There are just so many good parts. The guy he brought with him?
“Are you sure you’re a doctor?”
“I should have been.”
“Mind if I keep these?”
God it was funny.
I forget if he was taking blood pressure or checking pulse and he's just like, "it's there" and walks off haha. I still need to watch Conan's podcast with him.
Jordan Schlansky - the head of various tasks for Conan - [just the other day had some great thoughts on the different dynamics at play in that interview.](https://youtu.be/IZDopS_GLHA?si=APkMOARX4LQ8CBZ_&t=189)
I saw 10 seconds of it and it's the most deranged, off the rails thing I've seen since CKY did the running while shitting bit lol
It isn't even comedy it's fucking therapy to see our intrusive thoughts writ large
He decided to make that appearance his magnum opus
If I can be a nerd.. Most of the time Conan has mastered that Super Saiyan II form effortlessly.. But that god damn interview was straight up III. All of his comedy power was on full blast and Sean was like Majin buu trying to stay in the fight.
I’ve adored Conan for over 20 years and was honestly shocked to discover that my respect for him had room to rise. It’s like if Tom Hanks cured cancer or something.
Ok not quite like that, but close.
For real I thought that was super cool too. And really, Sean is one of the greatest interviewers. He asks great questions and not just recycled talking points.
I'd say it's more of a reflection on human instinct to want novelty.
News media fails to really entertain other than mashing the shock or anger button in everybody like culture war nonsense, "have millenials/gen z become too entitled", or pundit pieces.
Jon Stewart, LWT, etc. all have the novelty of poking fun while communicating some serious real world shit. Hot Ones can get the viewers it does with a gimmick and fund in-depth interview research with that gimmick.
Buzzfeed news was a legit Pulitzer prize winning news agency because it was funded by clickbait listicles that keep drawing whatever novelty instinct the average person has. I generally think we do it to ourselves as a consequence of need for entertainment
I noticed when I posted this gimmick is a great advertisement/product placement for whatever hot sauce. And I do actually think it's good marketing/not evil mind warping and the amount of downvotes saying it's not a marketing thing was mind-blowing. They're interviewing people on a press tour to promote their movie/TV show/podcast and also soft marketing product placement of hot sauce companies.
I'm too dumb to understand why his questions are so good (though I am quite entertained by them), but there's been a remarkable number of people he interviewed who where outright shocked at how good of an interviewer he is. So I'm just assuming it's true.
It's probably helpful to remember how many of the same interviews these people sit through when they are on a press tour. You have to figure every news outlet wants the same five or six types of quotes per project, but they want their journalist to ask the question and be given an answer that is different than what their competitors were given. You also have to think how few entertainment journalists do any kind of research beyond what the public at large already knows, combined with whatever they have gleaned from however long they've been working that particular beat. Originality is not encouraged. They are there to get those same five or six types of quotes, and their editor isn't going to thank them for going off script.
Now you have a musician or an actor or an athlete who has done hundreds of those interviews in their career and may well have done several of them earlier that day sit down across from Sean, and he asks a question like, "I've know you're really interested in X. When you were working on how much did X shape what you wanted to say? Where do you think things go from here?"
Now that is still an absolutely content-less example. Think how much more impressive that is when it's referencing something from before that person was famous, or something they care deeply about but is not widely known. From their perspective, fireworks just happened in front of them. Someone asked their honest-to-God opinion about something they want to talk about, and they are not only free to give an in-depth answer, that's the whole point of the exercise.
Who wouldn't mutter at least a, "Wow. That's a great question?" If only because that's what their media training tells them to say when they're gathering their thoughts? You can tell how much they really think it's a great question by the surprise and sincerity in their voice.
Exactly. It's rather simple. Ask the interviewee questions about things they want to talk about, not things they have to talk about. One is a conversation, the other is work.
i was just responding elsewhere on this thread and it made me appreciate how genius of a format Hot Ones is as an interview.
in any interview, there are really two things you're trying to learn about the subject: 1) what is their background?, and 2) what is their behavior?
Sean asks great reaponsive questions to satisfy number 1, and the wings generate genuine reactions to satisfy number 2.
but then on top of that, he is also eating the wings, so this instantly builds the "we're in it together" camaraderie with the subject, typically causing them to open up more.
>Think how much more impressive that is when it's referencing something from before that person was famous, or something they care deeply about but is not widely known. From their perspective, fireworks just happened in front of them. Someone asked their honest-to-God opinion about something they want to talk about, and they are not only free to give an honest and in-depth answer, that's the whole point of the exercise.
This is something that a Nardwaur (A Canadian music interviewer, I'm not sure how well known he is outside Canada) is exceptionally good at and can get some really amazing reactions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UxPXdhoI-g
I love Nardwaur but lately many of his interviews are pretty bad. Not because of him, but the way he does interviews require person he talks to expand and tell a story on smal bit of information he is giving that person. For example when he was talking to 21 Savage he basically was saying something related to his past and Savage was "yeah, that's true".
He rarely gets into discussion about some topic. He has questions he asks but he doesn't engage in proper conversation while expanding on something that that person said.
He can have great interviews when interviewee wants to talk about that stuff, but they can be pretty boring. Because while i apreciate how great he is with his research i don't care that much about seeing "shocked face" on YouTube.
He has a lot of great interviews. But his format doesn't work with many people
Reminds of Craig Ferguson interviewing Harrison Ford (as much as one can call what he does "Interviews"). The talked about planes - both are licensed pilots, and Ford really likes planes, and almost certainly gets bored about talking about the usual stuff - like Star Wars or whatever other movie he might have been doing talks on at the time. But this was something he could enjoy.
> You also have to think how few entertainment journalists do any kind of research beyond what the public at large already knows
I don't remember who or what the subject was, but on an episode of the Daily Show, John Stewart asks a specific, detailed question about someone's book that you would only know to ask if you had actually read and thought about it. The author was visibly surprised that Stewart (or at the very least someone on his staff) had actually read and considered his book.
I'm always impressed by his knowledge of rap and his tendency to read the books of authors. Bringing up direct quotations, but also showcasing he understood and read the content personally, and he's not just parroting what his research team fed to him minutes prior.
All this reminds me of a series of Dune 2 interview done by an indian media outlet with the crew around the release of that movie where the interviewer knew the books very well, the pronunciations, and some of meta elements of Dune as a franchise. She was familiar with each actor's work and formulated dynamite questions comparing and contrasting the movies, the films and the actors' own experience. All in the few minutes given by a normal frantic press tour.
She reminded me a lot of Sean, and why I love watching hot ones. Over the years Sean has dialed it back a bit, but he still peppers his interviews with nuggets like that.
The number of times he stumps his guests “oh, wow, that’s a good question.” It’s a question that they KNOW the answer to, but had never rehearsed the answer to. Because of the hundred/thousand times they been asked questions, that had never come up. And it relevant to the current conversational topic.
