| Genre: | Talk show |
| Presenter: | Sean Evans |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 25 |
| Num Episodes: | 350 |
| List Episodes: | List of Hot Ones episodes |
| Network: | YouTube |
| 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 Complex Media.[1] 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.
As of April 2024, the show has produced twenty-three 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 OnesThe Classic" in spot 1, "Hot OnesLos Calientes" in either spot 4 or 5, and "Hot OnesThe 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.[2]
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+.[3] 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 & 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.
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.[4] The show is hosted by Sean Evans.
On September 26, 2017, First We Feast featured an episode of Sean in the Wild, using sauces from Hot Ones, starring Sean Evans and Michael Stevens from Vsauce.[5]
The first season did not feature any female guests at all.[6]
The nineteenth episode of the fourth season featuring Mario Batali was removed on December 11, 2017 in light of the sexual misconduct allegations towards him. it remains the only episode removed by the Hot Ones team.[7]
|-! scope="row" | 2017| Streamy Award| Best Food Series| rowspan="5" |Hot Ones| | [8] |-! scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2018| Shorty Awards| Best Web Series| | [9] |-| Streamy Award| Non-Fiction Series| | [10] |-! scope="row" rowspan="2" | 2019| rowspan="2" | Streamy Award| Show of the Year| | [11] |-| Pop Culture| | |-! scope="row" | 2021| Daytime Emmy Awards| Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host| Sean Evans| | [12] |-! scope="row" | 2022| Daytime Emmy Awards| Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show| Hot Ones| | [13] |}
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 hot sauce.[14]