Celebrity interviews are a dime a dozen. Whenever there is a new show, movie, or album to promote, a celebrity will make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon or get a cover story for Rolling Stone. And while our fascination with celebrities has never been more high, this traditional interview process has grown stale in the modern age.
Enter Hot Ones, a YouTube series that not only challenges, but completely subverts the celebrity interview. In this video series, host Sean Evans interviews guests with 10 questions, each question accompanied with a hot wing. As the interview progresses, the sauces increase in spiciness, causing both Evans and his guest to grow more and more disoriented. So, an interview may begin with a wing covered Sriracha, but it will end with a wing doused in The Last Dab (a sauce that clocks in at a disturbing 3.3 million Scoville Heat Units.)
As one might assume, the hot sauce creates some pretty hilarious moments. The formidable Terry Crews screams in pain, Eric Andre smashes a plate on his head, and Aubrey Plaza even snorts milk to try and handle the heat. Some personal favorites of mine include Mac Demarco showing off his big personality and Rachel Ray eating straight hot sauce.
However, underneath these intense reactions are intimate and sincere conversations between Evans and his guests. Evan’s questions are incredibly thoughtful and well-informed. Guests of the show are consistently impressed and even amazed with Evan’s questions. He is not going to ask Will Ferrell the same three questions every other interviewer is going to ask the Anchorman star on a press tour.
Along with informed questions about the early beginnings of a star’s career, the crazy hot sauce disarms the celebrity enough to give some truly candid answers (even if they are blowing snot and can hardly speak). An example of this is when Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell, discusses moral philosophy with Evans. What other interview show does this?
Since Sean Evans also eats the insanely hot wings, it creates an interesting connection between him and his guest. In a strange way, it creates sympathy. To paraphrase one of the show’s more recent guests, Zoe Kravitz, the experience of the show is a special one because it is almost like a journey Evans and his guests are going on together.
Over the past five years and 11 seasons, Hot Ones has cultivated a tremendous cult following. Their videos have millions of views, with fans filling the comments section of who they want to see in the next interview. The overwhelming success of Hot Ones has also provided it with the opportunity to have its own game show spinoff on TBS and TruTV.
Hot Ones is a testament to where creativity and thinking outside of the box can get you. The show flipped the celebrity interview on its head, valued human connection, and gathered a cult following in the process. The success of Hot Ones proves that there is an audience out there craving unique and creative content that goes against the mainstream norm.