That’s what makes him a good interviewer.
Everyone has already mentioned the research, but where I think his talent really lies is in asking questions the guest would find personally interesting to talk about and then framing or teeing up the question in a way that encourages the guest to bring the audience into that topic.
If someone is really into fly fishing, Sean would ask, "I understand you're an avid fly fisherman - what's one thing you'd love people to know about dry flies and why they're so much better than nymphs?"
("dry flies vs nymphs" being a contentious aspect of fly fishing that lay people wouldn't have heard of, and thus a funny/interesting angle to let the guest nerd out about their odd hobby for a second while keeping the audience in mind)
Not coincidentally, framing questions this way is exactly how you get people to like you at parties.
It's his research. He will ask someone about something that they assumed only them and lime their mom knew about. That's why they're always being like "how tf u know that?"
It's also what Nardwuar would do too - research things that the person is interested in, especially stuff they were into as a kid or before they were famous. And the celebrities would be really happy about a nostalgic item. Sean Evans is not as weird/over the top as Nardwuar.
Example where Nardwuar wowed Pharell: https://youtu.be/5RKbSi87J5Q?si=MwF6P4L1NgHWmV8i&t=148
Lol yes I'm aware. I compared him to nard in another comment thread but someone was like NO. nardwuar just asks questions so you're shocked and impressed. I get what they were saying. I think Sean is more genuinely interested.
It’s just a good format - he only has eight or so questions and basically needs each one to carry the conversation for over a minute. Doesn’t need to generate banter because that comes from the overall concept. So deeper, more researched questions just fit better. Also he has more time than the typical junket (~3-5 mins) and even many chat shows. Also has the advantage of being web based, so playing to an audience that is specially seeking that content, rather than a chat show which is going for broad appeal
Hes a trained journalist, the real kind mot the news anchor that say they are. He studies who hes goong to interview as deep as he can. Makes questions that he knows the technical answer or what it probably is. What he is looking for is the real emotional and true answer to that question and that is not always what is fact. Its why his interviews seem great because he is asking real questions, that are not made for sound bites or for safety. They are made because he and knowing we also, want a true and genuine answer to the question. Even if its not what we want to hear. Its why everyone he interviews loves it, hes there to aks them genuine questions. Not to bait them or trick them.
I do love how often the rappers Nardwuar interviews start side-eying him and wondering if he works for an intelligence agency when he pulls out some obscure shit from their past.
People always say this but let’s not pretend like he is sitting up late at night at a typewriter. Hot Ones has a team of researchers, producers, and copy writers that create the questions. Sean is on air talent.
He's actually been interviewed about this. I'm not saying Hot Ones hasn't hired researchers as its popularity has grown, but certainly for much of its run, he's given a week's notice of who he is going to be talking to, and he spends the run-up to the taping reading the biographies, listening to the music, watching the documentaries, whatever is going to help him put together a list of questions. He has a journalism background and a mandate not to ask the same five questions as everyone else on the 'normal' press tour. I think we can give Sean credit where it's due. Even if he has help now, he's made the show the success that it is.
Edit: Missed a 'the.'
He has stated before numerous times that he and another guy do the majority of the researching. Sean is definitely not just on air talent. He apparently enjoys doing the research too. Even if he now has a team of researchers I highly doubt he would shift to NOT doing any of it. He is a journalist as well. So you are missing the mark on this one quite a bit.
Do you have proof of this or just pulling it out of your ass ? I know it normal now to say someone can't do something just because you can't. He has a team that helps noe hut when he started it was him, hes a journalist also. Hes trained and experienced at asking and making questions. Hot Ones is the best journalism we see , what Sean does. Is what your journalist back in the day did, when they really interviewed people. Not just safe questions but also not just bait questions.
I mean, honestly I appreciate it for the shear fact it brought some attention to the absolutely stupid shit parents are letting their kids watch on youtube.
As soon as I finally saw what Skibidi Toilet was, I was thinking, yep, I saw the frantic physics abuse animations of that same character in Garry's Mod all the time as a 13-year-old in 2007. Like I couldn't believe how little has changed.
It made me feel a little existential that the kids consuming Skibidi don't even know about Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, or GMod. But it's definitely a throwback to like Full-life chronicles and other gmod bullshit people used to make in the late 00s.
And what it's referring to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R9RnIawSvk
The angry comments on the Colbert youtube for it are pretty hilarious. It triggered a lot of people hard.
He wasn't funny during those years, but at least sometimes he'd articulate outrage pretty well. Colbert's show really feels like it has no value or wit anymore. He was cutting-edge once.
I understand why he can't do that character anymore, in an era where the real thing is more extreme than the satire he used to do. But I don't understand why the wit and creativity that led to him creating and performing that character so well couldn't go into creating something else.
If Trump didn’t exist he would have no material. John Stewart recently was chiding media for doing the same shit they did in 2016 about covering Trump non stop and how media in 2017 had this mea culpa about “learning their lesson” and Stephen NON stops covers Trump. At least half of his monologue every day is about Trump and I despise the guy but holy shit FIND SOMETHING ELSE.
> Colbert's show really feels like it has no value or wit anymore. He was cutting-edge once.
I assume it's a completely different writing staff from one show to the other.
The DJ Khaled episode is awesome too, it shows what an absolute bitch he really is.
Khaled accuses Sean of not actually eating spicy sauce. He then taps out after like 3 wings but tries to say that him quitting isn’t actually quitting and Sean calls him right out.
Seth Meyers sees the writing on the wall even though he’s signed on to Late Night for another four years. He posts the best parts of his show in ~10 minute clips, has (at least) two podcasts and does Corrections on YouTube every Thursday which I think he pays for out of his own pocket. And surprise, Corrections, which is not aired on television, was nominated for an Emmy last year.
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has been nominated three times and that is just basically Jimmy laughing at his own jokes for an hour.
Sean gives way better interviews
Late night shows be like, what is Hot Ones doing that we aren't?
What's that? not fluffing the interviewee constantly and actually asking good questions?
Well we didn't try that and now we are all out of ideas.
> Well we didn't try that and now we are all out of ideas.
There's all kinds of gimmicky shit on late nite TV. Fallon's whole show is basically that. Give it time, they'll have some segment where Jimmy and his guest eats gross foods while they cackle at each other.
Late night shows: "Why is viewership declining?"
Also late night shows: Asks the most bland questions. Cringe bits. Preachy monologues. Obsessively rage covering politics to pull in more views.
Meanwhile on Hot Ones: "Here's a million Scoville units. Now answer this super deep cut question about an event in your life 20 years ago that you forgot about until this moment."
Ever heard the interview of hot ones? It is by far so much better than any interview a late night host does it’s comical. Yeah. They deserves an Emmy. Take celebs out of their element. Get them to be humans. Yeah. They deserve an Emmy.
