In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about what they’re doing, eating, reading, and loving. Next up is Sean Evans, the host and cocreator of genre-defining interview show, Hot Ones.
You’ll never hear Sean Evans slander chicken wings or hot sauce, even if he’s tired of eating them. The 38-year old host and cocreator of Hot Ones is now in his 10th year of shooting the YouTube interview show in which he and a celebrity guest each eat 10 wings coated in increasingly spicy hot sauces.
In 25 seasons, over 350 episodes, and nearly 4,000 sun-hot chicken wings, Evans has interviewed musicians, actors, and comedians alike, grilling them with questions about life and work as they push the limits of the Scoville scale on the human palate. Gordon Ramsay cursed violently. Aubrey Plaza snorted a glass of milk. Pedro Pascal sweated profusely. (Don’t get us started on the eerily nonplussed reactions of Lorde and Ariana Grande.) Amassing more than 4 billion views and 14 million subscribers, Evans and his team created a phenomenon—evolving the talk show genre along the way. (Hot Ones hit another milestone last year: BuzzFeed, which acquired the show in 2021, sold First We Feast, the show’s parent company, to a group of investors including Evans himself.)
As Hot Ones enters its 26th season, we put one of the most well-known interviewers of the social media era in the hot seat, learning about his interview process, why the Hot Ones format succeeds, and what makes a great hot sauce.
How does it feel to be on the interviewee side of the table?
I’m much more comfortable on your side of the table than on this side of the table. As a host I’ve worked hard on trying to just sit back and let the flow state take over.
Do you get into a flow state as you interview on Hot Ones?
Yeah, it catches the track on wing three or four. You can see at that point if you’re going to start to win this person over. Even though you’re dealing with huge stars and some of the most confident people, there is something about eating this gauntlet of fiery chicken wings in the bizarre context of it being on a TV show with four cameras pointed at you. We have to create this chemistry, this rapport, this energy, and this rhythm, and everything’s stacked against you to do that. A couple wings in is where it starts to catch the rhythm.
How has the show changed over its 10 years?
The show hasn’t changed at all. It’s the same set. It’s the same bald guy with his questions and the lineup of hot sauces. Personally, I’ve changed. I can’t watch stuff from the first three, four, or five years. When I look back on it, I’m wincing.
I don’t think it was a great interview show in the beginning. I was young, I was green. I look back and I’m projecting and moving a lot. The show had this cult audience early on, and that really motivated me to look at this as not only a unique concept, but also to try to make what is unimpeachably an excellent interview show.
Photograph by Victor Llorente
