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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
‘Hot Ones’ host Sean Evans is one of the internet’s best
interviewers. His secret weapon? It’s a family affair
By Dan Heching, CNN
Updated:
1:44 PM EDT, Mon September 15, 2025
Source: CNN
In addition to his proven mettle for spicy foods, Sean Evans from the
YouTube series “Hot Ones” is known to be one of the best celebrity
interviewers, whose impeccably researched questions have left everyone
from Lady Gaga to Josh Brolin impressed.
Brolin even quipped in his , “I don’t know who’s working for you,
but don’t fire them.”
Good news is Evans has no plans to do so, considering he crafts the
show’s spectacularly pointed questions in collaboration with his
brother Gavin and executive producer (and “Hot Ones” creator) Chris
Schonberger.
“We don’t have a research team,” Evans told CNN in a recent
interview. “I hired my little brother years ago to help out with the
lift… We just do it the same way now as we did in the beginning, and
I think that’s the only way that you can really get better at it.”
He added: “I’ll never get rid of him, but I (wouldn’t) want to.
He’s the best.”
The beginning of “Hot Ones” was now ten years ago, when Evans first
challenged a celebrity – rapper Tony Yayo in the – to take on the
spicy “wings of death” and answer queries while simultaneously
contending with the fire in his mouth. (They supply cauliflower wings
for the vegetarians.)
The show has since amassed , inspired a line of branded hot sauces and
several brand partnerships. This week, a new menu in collaboration with
Popeyes will be part of a , her third appearance on the show and
someone Evans calls “one of my favorite people in the world to
interview.”
But when guests are less familiar to Evans, he has a tried-and-true
method that begins with immersing himself in the work and world of his
interview subject, sometimes up to a week ahead of the next episode.
“I really like to marinate in the art of someone’s work,” he
said. “So for interviewing a singer, their discography will be the
soundtrack of my life for that week. Or if they’re an actor, I’ll
close out my night with a double feature every time.”
Evans, 39, seems to like being involved in the show on a granular
level. He prides himself on arriving two hours before each shoot “to
just get good vibes going.” You could maybe even call it part of his
own secret sauce.
“I never feel too entitled, you know? I don’t think I’m, like, so
handsome that they have to put me on TV, or so charismatic that my
personality can cash the checks. I do think, on some level, I have to
get in the mud and do the work, and it’ll probably be that way to the
end,” he said. “I’m not getting any younger over here.”
Much like his habitual prep before a show, Evans leans into a specific
regimen on shoot days as well, relishing the “adrenaline rush of a
deadline,” either finalizing his interview questions the night before
or that morning.
He also painstakingly goes over his “run of show” – i.e., his
order of intended questions – repeatedly.
“Because you always have to be thinking about, ‘Is this line of
questioning going to work? Like, what if it’s bricking out of the
gate? Do I have some sort of plan B?’” he reasoned. “I want to be
an active listener this entire time, so I can’t be so obsessed with,
like, ‘What is my next question again?’”
As seen on the spicy show time and again, not everything always goes to
plan. Like when Bill Murray took Evans and the “Hot Ones” team on a
bit of a ride at the end of their episode shoot after conquering his
wing lineup with impressive stoicism.
“Afterwards, there’s always some sort of postmortem with the
guests. Sometimes we include a little scene of that as like a bonus
scene on the episodes,” Evans explained. “And so sometimes you’re
sitting there chatting. Sometimes it’s quick, sometimes it’s Bill
Murray, who’s gonna sit there and have three bowls of ice cream and
talk about college basketball for like an hour.”
Ice cream as a hot wings chaser, Bill?! No thank you!
What can’t be denied is that after ten years, countless guests and
the same spicy wings, “Hot Ones” still knows how to cook up
entertainment. That, to Evans, is perhaps, the most surprising thing to
swallow.
“Most interviews – like 90% of them – should fail when you
really think about it,” he said. “All of that artifice to get
something real, to get a real natural reaction to something, a real
human experience, rather than two actors doing a performance – that,
I think, is the hardest thing. To get an actual, real human moment,
which maybe sounds bizarre, but I think that’s the truth.”
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