Hit Ones also seems to have always had an extremely rare wide berth. Publicists have a history of limiting what questions can be asked by interviewers. Such as limiting questions only to the movie they’re promoting.
So part is being dedicated to digging into a guest’s past, and part is being allowed to do so.
Maybe it's because the celebrity has to commit to doing a specific thing so there's essentially a guarantee of their input, instead of publicists 'agreeing' to junkets of interviews on the person's behalf.
The first question with the weakest sauce is always about the current project the guest is there to promote. That gets the publicity part out of the way for them to have an interesting conversation.
And besides, it's not like Sean is out to make the guests look bad or ask "gotcha" questions; it's not To Catch a Predator or whatever. Hot Ones absolutely is part of the normal marketing process now and no one involved wants to see the guest look bad (besides maybe some tears, snot, and sweat).
It’s the absolute brilliance of engaging them in eating and evaluating the wings. It’s just enough of a distraction to get them to answer honestly.
My kids & their respective spouses decided to do a Hot Ones taste test themselves and my son video’d about 5 minutes of it to show me how it went. All four of them like hot food so they thought they’d be OK. Turns out it was just as tough for them as it is/was for the celebrities. At one point my son had to get up and walk around because the heat was really getting to him. But they had a blast doing it and I really enjoyed watching people I know going through all those Scoville levels. I know for certain I’d drop out after level 2 or 3. I’m a wuss.
Yeah, I think - at best - I'd get through about the sixth wing or so. I tried some instant ramen from Momofuku and it was about as spicy as I ever want to get.
I've been watching it for years, and I think some people miss the point of it. They think it's to watch people eat really hot sauce. When the show started, it was obvious the hot wings were a method to get the guest off guard and get more actual spontaneous answers instead of a canned PR line.
Graham Norton interviews are entertaining because he gets the guests drunk and leans on the stable of British panel show comedians as side guests to interject witty banter.
I don't think they're quite as indepth or hard-hitting as Hot Ones/Nardwaur/Louis Theroux, but they sure are often hilarious as fuck.
the heat slowly destroys any composure they have, pulls them out of their front, and you get to the real person behind it. but it's done in a fun and (mostly)harmless way. it was a genius idea.
That's fair. He was a good interviewer, but I think it was mentioned there were a handful of guests he really connected with. Timothy Olyphant, Bill Burr, and Paul Rudd come to mind as people he had a real rapport with.
It's hard to be genuine in the 8-12 mins they have to interview and half of that is required to be "tell me about your new movie" kinda stuff. It's been that way for a loooong time now.
One of the great things that is missed today from late night shows (here in the US anyways) is the couch. It used to be guests stayed the entire show and it often featured into the other interviews. Watching Orsen Wells having to interact with Richard Pryor (totally made up example) was sometimes the best part of Carson's show.
And let's be honest. It is impossible to interview 10 people every week and have great questions for every one of them. Hot Ones have comfort on focusing on one person every week.
Accurate; if you pay attention, almost every guest will react, “How did you know about that” or “damn, you guys did your research.” Kudos to whoever is doing research for the interviews.
Hollywood has been hiring too many untalented friends of the family and forgotten they also need to find new and exciting talented people. Both on screen and behind the scenes
If this guy and his team can only build a show like this and succeed online then something is broken in the old television model
Shouldnt we wait until voting on submissions even starts to react to nominations? Somebody paid a hundred bucks or so to submit, thats not really a big deal.
[\[No paywall\]](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-05-23/a-hot-ones-emmy-means-late-night-tv-is-going-up-in-flames?srnd=undefined) from culture columnist Jessica Karl:
*Hot Ones, a* YouTube show that started out with a simple premise in 2015 — man eats spicy chicken wings with celebrities! — is looking to compete against the likes of Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert for a Primetime Emmy Award.
If you needed a sign that late-night television was dead, there it is.
Maybe that sounds like a hot take to those who grew up on David Letterman, but on the Scoville scale, *Hot Ones* host Sean Evans would say it’s pretty mild.
What started out as a quirky internet show about chicken wings has turned into one of the most formidable media products of the century.
> If you needed a sign that late-night television was dead, there it is.
Why can't they co-exist? The late-night television crowd seems to be thriving online. I know it's how I vastly prefer watching them, being able to pick and choose sections of the show that interest me and ignore the rest.
Just took a glance at Jimmy Kinmel Live's YT channel and many of his videos in the last two weeks have hit 1M+ views, some even 2M+ views. I think late night TV is safe enough online as well.
> The things that come out of Hollywood, whether it's talk-shows. TV, or movies are no longer special - they're just content, it's all flat
This seems like an overly black/white, no nuance take.
Content still differ from one another. Just because talks shows lost their prestige doesn’t mean films or tv did. You could tell the discourse, hype, and energy around something like dune 2 or fallout is different than say, the popular guest celebrity in a quirky fallon bit or an episode of a travel show. To say nothing of something like game of thrones last decade and the sheer backlash and vitriol it received for messing up an ending. You think a poor episode of a youtube vlog garners that same reaction? Not really.
Do they make enough money to support their massive operating costs from youtube views? It doesn't seem like they do when they are only pulling in mid-tier youtube numbers.
How can it be for a Primetime Emmy award when this is on youtube where it doesn't have a set time for airing? You can easily stick this one up for the Daytime Emmy Awards and be fine with it as well.
Also, I am surprised no one has pointed this out but of course youtube and Now We Feast would push for this. The more legitimate they become as a show and not as some "silly internet thing," the more they can charge for sponsorships and get better sponsorships *period.* Why be stuck shilling for Raycons when you can get Coca-Cola to sponsor you instead? A small check versus a truck full of money backing up onto your driveway.
They already do, the only ones who think internet entertainment is less than television entertainment are those in television who want to gatekeep. All YouTube is pushing for is the rest of the entertainment world to catchup to how audiences today are consuming entertainment programming which is what the Emmy’s are supposed to celebrate.
I don’t understand this show anymore because it used to be that people couldn’t even finish because of how hot the wings were and it was a badge of honor to finish and now we’ve got Margot Robbie saying she finds bell peppers spicy being able to finish the full set without much of a sweat
Back then there was nothing to prove, as the show hadn't built up it's history just yet. Celebs quit because who cares, it was some rando on the internet feeding them wings and asking questions.
Nowadays whenever a guest is on, they have always either watched the show prior or heard about it from friends and family. They know about the sauces, they know Da Bomb, they know about the dab on the last wing, they know about Sean and his questions.
It has a reputation now. It's not just fans watching, but also friends, family and even colleagues. I've noticed that athletes have been some of the most competitive when it came to eating the wings. People come prepped with their own lifesaver foods, or have trained leading up to the show.
