Hot Ones
Genre	Talk show
Created by	Sean Evans Chris Schonberger
Presented by	Sean Evans
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	26
No. of episodes	362(list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Sean Evans Sarah Honda
Production companies	First We Feast Complex Media (until 2024)
Original release
Network	YouTube
Release	March 12, 2015 (2015-03-12) – present

Hot Ones is an AmericanYouTubetalk show, created bySean Evans and Chris Schonberger, hosted by Evans and produced byFirst We Feast and formerlyComplex Media.^[1] Its basic premise involves celebrities being interviewed by Evans over a platter of increasingly spicychicken wings. Several spin-offs have been produced, including the game showHot Ones: The Game Show on the cable television networkTruTV, andTruth or Dab, atruth or dare style competition that also airs on the First We Feast YouTube channel. Hot Ones is also a brand, as frozen chicken wings, and hot sauces have been released under the Hot Ones brand, based on sauces and flavors from the show.

As of March 6, 2025, the show has produced twenty-six 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 Ones – The Classic" in spot 1, "Hot Ones – Los Calientes" in either spot 4 or 5, and "Hot Ones – The 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 twoStreamy Awards and its host, Sean Evans, has been nominated forDaytime Emmy Award. In 2022,Hot Ones received a nomination for theDaytime 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, withHollywood 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 avegetarian/vegan alternative based on the guest's preference), each prepared with a progressively hotterhot sauce. Evans states the show'stagline at the beginning of each episode: "The show with hot questions, and even hotter wings."

The first sauce presented is relatively mild such assriracha, which has a rating of 2,200Scoville 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 featuringKeegan-Michael Key &Jordan Peele orRyan Reynolds andHugh 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.

In 2021 Hot Ones appeared in aSaturday Night Live sketch featuringMaya Rudolph asBeyoncé, the guest eating spicy wings, andMikey Day as Evans.^[4][5] Rudolph reprised the sketch in May 2024.^[4]

The show was created by First We Feast Founder Christopher Schonberger. Schonberger citesAlexa Chung's quirky interview showPopworld as the inspiration for the show.^[6]

In 2017, First We Feast featured an episode ofSean in the Wild, using sauces from Hot Ones, starring Evans andMichael Stevens fromVsauce.^[7]

In 2024, the show was purchased fromBuzzFeed for $82.5 million by an investment group that included Evans, Schonberger,Mythical Entertainment,Crooked Media, andGeorge Soros.^[8][9]

The nineteenth episode of the fourth season featuringMario Batali was removed in 2017 in light of the sexual misconduct allegations towards him. As of 2025^[update], it remains the only episode removed.^[10]

On February 18, 2020, a spin-off titledHot Ones: The Game Show premiered ontruTV. 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 wings cooked in increasingly hotter sauces.^[17]

• Official website
• Hot Ones atIMDb

• 2010s YouTube series
• American English-language television shows
• 2015 web series debuts
• 2010s in food
• 2020s YouTube series
• 2020s in food
• Shorty Award winners
• Streamy Award-winning channels, series or shows
• 2010s American television talk shows
• 2020s American television talk shows
• Chicken as food

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2024
• Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2025
• All articles containing potentially dated statements