Social media andstreaminghave brought about a shift in interview culture. Where once it was the role of established outlets likeCBS,NBC, andABCto host celebrity guests on their different talk shows to promote their most recent projects,now podcasters and content creators have been carving out their own niche in this entertainment landscape.Experienced and vetted entertainment professionals likeJimmy FallonandStephen Colbertused to be the main source for kooky celebrity interview moments. But these new independent content creators have slowly drawn more and more A-list celebrities away from legacy media for interviews on their channels, based on their talent, social media presence, and cultural relevance.
Call Her Daddypodcast hostAlex Coopermade top news when she landed an interview withVice President Kamala Harrisas part of her 2024 presidential campaign run. American comedianZiwecreated a satirical interview series forYouTubecalledBaited with Ziwewhere she would"bait" her white friendsand colleagues into making faux pas to encourage honest and hilarious conversations about race. When the series moved to Instagram Live in 2020, Ziwe landed interviews withCaroline Calloway,Alyssa Milano, andRose McGowan.Amelia Dimoldenberghas built a red-carpet interview presence based on her popularYoutTube interview seriesChicken Shop Date, where the comedian interviews celebrity guests under the guise of a first date. But if there is one chicken-based interview series that has drawn celebrity guests away from established talk shows on legacy media channels, it isSean Evans' YouTube interview series,Hot Ones.
The premise ofHot Onesis deceptively simple, and low-key devious.Evans leads his celebrity gueststhrough a series of well-researched interview questions as they slowly progress through a sequence of increasingly devastating hot sauces dabbed onto chicken wings. As the sauces increase in heat, the celebrities struggle to maintain their cool and lose the ability to continue coherently responding to Evan’s inquiries. The outrageous and humanizing responses to the torturous wings have become something of a lure for celebrities who not only seem determined to prove themselves capable of beating the heat, but also have an eye on the insane levels of engagement that these videos have reached with viewing audiences. With the lasting popularity ofHot Ones,there have come a handful of spin-off endeavors, because imitation is the highest form of profitability.So, here are the each of theHot Onesspin-offs, ranked.
5’Hot Ones: Quebec'
This French-Canadian spin-off,Hot Ones: Quebec,seems to be part of the recent announcement thatBuzzFeedwould be sellingFirst We Feast, the entertainment brand that first launched the original interview series in 2015. Withthe $82.5 million sale,First We Feastwould emerge as an independent entity, with some major investment backers from Soros Fund Management.The press release fromFirst We Feastannounced the new ownership structure would allow the original creators to continuethe legacy of the mainstay series, but would also focus on providing the necessary resources “to fuel existing and new content franchises.” SinceHot Ones: Quebecpremiered in October 2024, just one month prior to the press release announcing the newfound independence atFirst We Feast,it seems safe to assume the French-Canadian franchise had been in development for some time, and is among the new content that will be receiving support in the reinvented venture.
Since viewers associate one bald host in particular withHot Ones, they may do a double take at first glance when switching over toHot Ones: Quebec. Did Sean Evans grow a mustache? Nope, that isGoonactorMarc-André Grondin, the newest host to join theHot Onesfamily.The host kicked off the series in an interview with one of the best-known figures in modern Canadian history,Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. French is one of Canada’s official languages, and the bilingual Trudeau handled the humorous francophone interview as easily as he did the heat scale of the chicken wings. If you are not fluent in French, however, there is an option tocheck out clips on YouTubeby changing the subtitles option and relying on the auto-generated translation. Just don’t be surprised if there is some linguistic confusion, such as the moment when the story Trudeau was sharing from when he was a 13-year-old preteen was translated to say he was a 1-year-old child.
The interview captures the same ease of exchange that Evans is known for on the original series. It’s important to the host that he follows his guest’s pace when it comes to the spicy wings, so they ride the same wave as the interview progresses, andGrondin embodies his interview in the same way. He also follows Evans' lead in not soft-balling the interview questions, such as when he asked Trudeau what he had learned about parenting by following his father into politics. Trudeau, suffering through the heat of the Da' Bomb hot sauce, offered a surprisingly honest answer for a politician, reflecting on how his children had a different experience with him, since his father was more available to him since he had retired by then. With such an illustrious first guest, and its charming new host, thisHot Onesspin-off had a perfect debut.