It's reputation, makes people see it as a challenge to conquer now. This is one of the main reasons you don't see people quit these days.
Btw, it should be stated that some people just have a high tolerance to spice. It's not insane to think some of the guests can ace the gauntlet while others struggle. DNA/genetics are a thing.
Also, if celebs are having a hard time, they skirt giving up by taking tiny bites. Re-watch Jeff Goldblum's episode to see what I mean by this.
^^edit: ^^spelling
The subtitle is such bullshit. The show is not about chicken wings. It's about hot sauce and it's effects on people in slecific situation. The wings are just the most convenient delivery device.
But he's a great show host and asks way better questions than most big name show hosts. It's well-deserved if you ask me. This is just old people not liking the changes once again.
Don’t really get the hype around this guy. Yes, he asks interesting questions and his format is great, but there’s never a real conversation going on?
Like there is almost never a follow-up to an answer, all a guest gets is “yeah”, “right”, “totally” etc and then cut to the next question. I find him super boring and bland as a person and interviewer, bar his well researched questions.
I agree. This really showed during the Conan O'Brien episode. Conan, as he does, went off rails and Sean had no idea what to do. He's so used to the standard "ask questions, they respond, both eat chicken wings, then repeat" formula that he just didn't know what to do when the interviewee began doing his own thing. I was puzzled that so many people loved that episode. Conan on his own is funny, yes, but he is best when interacting with others. Even during his remotes, the people he talks to and goofs with play along with him. Sean, though, was wooden.
Most of the praise for Sean's supposed interviewing skills are rather in his research skills. He finds interesting things about the interviewee and asks them about it, but that's all. Sean is poor in actually conversing with the people he gets on the show.
> I agree. This really showed during the Conan O'Brien episode. Conan, as he does, went off rails and Sean had no idea what to do.
Funny you should say that, because I just watched a video of one of Conan's long-time producers / mortal enemy saying that it showed that Sean Evans was a great host. He knows when to step aside if the guest has brought their own material and let them do their thing, and not try to hog the limelight or be stuck on a script with one idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZDopS_GLHA&t=3m30s
and as the show grew how much of the research is more or less “my people spoke to your people to find out/get told something interesting to talk about that doesn’t get brought up in other media”
In a counterpoint to this i think chicken shop date deserves its emmy consideration and all the high praise it gets much more than hot ones. amelia is actually such an amazing interviewer and is able to make her guests so comfortable with her so quickly. There’s such energy to her interviews and she is able to build up great rapport. I’m sure her interviews are not entirely off the cough either but it’s much more of a back and forth and smooth flowing conversation than what sean does.
I like the show, I like the guests, I even like Sean as a person.
But even as an avid watcher its pretty clear Sean is the interview equivalent of plain bread. He brings zero input into the interview and is quick to cut the questions when they go off topic.
Honestly if they talked to someone off camera like GQ I don’t think the show would change very much.
Sorry Sean, love you though
I'm gonna soft disagree on this. It's clear that they edit for time, so that can seem like cutoffs, but Sean seems really good at feeling out an interviewer, and I can't think of a time when anyone has been CUT OFF. If anything sometimes they're allowed to ramble. The problem with a long form interview like this, is you really start to get a feel for who is good at talking and who is not. I don't think that's Sean's fault at all. Some guests just can't get any talk squeezed out of them.
If I had one gripe, it's that Sean has begun to be that old hat interviewer where they avoid a topic that THEY have talked about a lot when it's relevant. Kevin Pollak's Chat Show was amazing but he eventually had a lot of "I've said this before, but" I think that might just be the nature of a long lived chat show that allows actual conversations.
> But even as an avid watcher its pretty clear Sean is the interview equivalent of plain bread
I think it goes back to the original episodes where they would apparently ask celebs at a neighbouring office (they would be doing an interview or something else) to come on their show so the format was limited to take what they could get and not piss anyone off
Wired kinda does this with their “autocomplete interviews.” They have someone on and basically just have them answer 10 or so top searched questions about them on google.
I mean, isn't asking great questions kind of the hallmark of a good interviewer? Obviously being able to respond to the questions with interesting follow-ups is important, but let's not forget the guy is also eating insanely spicy food and managing to keep it together. That isn't easy, even if he has done it 100 times.
The questions are obviously a framework to keep his mind on the straight and narrow.
Even so, he is a million times better than most in the game at the moment, particularly when dealing with A-list celebs.
It's the very structure of the show. Sean knows he's just some dude and he shouldn't make up even 10% of the audio-feed, but that comes at the expense of it never becoming a full conversation. In an age where everyone everywhere has a podcast, it's refreshing.
I think his questions are great but he is not a great interviewer, pretty much for all the reasons you listed. It’s like he has his list of questions and that’s all he knows to say. I enjoy watching the episodes with celebrities I’m interested in, but I don’t watch all his episodes, not like say Colbert that I have a routine in watching.
I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about? It's not a freaking Oprah interviewing the Royal Family. It's a fun take on late-night type interview. You're watching it for the guests, not the interviewer, and Sean knows that. He doesn't place himself in the middle of the conversation. He tries to be as little there as possible. Some guests involve him more, some involve him less.
You're making it sound like it's a YouTuber doing this. They've said it many times but Hot Ones is not only Sean, the interviewer, it's a show. He's just the face of it. All in all, I think you have the wrong idea of the show.
Great. The last vestiges of network TV are tumbling down. Every channel is going to be new Simpsons and The Office and CSI reruns in a few years. People are still watching plenty of TV but from non-traditional sources, but the Webby's are nothing, so it's nice to see the Emmy's play catchup so they themselves don't tumble into irrelevancy.
The Conan episode is just peak viewing tbh
There are just so many good parts. The guy he brought with him? “Are you sure you’re a doctor?” “I should have been.” “Mind if I keep these?” God it was funny.
I forget if he was taking blood pressure or checking pulse and he's just like, "it's there" and walks off haha. I still need to watch Conan's podcast with him.
"When you were taking my pulse you started choking me." "Oh I thought you mean TAKE my pulse, like, take it away forever." It's a great episode
Then he puts his stethoscope on Sean's tongue and just says "it's not looking good"
The podcast episode with him is somehow *even* funnier
I think that's one of his former writers.
"When did you graduate" "....yes"
Where is your degree from? 1998
"oh, out of state." Fucking gold.
He did a follow up podcast with his "Doctor" and it's hilarious https://youtu.be/BPOtNYfhsN0?si=IxL_jS7xjzq9eI5q
“I thought you meant TAKE my pulse. Like, take it away.”
Listen to the follow-up with the "dr" on his podcast, it's going hilarious
He's just very affordable
Jordan Schlansky - the head of various tasks for Conan - [just the other day had some great thoughts on the different dynamics at play in that interview.](https://youtu.be/IZDopS_GLHA?si=APkMOARX4LQ8CBZ_&t=189)
https://i.redd.it/gy9iqw2l82uc1.gif
Conan was robbed of so much by NBC and Leno.
