Hot Ones#Hot Ones: The Game Show
{{Short description|Internet web series}}
{{use mdy dates |date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Hot Ones by First We Feast logo.svg
| genre = Talk show
| creator = {{Plainlist|
- Sean Evans
- Chris Schonberger
}}
| presenter = Sean Evans
| country = United States
| executive_producer = {{Plainlist|
- Sean Evans
- Sarah Honda
}}
| language = English
| num_seasons = 26
| num_episodes = 362
| list_episodes = List of Hot Ones episodes
| company = {{Plainlist|
- First We Feast
- Complex Media (until 2024)
}}
| network = YouTube
| first_aired = {{Start date|2015|03|12}}
| last_aired = present
}}
Hot Ones is an American YouTube talk show, created by Sean Evans and Chris Schonberger, hosted by Evans and produced by First We Feast and formerly Complex Media.{{Cite web |first=Bijan |last=Stephen |work=The Verge |url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/31/20938739/hot-ones-sean-evans-youtube-guests-gordon-ramsey-idris-elba-late-night-tv |title=Inside Hot Ones, the wildly popular and violently spicy YouTube show |access-date=4 July 2024 |date=31 October 2019 }} Its basic premise involves celebrities being interviewed by Evans over a platter of increasingly spicy chicken wings. Several spin-offs have been produced, including the game show Hot Ones: The Game Show on the cable television network TruTV, and Truth or Dab, a truth or dare style competition that also airs on the First We Feast YouTube channel. Hot Ones is also a food brand, as frozen chicken wings, and hot sauces have been released under the Hot Ones brand, based on sauces and flavors from the show. Hot Ones branded Hot Pockets and Pringles have also been released.{{Citeweb|url=https://people.com/hot-pockets-hot-ones-releasing-the-hottest-pockets-ever-7963868|title=Hot Pockets Teams Up with ‘Hot Ones’ to Release the ‘Hottest Pockets Ever’|last=Burros|first=Sam|publisher=People|date=August 30, 2023|accessdate=April 24, 2025}}{{Citeweb|url=https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/04/21/taste-test-pringles-x-hot-ones/|title=Taste Test: Pringles x Hot Ones|last=Pacheco|first=Vanessa|publisher=Fox 10 News|date=April 21, 2025|accessdate=April 24, 2025}}
As of March 6, 2025, the show has produced twenty-six seasons (with three seasons per calendar year since 2018). Most seasons produce between 10 and 16 episodes, though prior to 2018 there were longer seasons consisting of more episodes; approximately 40 episodes air per year. Each season features a different line-up of hot sauces, though certain sauces remain from year-to-year, including three self-produced sauces, "Hot Ones{{snd}}The Classic" in spot 1, "Hot Ones{{snd}}Los Calientes" in either spot 4 or 5, and "Hot Ones{{snd}}The Last Dab" as the final sauce. Since Season 2, "Da' Bomb Beyond Insanity" has occupied spot 8. Guests who do not complete the gauntlet of hot sauces are placed in the "Hall of Shame" or, beginning in Season 17, the "Wall-Most Made it."
The show has been nominated for several awards, winning two Streamy Awards and its host, Sean Evans, has been nominated for Daytime Emmy Award. In 2022, Hot Ones received a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment. The show has been noted for its deep-probing questions, often digging up material from a celebrity's background not often discussed on other interview shows, with Hollywood Insider calling it "the hottest celebrity interview right now" in 2021.{{cite web |last1=Schneider |first1=Caroline |url=https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/hot-ones-review-sean-evans/ |title='Hot Ones' Is The Hottest Celebrity Interview Right Now – Here's Why |website=Hollywood Insider |date=1 April 2021 |access-date=1 April 2022}}
Format
The format involves Evans and his celebrity guests eating ten chicken wings (or a vegetarian/vegan alternative based on the guest's preference), each prepared with a progressively hotter hot sauce. Evans states the show's tagline at the beginning of each episode: "The show with hot questions, and even hotter wings."
The first sauce presented is relatively mild such as sriracha, which has a rating of 2,200 Scoville units. The final sauce (as of season 4), Hot Ones' own The Last Dab (The Last Dab Reduxx starting in season 6, The Last Dab XXX starting in Season 10, The Last Dab Apollo starting in season 13, and The Last Dab Xperience starting in season 22), has a Scoville rating of 2,000,000+.{{Cite web |last=Roberts, Scott |date=2012-06-07 |title=Scoville Scale – The Official Scott Roberts Website |url=http://www.scottrobertsweb.com/scoville-scale |access-date=2017-08-11 |publisher=Scott Roberts Web}} As per "tradition", the guests are encouraged to put a minuscule extra amount of The Last Dab on the final wing; they are told this is not required, but most guests opt to do so even when already struggling with the heat of the previous wings.
After each wing, Evans usually asks his guest an interview question, starting with easy "softball" questions. As the wings get hotter, the questions often become more deeply researched and personal, and the guest typically begins to display the effects of eating the spicier wings. If the guest struggles to finish the wings, the interview becomes less focused on the questions and more on the guest's reaction to the spice. The guests are furnished with whatever soothing condiments they think will counteract the effect of the wings, including glasses of water and milk as well as ice cream.
The standard show is Evans and one guest eating ten wings each. In some episodes there are two guests (such as the episodes featuring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele or Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, respectively). In a few episodes (mostly specials), five wings are presented instead of ten. To finish off, Evans encourage his guests to promote their upcoming projects. Guests who fail to finish all ten wings are added to the show's Hall of Shame.
