicken wing again in my life. But I don\u2019t 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\u2019ll always have a soft spot in my heart\u2026 I\u2019m locked in for a while, so many more wings to come, maybe even another 3,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you really eat all the chicken wings up to hot sauce No. 10?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I think that\u2019s 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\u2019m 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\u2019s so necessary with an interview. I do think it\u2019s important that I eat them every time. It\u2019s like cardio: The more you do it, the easier it gets. And I think that there\u2019s a familiarity that comes with eating the wings as consistently as you do because even when it\u2019s uncomfortable, I\u2019ve been there many times before, unlike our guests \u2014 sometimes the spiciest meal they\u2019ve ever eaten is on \u201cHot Ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd this isn\u2019t like wine tasting, right? Like, you don\u2019t take a bite and spit it out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo, no, there\u2019s no spit bucket. Well, there is a spit bucket, I guess, but it\u2019s very rarely used. No, there\u2019s no TV magic there. It\u2019s just sitting down and eating some wings.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did the show start? [\u201cHot Ones\u201d co-creator] Chris Schonberger came to you and said, \u201cHey, I have this idea for a talk show\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, that\u2019s 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\u2019re 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\u2019t a huge hit at first, but I could see the way that people would come alive \u2014 Machine Gun Kelly doing laps around the studio<\/a> and standing on the table. I\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you focus on music artists originally? What\u2019s the strategy for booking guests?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou 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\u2019s 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\u2019s just about who you\u2019re hot with. Like in this season alone, it\u2019s so far a big musician season, but I think that that\u2019s just like, \u201cOh, this thing with Bad Bunny went well, here\u2019s another artist on our roster that has music coming up. Would you be interested in them?\u201d 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\u2019s just about lining up who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you ever pitch Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve 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\u2019s nice to have kind of a pure place from all of that. So, that\u2019s not something we\u2019ve been totally interested in, but I do think like a \u201cHot Ones\u201d debate would be amazing.<\/p>\n

\n\tI love the Gordon Ramsay episode<\/a>. That\u2019s your most popular one. Was he legitimately pissed off?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou 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\u2019ve been able to keep a relationship long after that epic episode. He came back and did the holiday special. I\u2019ve done \u201cMaster Chef\u201d and we\u2019ve crossed paths many times over the years, and it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe dropped a lot of f-bombs, which you can\u2019t do on Fox.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah. Thank goodness for YouTube because when the wings are hitting, sometimes you have to express yourself at a most human level.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat did you originally think your career path would be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI grew up obsessed with TV shows and talk radio. I was a massive Howard Stern fan. Conan O\u2019Brien, 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\u2019s hard to just get a TV job. It\u2019s not like majoring in accounting or something where like you get your degree and then there\u2019s 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].<\/p>\n

\n\tAt that time they were like, \u201cHey, can we just put these interviews that were supposed to be for print for the magazine, can we just put them on video?\u201d So I was like, \u201cYes, please do. That would be like the coolest thing that\u2019s ever happened in my pathetic life so far if I can get a 2 Chainz interview on YouTube.\u201d So they put the interviews on the channel. A couple days later they\u2019re like, \u201cHey, we really like these. We\u2019re kind of building out a video team. Would you accept a job?\u201d 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\u2019d 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 \u201cHot Ones\u201d] and we just have not stopped shooting episodes since.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere is the show shot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSo, it can kind of go wherever. That\u2019s what\u2019s 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\u2019ve shot in London before. We\u2019ve shot in Miami before, we\u2019ve shot in Hawaii before, like wherever we find space. And I think that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was going to ask about the minimalist set concept. Was that intentional to create this intimate environment or you guys just didn\u2019t have the budget?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d has done parodies of the show. Have you been asked to be on \u201cSNL\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo. No, they\u2019ve never asked me to be on \u201cSNL,\u201d but they don\u2019t 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 Beyonc\u00e9], who\u2019s obviously a comedy icon. So to be parodied on \u201cSNL,\u201d it\u2019s just one of those things that, you know, you\u2019re officially part of the culture.<\/p>\n