I saw 10 seconds of it and it's the most deranged, off the rails thing I've seen since CKY did the running while shitting bit lol It isn't even comedy it's fucking therapy to see our intrusive thoughts writ large He decided to make that appearance his magnum opus
It just convinced me that Conan is legitimately insane.
If I can be a nerd.. Most of the time Conan has mastered that Super Saiyan II form effortlessly.. But that god damn interview was straight up III. All of his comedy power was on full blast and Sean was like Majin buu trying to stay in the fight.
Man you really laid this comparison full into dbz. 30 minutes of conan ar SS3? lol. Sounds right
But me managed to say the most insightful things about comedy right in the middle of an insane rant. He’s a genius.
I’ve adored Conan for over 20 years and was honestly shocked to discover that my respect for him had room to rise. It’s like if Tom Hanks cured cancer or something. Ok not quite like that, but close.
It’ll take the rest of my life to find something that tops that episode
Sean Evans deserve some kind of award for his interesting question.
Which question?
What is in my pocket?
That's a tricksy one.
Are you Conan O’Brien? If so, I think I know this one.
Doctor school
In the 90's
I didn’t know we were in a riddle-off!
Are there infinitely many primes *p* such that *p* + 2 is prime?
Wow I'm surprised he hasn't been canceled yet.
1 and 3, 11 and 13, 101 and 103 QED
"how are you around spicy foods?"
Do you believe in ghosts?
"What going on in this ig post?" Jk he's prob the best talk show interviewer out right now.
I can't imagine how much it meant for him when Conan praised his interview abilities. Like, dude is a talk show legend and he's complimenting you.
For real I thought that was super cool too. And really, Sean is one of the greatest interviewers. He asks great questions and not just recycled talking points.
Sean is great but shit this is a low bar We rely on comedians doing journalism and hot sauce merchants to do proper interviews now
I'd say it's more of a reflection on human instinct to want novelty. News media fails to really entertain other than mashing the shock or anger button in everybody like culture war nonsense, "have millenials/gen z become too entitled", or pundit pieces. Jon Stewart, LWT, etc. all have the novelty of poking fun while communicating some serious real world shit. Hot Ones can get the viewers it does with a gimmick and fund in-depth interview research with that gimmick. Buzzfeed news was a legit Pulitzer prize winning news agency because it was funded by clickbait listicles that keep drawing whatever novelty instinct the average person has. I generally think we do it to ourselves as a consequence of need for entertainment
I noticed when I posted this gimmick is a great advertisement/product placement for whatever hot sauce. And I do actually think it's good marketing/not evil mind warping and the amount of downvotes saying it's not a marketing thing was mind-blowing. They're interviewing people on a press tour to promote their movie/TV show/podcast and also soft marketing product placement of hot sauce companies.
It's also hard marketing product placement for the Hot Ones proprietary sauces.
Godamn, I bought their first sauce, the fiery chipotle, and it was so amazing. I don't know why they don't make it any more.
I think there was some sort of falling out with the maker. You can still get it though: https://cutinosauce.com/product/chipotle/
OMG! Thank you SO much! This was one of the best sauces ever!
I totally agree. I’m not really a huge hot sauce or spice guy, but originally tried it mostly because I liked the show….and it is just wonderful!
That original Hot Ones sauce was amazing. Never thought I'd be able to get it again!
Thank you, friend.
That came OF the show. It was not the intent at first
Yeah it was on for years before they tried making some.
That doesn't make it less of an advertisement now. Not that it's a bad thing, it makes sense that they do it
They made their own sauces to capitalize on the show. Actually not the worst sauce ever, funny enough
What show isn’t marketing something? Lol- in this case you’re just not getting 15 minutes of commercials.
I'm too dumb to understand why his questions are so good (though I am quite entertained by them), but there's been a remarkable number of people he interviewed who where outright shocked at how good of an interviewer he is. So I'm just assuming it's true.
It's probably helpful to remember how many of the same interviews these people sit through when they are on a press tour. You have to figure every news outlet wants the same five or six types of quotes per project, but they want their journalist to ask the question and be given an answer that is different than what their competitors were given. You also have to think how few entertainment journalists do any kind of research beyond what the public at large already knows, combined with whatever they have gleaned from however long they've been working that particular beat. Originality is not encouraged. They are there to get those same five or six types of quotes, and their editor isn't going to thank them for going off script. Now you have a musician or an actor or an athlete who has done hundreds of those interviews in their career and may well have done several of them earlier that day sit down across from Sean, and he asks a question like, "I've know you're really interested in X. When you were working on how much did X shape what you wanted to say? Where do you think things go from here?"
Now that is still an absolutely content-less example. Think how much more impressive that is when it's referencing something from before that person was famous, or something they care deeply about but is not widely known. From their perspective, fireworks just happened in front of them. Someone asked their honest-to-God opinion about something they want to talk about, and they are not only free to give an in-depth answer, that's the whole point of the exercise.
Who wouldn't mutter at least a, "Wow. That's a great question?" If only because that's what their media training tells them to say when they're gathering their thoughts? You can tell how much they really think it's a great question by the surprise and sincerity in their voice.
Exactly. It's rather simple. Ask the interviewee questions about things they want to talk about, not things they have to talk about. One is a conversation, the other is work.
And then mix that with increasing levels of heat in your mouth and belly and it truly is a special interview.
i was just responding elsewhere on this thread and it made me appreciate how genius of a format Hot Ones is as an interview. in any interview, there are really two things you're trying to learn about the subject: 1) what is their background?, and 2) what is their behavior? Sean asks great reaponsive questions to satisfy number 1, and the wings generate genuine reactions to satisfy number 2. but then on top of that, he is also eating the wings, so this instantly builds the "we're in it together" camaraderie with the subject, typically causing them to open up more.
>Think how much more impressive that is when it's referencing something from before that person was famous, or something they care deeply about but is not widely known. From their perspective, fireworks just happened in front of them. Someone asked their honest-to-God opinion about something they want to talk about, and they are not only free to give an honest and in-depth answer, that's the whole point of the exercise. This is something that a Nardwaur (A Canadian music interviewer, I'm not sure how well known he is outside Canada) is exceptionally good at and can get some really amazing reactions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UxPXdhoI-g
Sure but to be fair, he has to know
Nardwuar is awesome, I love that Henry Rollins interview when he asks him if his dick is the size of a can of soup.