In other media
In 2021 Hot Ones appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Maya Rudolph as Beyoncé, the guest eating spicy wings, and Mikey Day as Evans.{{Cite magazine |last=Kreps |first=Daniel |date=2024-05-12 |title='SNL': Maya Rudolph's Beyoncé Returns to 'Hot Ones,' Does Not Slay |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/snl-maya-rudolph-beyonce-hot-ones-1235019196/ |access-date=2024-12-16 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2021-04-01 |title=Sorry, Sean Evans Isn't Reading Your DMs |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a35991892/sean-evans-hot-ones-snl-skit-interview/ |access-date=2024-12-16 |website=Esquire |language=en-US}} Rudolph reprised the sketch in May 2024.
Development
The show was created by First We Feast Founder Christopher Schonberger. Schonberger cites Alexa Chung's quirky interview show Popworld as the inspiration for the show.{{Cite news |last=Steinberg |first=Don |date=2018-03-27 |title=Celebs Will Say Anything if You Blast Them With Hot Sauce |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/celebs-will-say-anything-if-you-blast-them-with-hot-sauce-1522157082 |access-date=2018-03-27 |issn=0099-9660}}
In 2017, First We Feast featured an episode of Sean in the Wild, using sauces from Hot Ones, starring Evans and Michael Stevens from Vsauce.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvogZ88qRTk |title=Vsauce and Sean Evans Test Spicy Food Remedies {{!}} Sean in the Wild |date=September 26, 2017 |last=First We Feast |access-date=2019-05-11}}
In 2024, the show was purchased from BuzzFeed for $82.5 million by an investment group that included Evans, Schonberger, Mythical Entertainment, Crooked Media, and George Soros.{{cite news |last1=Mullin |first1=Benjamin |title=BuzzFeed Strikes Deal to Sell 'Hot Ones' Company for $82.5 Million |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/business/buzzfeed-hot-ones-sale.html |access-date=12 December 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=12 December 2024}}{{cite news |last1=O'Connell |first1=Mikey |title='Hot Ones' Maker Goes Independent in BuzzFeed Exit |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hot-ones-first-we-feast-buys-independence-from-buzzfeed-1236084825/ |access-date=12 December 2024 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=12 December 2024}}
The nineteenth episode of the fourth season featuring Mario Batali was removed in 2017 in light of the sexual misconduct allegations towards him. {{Asof|2025|df=US}}, it remains the only episode removed.{{Cite web |last=Saxena |first=Jaya |date=2022-05-03 |title=Why Celebs Risk It All Eating Spicy Wings on the 'Hot Ones' Talk Show |url=https://www.eater.com/23045066/hot-ones-celebrity-seasons-show |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=Eater |language=en}}
Series overview
{{main|List of Hot Ones episodes{{!}}List of Hot Ones episodes}}
{{:List of Hot Ones episodes}}
Accolades
{{Awards table|5}}
|-
! scope="row" | 2017
| Best Food Series
| rowspan="5" |Hot Ones
| {{Nom}}
| {{Cite web |title=7th Annual Nominees |work=Streamy Awards |url=https://www.streamys.org/nominees-winners/7th-annual-nominees/ |access-date=4 July 2024 }}
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2018
| Best Web Series
| {{won}}
|-
| Non-Fiction Series
| {{won}}
| {{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Kelsey |title=Winners Announced for the 8th Annual Streamy Awards |date=23 October 2018 |url=https://www.streamys.org/2018/10/winners-announced-for-the-8th-annual-streamy-awards/ |access-date=February 28, 2019 |work=Streamy Awards |archive-date=5 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205093525/https://www.streamys.org/2018/10/winners-announced-for-the-8th-annual-streamy-awards/ |url-status=dead }}
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2019
| rowspan="2" | Streamy Award
| Show of the Year
| {{Nom}}
| {{Cite web |title=9th Annual Streamy Nominees |url=https://www.streamys.org/nominees-winners/9th-annual-nominees/ |work=Streamy Awards |access-date=4 July 2024 }}
|-
| Pop Culture
| {{Won}}
|-
! scope="row" | 2021
| Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host
| {{Nom}}
|-
! scope="row" | 2022
| Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show
| Hot Ones
| {{nom}}
| {{Cite web |date=May 5, 2022 |title=Daytime Emmys: 'The Young and the Restless' Leads 2022 Nominations |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/2022-daytime-emmys-nominations-nominees-list-1235141064/ |access-date=May 8, 2022 |website=The Hollywood Reporter|author=Coates, Tyler}}
|}
''Hot Ones: The Game Show''
On February 18, 2020, a spin-off titled Hot Ones: The Game Show premiered on truTV. Hosted by Evans, the series pitted players against one another for a chance to win up to $25,000 in a competition that involved both trivia and eating wings cooked in increasingly hotter sauces.{{Cite web |last=Cowen |first=Trace |date=2020-01-15 |title='Hot Ones: The Game Show' Coming to truTV Next Month |url=https://www.complex.com/life/a/tracewilliamcowen/hot-ones-the-game-show-trutv |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=Complex |language=en-us}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|url=http://firstwefeast.com/tag/hot-ones}}
- {{IMDb title|6556992|Hot Ones}}
{{Streamy Awards Winners CSS Discontinued}}
Category:American English-language television shows
Category:2015 web series debuts
Category:Streamy Award-winning channels, series or shows
Category:2010s American television talk shows