\n\tSean, earlier you said, \u201cThank goodness for YouTube\u201d in the context of not being subject to FCC swear-word rules. But more broadly, would \u201cHot Ones\u201d be possible without YouTube?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWell, it certainly would not have been launched without YouTube. You know, like I said, I dreamed of being on TV, but it\u2019s not like you can just say, \u2018Oh, my first job is just going to be hosting a talk show.\u2019 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\u2019ve been able to do an upload and it\u2019s never been a problem.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe other side of it too is how quick we move. Like we\u2019ve had situations where we\u2019ve shot an episode on Friday and then that\u2019s the following Thursday\u2019s upload. You know, you could never do that anywhere else. And YouTube\u2019s a streamer, but it\u2019s the one where they don\u2019t 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 \u201cHot Ones\u201d fans that approach me on the street. It doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m in this country or outside of the country.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere\u2019s the most random place somebody stopped you on the street?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThis wasn\u2019t 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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause you\u2019re on YouTube there\u2019s nobody saying like, \u201cHey, Sean, your numbers are down. Sorry, we\u2019re going to have to cancel the show.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah. Yeah. Exactly. You\u2019re able to work it all out. So, very blessed. I think in any of these things, like no matter what it is, like there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy does it make sense to keep the show on YouTube? I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve had offers to sell the show to a TV network or streaming service?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah. 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\u2019s no network notes or anything like that. You put your own pressure on yourself, but there\u2019s 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\u2019s a huge streamer. Being on it is awesome. So I think all of those things kind of work together to where there\u2019s no one that I look around at an entertainment and think to myself, \u201cOh, I\u2019d rather have that.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere were talks with Netflix at one point for some kind of \u201cHot Wings\u201d live show<\/a>. Anything you can tell me about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think if the right opportunity comes up then I think it makes sense but otherwise, no. Like, YouTube\u2019s awesome and it\u2019s been very good to the show and very good for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did the deal to buy First We Feast from BuzzFeed happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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 \u2014 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 \u201cFight Club\u201d where all the big buildings are falling down around you, and you wonder when your building\u2019s 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 \u201cHot Ones.\u201d It was like a 14-month-long process and like its own season of \u201cSuccession,\u201d but somehow, someway we were able to land that plane. And I\u2019m excited for this kind of new, independent \u201cHot Ones.\u201d Which always kind of operated that way anyway to be honest with you.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat does it let you do now that you\u2019re independent?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWell, [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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve always wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\n\tLet me ask about industry awards. Is that sort of recognition something that would help the business? Last year \u201cHot Ones\u201d became eligible in the talk series category for the Emmys. And you were nominated for a Critics\u2019 Choice Award this year [but didn\u2019t win].<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou 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\u2019 Choice Awards, I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, this is like a night where it feels like people are taking it seriously along with us for once.\u201d When you look at a show like \u201cHot Ones,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tAny advice you would give your 2015 self about any of this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI 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, \u201cI\u2019ve just gotten lucky up to this point, and I actually suck, and I\u2019m not worth this, and like blah blah blah.\u201d 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\u2019t change anything about the journey, but I\u2019d definitely tell my old self to chill the f out a little bit.<\/p>\n

\n\tI never lose sight of the fact that my job is eating scorching hot chicken wings with celebrities. I\u2019m in the worlds of TV, in the worlds of film, Hollywood, music, you know, I\u2019m interviewing people that I\u2019m a fan of, and we provide so much joy and laughter and entertainment to people at scale who\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n


\n \u2018O artigo anterior pode incluir informa\u00e7\u00f5es divulgadas por terceiros\u2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Alguns detalhes deste artigo foram extra\u00eddos da seguinte fonte celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Evans\u2019 celebrity guests on \u201cHot Ones\u201d have cursed at him. They\u2019ve cried. They\u2019ve expressed deep regret about agreeing to come on his show. It\u2019s the hottest hot seat on YouTube, and Evans and his business partners are now looking to take \u201cHot Ones\u201d to the next level after buying out the company that produces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estrelas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}