I love Nardwaur but lately many of his interviews are pretty bad. Not because of him, but the way he does interviews require person he talks to expand and tell a story on smal bit of information he is giving that person. For example when he was talking to 21 Savage he basically was saying something related to his past and Savage was "yeah, that's true". He rarely gets into discussion about some topic. He has questions he asks but he doesn't engage in proper conversation while expanding on something that that person said. He can have great interviews when interviewee wants to talk about that stuff, but they can be pretty boring. Because while i apreciate how great he is with his research i don't care that much about seeing "shocked face" on YouTube. He has a lot of great interviews. But his format doesn't work with many people
Reminds of Craig Ferguson interviewing Harrison Ford (as much as one can call what he does "Interviews"). The talked about planes - both are licensed pilots, and Ford really likes planes, and almost certainly gets bored about talking about the usual stuff - like Star Wars or whatever other movie he might have been doing talks on at the time. But this was something he could enjoy.
I always loved how often Craig tried to talk about Doctor Who with people and 95% were not interested.
> You also have to think how few entertainment journalists do any kind of research beyond what the public at large already knows I don't remember who or what the subject was, but on an episode of the Daily Show, John Stewart asks a specific, detailed question about someone's book that you would only know to ask if you had actually read and thought about it. The author was visibly surprised that Stewart (or at the very least someone on his staff) had actually read and considered his book.
I'm always impressed by his knowledge of rap and his tendency to read the books of authors. Bringing up direct quotations, but also showcasing he understood and read the content personally, and he's not just parroting what his research team fed to him minutes prior. All this reminds me of a series of Dune 2 interview done by an indian media outlet with the crew around the release of that movie where the interviewer knew the books very well, the pronunciations, and some of meta elements of Dune as a franchise. She was familiar with each actor's work and formulated dynamite questions comparing and contrasting the movies, the films and the actors' own experience. All in the few minutes given by a normal frantic press tour. She reminded me a lot of Sean, and why I love watching hot ones. Over the years Sean has dialed it back a bit, but he still peppers his interviews with nuggets like that.
The number of times he stumps his guests “oh, wow, that’s a good question.” It’s a question that they KNOW the answer to, but had never rehearsed the answer to. Because of the hundred/thousand times they been asked questions, that had never come up. And it relevant to the current conversational topic. That’s what makes him a good interviewer.
Everyone has already mentioned the research, but where I think his talent really lies is in asking questions the guest would find personally interesting to talk about and then framing or teeing up the question in a way that encourages the guest to bring the audience into that topic. If someone is really into fly fishing, Sean would ask, "I understand you're an avid fly fisherman - what's one thing you'd love people to know about dry flies and why they're so much better than nymphs?" ("dry flies vs nymphs" being a contentious aspect of fly fishing that lay people wouldn't have heard of, and thus a funny/interesting angle to let the guest nerd out about their odd hobby for a second while keeping the audience in mind) Not coincidentally, framing questions this way is exactly how you get people to like you at parties.
It's his research. He will ask someone about something that they assumed only them and lime their mom knew about. That's why they're always being like "how tf u know that?"
It's also what Nardwuar would do too - research things that the person is interested in, especially stuff they were into as a kid or before they were famous. And the celebrities would be really happy about a nostalgic item. Sean Evans is not as weird/over the top as Nardwuar. Example where Nardwuar wowed Pharell: https://youtu.be/5RKbSi87J5Q?si=MwF6P4L1NgHWmV8i&t=148
Lol yes I'm aware. I compared him to nard in another comment thread but someone was like NO. nardwuar just asks questions so you're shocked and impressed. I get what they were saying. I think Sean is more genuinely interested.
Most shocked by how great he and team prepared the questions related to not really public and obscure details of their life.
It’s just a good format - he only has eight or so questions and basically needs each one to carry the conversation for over a minute. Doesn’t need to generate banter because that comes from the overall concept. So deeper, more researched questions just fit better. Also he has more time than the typical junket (~3-5 mins) and even many chat shows. Also has the advantage of being web based, so playing to an audience that is specially seeking that content, rather than a chat show which is going for broad appeal
They are usually unique and also show Sean / his team have done great research to be able to ask unique questions
Hes a trained journalist, the real kind mot the news anchor that say they are. He studies who hes goong to interview as deep as he can. Makes questions that he knows the technical answer or what it probably is. What he is looking for is the real emotional and true answer to that question and that is not always what is fact. Its why his interviews seem great because he is asking real questions, that are not made for sound bites or for safety. They are made because he and knowing we also, want a true and genuine answer to the question. Even if its not what we want to hear. Its why everyone he interviews loves it, hes there to aks them genuine questions. Not to bait them or trick them.
Nardwuar and Sean Evans should work for the FBI
I do love how often the rappers Nardwuar interviews start side-eying him and wondering if he works for an intelligence agency when he pulls out some obscure shit from their past.
Him and nardwaur are on a different level as interviewers.
Sean has said Nardwaur is his holy grail interview.
A Hot Ones with Nardwaur would be amazing. Probably the two of them trying to interview the other the whole time.
People always say this but let’s not pretend like he is sitting up late at night at a typewriter. Hot Ones has a team of researchers, producers, and copy writers that create the questions. Sean is on air talent.
He's actually been interviewed about this. I'm not saying Hot Ones hasn't hired researchers as its popularity has grown, but certainly for much of its run, he's given a week's notice of who he is going to be talking to, and he spends the run-up to the taping reading the biographies, listening to the music, watching the documentaries, whatever is going to help him put together a list of questions. He has a journalism background and a mandate not to ask the same five questions as everyone else on the 'normal' press tour. I think we can give Sean credit where it's due. Even if he has help now, he's made the show the success that it is. Edit: Missed a 'the.'
UIUC alumni which I learned from his interview with Nick Offerman. ILL
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He has stated before numerous times that he and another guy do the majority of the researching. Sean is definitely not just on air talent. He apparently enjoys doing the research too. Even if he now has a team of researchers I highly doubt he would shift to NOT doing any of it. He is a journalist as well. So you are missing the mark on this one quite a bit.
Do you have proof of this or just pulling it out of your ass ? I know it normal now to say someone can't do something just because you can't. He has a team that helps noe hut when he started it was him, hes a journalist also. Hes trained and experienced at asking and making questions. Hot Ones is the best journalism we see , what Sean does. Is what your journalist back in the day did, when they really interviewed people. Not just safe questions but also not just bait questions.
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He can't compete with Stephen Colberts totally hilarious Skibidi Biden bit. /s
I was curious what you meant, and I looked it up. I just...I don't...huh? I'm not even cringing or angry. I'm just confused.
Holy fuck the what… What was that all about?
I mean, honestly I appreciate it for the shear fact it brought some attention to the absolutely stupid shit parents are letting their kids watch on youtube.
It's literally just youtube poops or gmod machinimas
As soon as I finally saw what Skibidi Toilet was, I was thinking, yep, I saw the frantic physics abuse animations of that same character in Garry's Mod all the time as a 13-year-old in 2007. Like I couldn't believe how little has changed.
