Lorde on an episode of Hot Ones in 2021. Screenshot / @FirstWeFeast
There’s been a spicy development in the world of media buyouts, with investor George Soros leading a consortium that has paid US$82.5 million (about $142m) for chicken-wing YouTube interview series Hot Ones.
It’s a saucy twist in the extraordinary saga of an internet phenomenon that has grown from modest origins to become an essential stop-off on the promotional circuit of everyone from Paul Mescal to Ariana Grande.
Such is its clout, American presidential candidate Kamala Harris canvassed to eat chicken with host Sean Evans during the election campaign – only to be turned down by a franchise that didn’t want to besmirch its brand by veering into politics.
What’s the secret sauce in Hot Ones? The answer lies in its ability to coax celebs out of their comfort zones as they chomp their way through a selection of ever-spicier wings. Soundbites give way to chicken bites – and, more often than not, a heartfelt exchange with the empathic Evans, that rare interviewer who knows when to shut up and let his subject speak.
However, it isn’t just about the food. Evans may have started his career as a novelty YouTube presenter, but he and his brother and research assistant, Gavin, do their homework. At a time when on-camera interviews tend towards the inane and idiotic, the siblings try to get deep – delving into the back history of their subjects and asking considered questions that give real insight into the individual in the hot seat.
You can see that in how people respond. For instance, Avengers star Josh Brolin was temporarily speechless when Evans asked him to talk about the Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York – an obscure venue where Brolin had honed his craft. It was, he said, “Literally the greatest question I’ve ever been asked… Seriously. I’m blown away. I don’t know who’s working for you, but don’t fire them.”
The simple act of going on the show and digging into hot chicken is enough to switch the gears in the heads of many A-listers. Ariana Grande went viral in August after her first bite of chicken. “Something’s happening… my body is like… what’s this!” she said, in shock – a response that echoed the stunned expression that flashed across the face of Idris Elba during his Hot Ones interview from 2019 (“what the f***, oh s***”). For his part, Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk walked on set with his guard up. “I’ve heard such good things about the show, but I think I’m perfectly capable of talking without injuring a part of my body.”
Odenkirk’s doubts evaporated when Evans blindsided him with reference to the comedian’s 1989 solo show, Half My Face Is a Clown – another example of zingy food and deep research complementing one another. “That was far more entertaining and fun than I thought it would be,” the actor admitted.
Hot Ones is the creation of the food website First We Feast, which launched in 2012 as a rival to foodie magazines such as Bon Appétit. It found its groove in 2014 when legacy publications rushed to get into online video – a niche where it was already established.
“It was this amazing flattening of the landscape,” Hot Ones creator and co-producer Chris Schonberger told the New York Times. “Suddenly we were not way behind the starting line, and we also had this brand that could credibly speak to pop culture and not just food.”
They launched Hot Ones a year later. Today, those essential hot sauces are selected by Noah Chaimberg of New York “small-batch hot-sauce shop” Heatonist. The hottest dish on the menu, Da’ Bomb Beyond Insanity, clocks in at an eye-watering two million on the “Scoville” scale – which ranks the “heat” of chilli peppers (a typical Vindaloo measures 250,000 on the scale).
“People were looking for something to puncture the veneer of celebrity – how interviews were becoming more experiential and gamified,” Schonberger said.
He didn’t have particularly high hopes for the project – and was all too aware that it could easily have come off as another novelty interview format. “Hot Ones was just the dumbest idea of all time. How is it, philosophically, that the dumbest idea is the best?”
The philosophy was to keep the celebrities occupied so they did not slip into default interview mode. “It’s like, well, we can’t just have people get drunk or high,” Schonberger explained to the New York Times, “but I think we can get people to eat spicy food, which might just be hilarious.”
Hilarious – but also successful and lucrative. More than 300 episodes in, the show clocked up 91 million views alone in 2023, and it is now worth north of US$80m – figures that go down smoothly regardless of your tolerance to hot spices.