4’Hot Ones: The Game Show'
This game show adaptation oftheHot Onesinterviewserieswas developed for TruTV, with Evans as host. In each half-hour episode,two teams of two contestants each compete in a series of rounds that are filled with trivia questions and challenges. Wrong answers and failed efforts lead to eating progressively hotter wings as the contestants work towards a cash prize.
Although the series concept seemed strong, and had Evans signed on as host to retain an authentic connection to the mainstay series,the game show didn’t have the same draw as the other spin-offs due to the absence of celebrity guests.There is a lively energy on set as the contestants compete, and Evans guides the game with his usual engaging demeanor. But the viewing audience has to have a strong stomach for seeing hot-sauce-smeared mouths, chins, and fingers, as the regular joe contestants are less media-trained and more willing to get ugly as they suffer from the effects of the hot sauce they are covered with throughout the competition.
Hot Ones: The Game Show
3Truth or Dab: Rapid Fire
In 2022,First We Feastannounced it was creating anotherHot Onesseries, which is actually a spin-off of a spin-off.Truth or Dab: Rapid Firetakes the premise of theTruth or Dabseries, where celebrity guests face a series of awkward personal questions about their career or social life, and decide whether to answer the question, or eat a chicken wing that has the infamous “Last Dab” hot sauce on it. In this special series for Instagram, rather than a segment featuring Evans as host and a couple of celebrity guests promoting a new project,Rapid Firefeatures a solo celebrity reading cue card questions and choosing between offering an answer or accepting the consequences of the “Last Dab.”
The new series is limited in that it is truly best suited to being viewed on Instagram, and unless you stumble upon a clip on your feed, there is an ephemeral nature to the videos compared to the originalTruth or Dabseries. There is a difference, too, in the type of celebrities featured on the series. Rather than musical guests, actors, and other A-list celebrities promoting their newest work, the guests featured onRapid Firetend to be up-and-coming content creators seeking influence and followers. The absence of a host, the vertical video orientation for Instagram, and the solo guests mean this spin-off series is a fun and frivolous adaptation of the broaderTruth or Dabconcept that isbest enjoyed when discovered on the app it was intended for.
2Hot Ones Versus
In this competitive twist on theTruth or Dabconcept, two celebrities face off in a series of rapid-fire rounds of challenges and deeply personal questions. If they fail the test, or they choose not to answer, the celebrity guests will have to suffer the consequences of eating a wing covered in the “Last Dab.“The guest who eats the most chicken by the end of questioning loses the competition.And also, presumably, suffers the most gastric distress.
With the absence of Evans as a host, the guests are entirely in charge of the vibe in each episode, and not every match-up guarantees the same engaging quality. But when guests have the easy chemistry ofGlen PowellandDaisy Edgar-Jones,the videos can garner the same “must-see” quality that Evans is known to evoke on the flagship show.As Powell and Edgar-Jones quizzed each other through their tears of both laughter and pain, the way they tackled each question together enhanced every moment and left viewers wanting more.
1Truth or Dab
This series got its start in 2018 as aHot Onesspecial episode that was so well-received it spawned the spin-off seriesTruth or Dab. In the spin-off premiere,Kevin HartandTiffany Haddishappeared on the series to promote their movieNight School.Evans is typically known for his in-depth and insightful interview questions, but inTruth or Dab,the questions are designed to be as uncomfortable as the after effects of the spicy wings.If the guests choose not to answer a question in order to save face, they have to eat a spicy wing doused in the “Last Dab,” the hottest of the sauces in theHot Onesline-up, typically saved for the end of the interview due to the balance of intensity in its flavor. There are also games or questions testing trivia and math skills that, if lost or answered incorrectly, also come with the consequence of having to eat the spicy wing.
The series initiated the tradition of hosting more than one guest at a time, which contributed to the electric energy on set, since the level of spice that was on the line was guaranteed to be high-octane, and the element of chance kept the guests guessing when it would be their turn to sweat. The tension surrounding the celebrity’s desire to avoid answering the uncomfortable question versus suffering the consequences of the “Last Dab” created a more playful vibe than the original series, which tends to have a little more gravitas. When co-stars who are close friends appear together, it can often yield hilarious results, asTan FranceandGigi Hadidproved as they yelled at one another through heated breath while answering questions with eyes watering from pain. The pair suffered through the heat to promote theirNetflix series,Next In Fashion, butthe episode proved why the new formula for this series made it the number oneHot Onesspin-off.
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