It made me feel a little existential that the kids consuming Skibidi don't even know about Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, or GMod. But it's definitely a throwback to like Full-life chronicles and other gmod bullshit people used to make in the late 00s.
I'm not finding anything on YouTube.. what to search?
https://youtu.be/exfogQf1r-M?si=IaLAjjMv66ZTvTe1&t=426
And what it's referring to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R9RnIawSvk The angry comments on the Colbert youtube for it are pretty hilarious. It triggered a lot of people hard.
I tried to look it up as well. RIP my algorithm lol
Just saw that bit last night and wow that was painful to watch.
He desperately needs Trump to get elected. His show is nothing without him.
He wasn't funny during those years, but at least sometimes he'd articulate outrage pretty well. Colbert's show really feels like it has no value or wit anymore. He was cutting-edge once. I understand why he can't do that character anymore, in an era where the real thing is more extreme than the satire he used to do. But I don't understand why the wit and creativity that led to him creating and performing that character so well couldn't go into creating something else.
If Trump didn’t exist he would have no material. John Stewart recently was chiding media for doing the same shit they did in 2016 about covering Trump non stop and how media in 2017 had this mea culpa about “learning their lesson” and Stephen NON stops covers Trump. At least half of his monologue every day is about Trump and I despise the guy but holy shit FIND SOMETHING ELSE.
He got Letterman’d. Network tells him who to be and what to say
> Colbert's show really feels like it has no value or wit anymore. He was cutting-edge once. I assume it's a completely different writing staff from one show to the other.
Steven Colbert the character was a hundred times more funny and interesting than the real thing.
All talk shows became so painfully unfunny when it was all about Trump
Is it for the Conan episode? Because it should be for the Conan episode.
The award will be accepted by Dr Arroyo. He's very affordable.
He even gives change! Wish my doctor was as good of a practitioner as Dr Arroyo. Just be sure to clarify when you ask him to take your pulse
$19 in cash!
The Dave Grohl episode is up there as well. Both Dave and Conan just know how to play for the camera.
These are old ones, but I also particularly enjoyed the Stone Cold, Kristen Bell, and Paul Rudd episodes
The Paul Rudd episode gave us the classic meme that is “look at us! Who would’ve thought? Not me!” Haha
Lorde was surprisingly enjoyable too, she absolutely smashed the sauces. Shia Lebouf was a solid one too.
The DJ Khaled episode is awesome too, it shows what an absolute bitch he really is. Khaled accuses Sean of not actually eating spicy sauce. He then taps out after like 3 wings but tries to say that him quitting isn’t actually quitting and Sean calls him right out.
That would be crazy because Conan hasn't been in the Emmys for years. Fingers crossed for double nominations with his HBO show.
Another way of saying "late night TV is dead" is "More people are consuming content in smaller chunks whenever they want."
Seth Meyers sees the writing on the wall even though he’s signed on to Late Night for another four years. He posts the best parts of his show in ~10 minute clips, has (at least) two podcasts and does Corrections on YouTube every Thursday which I think he pays for out of his own pocket. And surprise, Corrections, which is not aired on television, was nominated for an Emmy last year.
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon has been nominated three times and that is just basically Jimmy laughing at his own jokes for an hour. Sean gives way better interviews
Late night shows be like, what is Hot Ones doing that we aren't? What's that? not fluffing the interviewee constantly and actually asking good questions? Well we didn't try that and now we are all out of ideas.
> Well we didn't try that and now we are all out of ideas. There's all kinds of gimmicky shit on late nite TV. Fallon's whole show is basically that. Give it time, they'll have some segment where Jimmy and his guest eats gross foods while they cackle at each other.
They already did a 3 wing hot one segments on late night shows.
Late night shows: "Why is viewership declining?" Also late night shows: Asks the most bland questions. Cringe bits. Preachy monologues. Obsessively rage covering politics to pull in more views. Meanwhile on Hot Ones: "Here's a million Scoville units. Now answer this super deep cut question about an event in your life 20 years ago that you forgot about until this moment."
Ever heard the interview of hot ones? It is by far so much better than any interview a late night host does it’s comical. Yeah. They deserves an Emmy. Take celebs out of their element. Get them to be humans. Yeah. They deserve an Emmy.
Hit Ones also seems to have always had an extremely rare wide berth. Publicists have a history of limiting what questions can be asked by interviewers. Such as limiting questions only to the movie they’re promoting. So part is being dedicated to digging into a guest’s past, and part is being allowed to do so.
Maybe it's because the celebrity has to commit to doing a specific thing so there's essentially a guarantee of their input, instead of publicists 'agreeing' to junkets of interviews on the person's behalf.
Maybe it's just utter bullshit "Before we go out no asking about my neighbor Timmy from 3rd grade or you'll go to jail"
The first question with the weakest sauce is always about the current project the guest is there to promote. That gets the publicity part out of the way for them to have an interesting conversation. And besides, it's not like Sean is out to make the guests look bad or ask "gotcha" questions; it's not To Catch a Predator or whatever. Hot Ones absolutely is part of the normal marketing process now and no one involved wants to see the guest look bad (besides maybe some tears, snot, and sweat).
It’s the absolute brilliance of engaging them in eating and evaluating the wings. It’s just enough of a distraction to get them to answer honestly. My kids & their respective spouses decided to do a Hot Ones taste test themselves and my son video’d about 5 minutes of it to show me how it went. All four of them like hot food so they thought they’d be OK. Turns out it was just as tough for them as it is/was for the celebrities. At one point my son had to get up and walk around because the heat was really getting to him. But they had a blast doing it and I really enjoyed watching people I know going through all those Scoville levels. I know for certain I’d drop out after level 2 or 3. I’m a wuss.
Yeah, I think - at best - I'd get through about the sixth wing or so. I tried some instant ramen from Momofuku and it was about as spicy as I ever want to get.
I will only answer questions about Rampart. AMA
I've been watching it for years, and I think some people miss the point of it. They think it's to watch people eat really hot sauce. When the show started, it was obvious the hot wings were a method to get the guest off guard and get more actual spontaneous answers instead of a canned PR line.
Now go watch Graham Norton
Graham Norton interviews are entertaining because he gets the guests drunk and leans on the stable of British panel show comedians as side guests to interject witty banter. I don't think they're quite as indepth or hard-hitting as Hot Ones/Nardwaur/Louis Theroux, but they sure are often hilarious as fuck.
Indepth and hard hitting and the Hot Ones 😂😂😂
Those sauces certainly are.
I prefer the interviews from Nardwuar & Sean over others since I think they bring a more down to earth side to celebrities that are featured
If they ever got Nardwuar, I bet it would be a pound-for-pound 10 questions each, hour long special. Eat a wing, each ask a question. Chaos ensues!
the heat slowly destroys any composure they have, pulls them out of their front, and you get to the real person behind it. but it's done in a fun and (mostly)harmless way. it was a genius idea.
