The Secret Spice of ‘Hot Ones’: Host Sean Evans Breaks Down How the Fan-Favorite Series Gets Made

It’s been almost 10 years since the first episode of “Hot Ones” hit the internet, and host Sean Evans will be the first to admit that he and his team “did not have high aspirations” for the show at inception. Nonetheless, the YouTube talk show has seemingly cracked the code, becoming a must-stop destination on film press tours — but Evans still feels like he’s “drowning” a bit.

That’s a good thing for the host though. As Evans explained to TheWrap at a Hot Ones live event in Chicago (part of First We Feast’s ‘Let’s do Dinner Summer Series’ with Stella Artois), he thinks it’s “healthy” for him and his team to still feel overwhelmed and never like they’re in a rhythm.

“We’re not complacent with the success that we have,” he said. “We’re just trying to week-in and week-out deliver the best possible episode for the fans who have supported us now for almost 10 years.”

As Evans describes it, that audience loyalty “really put a battery in my back” to make his interviews as silly as they sometimes can be. Giving people a weekly “dopamine hit was always the carrot in front of the stick for me,” he noted.

The interviews, which take place as both Evans and his guest work their way through 10 chicken wings, each one dipped in an increasingly hotter sauce, have featured everyone from Ludacris to Serena Williams to Cate Blanchett and more.

Of course, fans have come to love “Hot Ones” for more than its insanity. They’ve also come to praise Evans’ specificity in his interviews, often pulling deep from his guests’ lives and careers for his questions.

Even the celebs themselves have marveled at the details the host has dug up, like Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ pre-fame jobs as a ranger for the National Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Australia and a forklift operator, respectively (Evans also wowed Jackman by bringing up his time as a birthday clown for hire).

In that particular episode, Reynolds asked Evans point blank “Who’s your source?!” Well, TheWrap did confirm that the host is not actually hiding in the basements of various celebrities, listening in on their day-to-day activities.

“No,” Evans said with a laugh. “But I might call, I might text some friends or whatever, like, I might try to figure something out.”

The actual answer is typically just: the internet.

“I mean, there’s a lot of googling late at night at home,” Evans explained. “But also too, it’s the same core team that’s been doing it since the beginning. So it’s my little brother Gavin and Chris Schoenberger who I do the show with, and the three of us just dive into the material, expose ourselves to as much of the guests as we possibly can, and then just try to execute against that.”

“And that can mean everything from reading profiles that are a decade old or more than a decade old, but it also means watching the movies, listening to the music, reading the books, watching the shows,” he continued. “Just marinating yourself in a person’s output, a person’s art, and then starting from a place of genuine curiosity.”

Evans also considers it a signal of consideration for his guests, saying that it’s “only fair” for him to bring them a well-researched interview if they’re willing to do said interview while eating absurdly hot wings with four cameras pointed at them.

All that research does take some time though, and time isn’t something the host and his team always have an abundance of. In an ideal situation for Evans, an episode of “Hot Ones” takes a total of 10 days to come together from shooting to publishing.

“I know I’m shooting someone in a week, so that gives me a week to walk a mile in their shoes, right?” he detailed. “Then you execute the interview, and then me and my editor, Colin Higgins, will usually spend like two or three work days cutting down the raw interview, doing the sound bed, putting all the fun effects, and spice hits, and different things to kind of elevate the episode and kind of deliver the ‘Hot Ones’ watch experience that people come to know.”

But some episodes have to come together even faster, depending on what project the celebrity is promoting, or just working around travel schedules for everyone involved.

“It’s kind of always a Rubik’s cube that just solves itself,” Evans said.

As far as how the “Hot Ones” team decides who might be a good fit for the show, Evans admits that the consideration is “ever changing.” But at the end of the day, it comes down to a little, well, spice.

“Overall, philosophically, in a season I would like to have a variety of personalities, different people in there from different walks of life,” he said. “Today we have David Beckham, football legend, and that’s coming off of Ariana Grande. And that’s coming off of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, you know what I mean? So it’s like, what you want is to just put your hand in many different honey pots”

And no, the Hot Ones team is never upset if a certain celebrity “balks” at the idea of answering detailed questions while burning their throats and turns down coming on the show. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of waiting them out.

“We just kind of just stay vigilant,” Evans explained of their booking process. “We’re always pitching, we have calendars months and months out. What movies are coming out, what shows are coming out, what albums are coming out? Who’s expressed kind of a yellow light to us? Who has flirted with us a little bit? Maybe should we ratchet up that pitch.”

He continued, “And we also stay persistent, because a no last year might be a yes this year. So that’s basically what it is. We have an amazing booker, Kelly Weber, who’s been amazing, and to me, the season that we just finished is the best season that we’ve ever done in terms of star power. And then hopefully, you know, the momentum just carries on into the next season, into the next season, into the next season.”

Today, “Hot Ones” is a behemoth. So much so that the Chicago event Evans spoke to TheWrap at — one of five different events this summer, each with its own theme and host — drew roughly 300 people to take on the challenge, and fellow brand ambassador Ludacris to perform live.

For the host, being able to hit the road with the show, tailoring it specifically to the city and actually seeing fans take on the hot wings gauntlet has been a highlight, calling First We Feast’s team-up with Stella Artois his favorite partnership they’ve ever had.

The Chicago show was particularly special, since Evans was born in Evanston, Illinois, attending high school in Crystal Lake and college at the University of Illinois.

“When you do a YouTube show, you see the views obviously, you know people are watching it, but like, you don’t see them,” he said. “So an experience like this, where so many people can actually sit down and experience the show, I’ve got dozens of family and friends coming in, it being in my hometown. So this has been very special, very fulfilling.”

So, what does the future of “Hot Ones” look like? Well, with any luck, it might include an Emmy. First We Feast, which co-produces “Hot Ones” with Complex, made an Emmys push for “Hot Ones” this year, successfully campaigning to be eligible for the Variety TV category, though not scoring a nomination in the end.

“I didn’t wake up in January thinking that we could ever compete in that kind of a category,” Evans said with a laugh. “But I think what ultimately has happened is there’s been this flattening of the media landscape.”

“YouTube, it’s a streamer just like Hulu and Netflix and Apple and Amazon. And I think when you look at a show like ‘Hot Ones’ and where it lives in the culture, I think it is categorically worthy of comparison with those traditional late night shows.”

Though he was bummed they “didn’t get into the party,” Evans added that the push created “a good, crystallized goal” for the future.

There’s always another dab.

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