If you had told Sean Evans 10 years ago that he’d be hosting a live interview in the middle of Hollywood while eating hot wings with Adam DeVine in front of a packed house, he wouldn’t have believed you.
“We didn’t have these big dreams and aspirations for the show when it first started. I think we thought it would be something that we’d only do three or four times a year, like a quarterly Internet Super Bowl event. But thanks to this cult audience that started to grow behind the show, we pretty quickly realized that we’d better start programming it to keep up with the demand we were having,” he told TheWrap at his “Hot Ones Live” 10th Anniversary event at Avalon in Hollywood on Thursday, presented by First We Feast and Stella Artois.
“I really bought into it just as an interview concept. To me, it was a really fun sandbox to play in. I do feel like the disruptive element in the interview does do something to change it, to warp it for the better, and then I just fell in love with my little baby as it started to grow. It’s just the most honest relationship that I’ve ever had in my life,” he continued. “I’ve worked so hard, I’ll never regret what I put into it, and I feel like I’ve gotten all that back and more — this is kind of a fun culmination of all of that, where we get to do this big event with the fans. But if Episode 1 you were like, do you ever see yourself here or all the ways that my life has changed? Absolutely not. This is all a dream.”
And while “Hot Ones” has undeniably changed the game when it comes to the modern celebrity interview, to Evans, it’s the core concept that makes the show such a success.
“As much as there’s this novel concept where celebrities are eating scorching hot wings, in a lot of ways, we’re really informed and inspired by the traditional. Even the way we approach it is just a very classic Xs and Os kind of interview,” he explained. “It’s the oldest construct in the history of media; you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Ultimately, as new as it looks on paper, it’s actually something that’s really traditional and classic in the way that it’s made.”
“And then on top of that, we put together what’s hopefully a thoughtful, career-spanning interview. We take the polish and the edit seriously. We love that sitcom timeslot where it’s not this long commitment, not marathon length, not a feature film. You can watch one episode and then watch the next and the next and the next. And that kind of goes back to the things that I enjoyed watching growing up,” Evans added. “I still look forward to Thursdays and watching the show like a fan. In some ways, I feel like it’s just us making our favorite show together.”
So after 27 seasons of making celebrities sweat their faces off on-camera, what exactly makes the ideal guest? “I think ‘Hot Ones’ is, overall, a show that you kind of have to want to do a little bit in order to be a good guest,” the host revealed.
Thursday’s live event also came nine months after BuzzFeed sold production company First We Feast, and therefore “Hot Ones,” to founder Chris Schonberger, Evans, Crooked Media, Mythical Entertainment and Soros Fund Management last December for $82.5 million.
“I do think it would have been challenging to continue doing the show if we were not able to extract the Jenga piece cleanly from the company. I do think that was like a crossroads, do or die, live or die, kind of moment for the show,” Evans said. “I’m really happy that we were able to get 100% sign-up from the old venture to the new venture, opening up a brand new office in Midtown right now, building out the Studios from the ground up. It really came at a good time for me creatively, because it kind of reinvigorated the passion that I have for the whole thing. Because it’s like, wow, this baby that we’ve been caring for this whole time, now you have the responsibility of that, too.”
And while Evans doesn’t necessarily consider himself a celebrity just because of his proximity to them, he did enjoy shooting that viral scene from Apple TV+’s “Loot.”
“When I do a cameo, I am just playing myself, so there isn’t that big of a difference — it’s not like I have some sort of broadcasting persona or anything. Who I am on the show is who I am off-camera. But I always think about how amazing it is, all these different experiences that I have and all these different trophies that I get to put in the trophy case. Like, I did a comedic scene with Maya Rudolph. No one can take that away from me. And people think that she was actually on the show,” the journalist shared. “I’ve always liked the experience of Hollywood. The show is really a love letter to Hollywood.”
As they now enter Season 28 of the talk show, Stella Artois will remain on-hand for the celebrity guests as the official “Hot Ones” beer sponsor.
“The thing that’s been amazing about the partnership with Stella Artois is that we’re just two brands that are aligned in interesting ways, both at the intersection of food and pop culture. Then on top of it, the pairing of fried chicken — hot sauce and beer is an amazing pairing,” Evans said. “Bringing this 10th anniversary celebration to the fans, we’ve done a bunch of fun things along the way. Like, if you walk through here, you can see pictures of the event that we did last year in Chicago, or the interviews that we’ve done with Maria Sharapova and David Beckham and Ludacris and Patrick Schwarzenegger, and this will be another chapter in this amazing book that we’re writing together. And I hope that there are many more after this.”
“If you put out an episode, it’s like putting out a single; if you put out a season, that can be kind of an album; so in a lot of ways, this is like the concert, since we actually get to see the audience,” he further noted. “YouTube’s amazing because you can see the views. Obviously, people are watching it, but there’s not hand-to-hand kind of contact. So Stella Artois has been an amazing partner, because they allow us to take these big swings and really bring a classic Hollywood show.”
“When I look at these big scale events that we’re doing, I’m so excited and I get the edge to do this more often,” Evans concluded. “Like, let’s keep doing this. So I imagine I’ll get a taste of it tonight. It’ll be exciting. It’ll go home on a high, and I’ll be like, well, when can we do that again?”
Check out Sean and Adam’s full live episode on Oct. 20, with new episodes of “Hot Ones” Season 28 airing every Thursday on YouTube.