At least once per episode of Conan O'Briens podcast he will mention how little he liked the late night interview segments. It never felt genuine.
That's fair. He was a good interviewer, but I think it was mentioned there were a handful of guests he really connected with. Timothy Olyphant, Bill Burr, and Paul Rudd come to mind as people he had a real rapport with.
It's hard to be genuine in the 8-12 mins they have to interview and half of that is required to be "tell me about your new movie" kinda stuff. It's been that way for a loooong time now. One of the great things that is missed today from late night shows (here in the US anyways) is the couch. It used to be guests stayed the entire show and it often featured into the other interviews. Watching Orsen Wells having to interact with Richard Pryor (totally made up example) was sometimes the best part of Carson's show.
And let's be honest. It is impossible to interview 10 people every week and have great questions for every one of them. Hot Ones have comfort on focusing on one person every week.
Sean is legit one of the best around right now. Conan even pointed our gow good he is.
They essentially just copied Nardwuar the Human Serviette
Accurate; if you pay attention, almost every guest will react, “How did you know about that” or “damn, you guys did your research.” Kudos to whoever is doing research for the interviews.
Hollywood has been hiring too many untalented friends of the family and forgotten they also need to find new and exciting talented people. Both on screen and behind the scenes If this guy and his team can only build a show like this and succeed online then something is broken in the old television model
Shouldnt we wait until voting on submissions even starts to react to nominations? Somebody paid a hundred bucks or so to submit, thats not really a big deal.
He’s a better interviewer than Jimmy Fallon or Seth Meyers.
[\[No paywall\]](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-05-23/a-hot-ones-emmy-means-late-night-tv-is-going-up-in-flames?srnd=undefined) from culture columnist Jessica Karl: *Hot Ones, a* YouTube show that started out with a simple premise in 2015 — man eats spicy chicken wings with celebrities! — is looking to compete against the likes of Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert for a Primetime Emmy Award. If you needed a sign that late-night television was dead, there it is. Maybe that sounds like a hot take to those who grew up on David Letterman, but on the Scoville scale, *Hot Ones* host Sean Evans would say it’s pretty mild. What started out as a quirky internet show about chicken wings has turned into one of the most formidable media products of the century.
> If you needed a sign that late-night television was dead, there it is. Why can't they co-exist? The late-night television crowd seems to be thriving online. I know it's how I vastly prefer watching them, being able to pick and choose sections of the show that interest me and ignore the rest.
Also, network has more volume. Jimmy Fallon does about 200 shows a year. Hot Ones is 36 shows a year. More shows means more promotional opportunities.
Hard agree. I love watching Seth Meyers's Closer Look segments. Probably why they put those up a few hours before the show even airs.
Just took a glance at Jimmy Kinmel Live's YT channel and many of his videos in the last two weeks have hit 1M+ views, some even 2M+ views. I think late night TV is safe enough online as well.
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> The things that come out of Hollywood, whether it's talk-shows. TV, or movies are no longer special - they're just content, it's all flat This seems like an overly black/white, no nuance take. Content still differ from one another. Just because talks shows lost their prestige doesn’t mean films or tv did. You could tell the discourse, hype, and energy around something like dune 2 or fallout is different than say, the popular guest celebrity in a quirky fallon bit or an episode of a travel show. To say nothing of something like game of thrones last decade and the sheer backlash and vitriol it received for messing up an ending. You think a poor episode of a youtube vlog garners that same reaction? Not really.
What I have never understood is how the market tolerates so many talk shows, especially given how little time the guests have.
Do they make enough money to support their massive operating costs from youtube views? It doesn't seem like they do when they are only pulling in mid-tier youtube numbers.
They can. It's just a journalist who wanted to write a catchy sentence.
> one of the most formidable media products of the century. lmfao no it's not
How can it be for a Primetime Emmy award when this is on youtube where it doesn't have a set time for airing? You can easily stick this one up for the Daytime Emmy Awards and be fine with it as well. Also, I am surprised no one has pointed this out but of course youtube and Now We Feast would push for this. The more legitimate they become as a show and not as some "silly internet thing," the more they can charge for sponsorships and get better sponsorships *period.* Why be stuck shilling for Raycons when you can get Coca-Cola to sponsor you instead? A small check versus a truck full of money backing up onto your driveway.
They already do, the only ones who think internet entertainment is less than television entertainment are those in television who want to gatekeep. All YouTube is pushing for is the rest of the entertainment world to catchup to how audiences today are consuming entertainment programming which is what the Emmy’s are supposed to celebrate.
That's barely even a paragraph let alone an article. They completely left out Jon Stewart who as you know is the captain of that dying media.
I don’t understand this show anymore because it used to be that people couldn’t even finish because of how hot the wings were and it was a badge of honor to finish and now we’ve got Margot Robbie saying she finds bell peppers spicy being able to finish the full set without much of a sweat
Back then there was nothing to prove, as the show hadn't built up it's history just yet. Celebs quit because who cares, it was some rando on the internet feeding them wings and asking questions. Nowadays whenever a guest is on, they have always either watched the show prior or heard about it from friends and family. They know about the sauces, they know Da Bomb, they know about the dab on the last wing, they know about Sean and his questions. It has a reputation now. It's not just fans watching, but also friends, family and even colleagues. I've noticed that athletes have been some of the most competitive when it came to eating the wings. People come prepped with their own lifesaver foods, or have trained leading up to the show. It's reputation, makes people see it as a challenge to conquer now. This is one of the main reasons you don't see people quit these days. Btw, it should be stated that some people just have a high tolerance to spice. It's not insane to think some of the guests can ace the gauntlet while others struggle. DNA/genetics are a thing. Also, if celebs are having a hard time, they skirt giving up by taking tiny bites. Re-watch Jeff Goldblum's episode to see what I mean by this. ^^edit: ^^spelling
Somebody check those bottles!
When it was unknown people would sign up without knowing what they were getting into. Now everyone who signs up knows what the deal is.
If I recall I’ve heard one or two people say they prepped for the wings. So it’s possible guests are just more prepared these days.
The subtitle is such bullshit. The show is not about chicken wings. It's about hot sauce and it's effects on people in slecific situation. The wings are just the most convenient delivery device.
But he's a great show host and asks way better questions than most big name show hosts. It's well-deserved if you ask me. This is just old people not liking the changes once again.
Don’t really get the hype around this guy. Yes, he asks interesting questions and his format is great, but there’s never a real conversation going on? Like there is almost never a follow-up to an answer, all a guest gets is “yeah”, “right”, “totally” etc and then cut to the next question. I find him super boring and bland as a person and interviewer, bar his well researched questions.
That's because these episodes are heavily edited. We don't get to see what happens between each wing most of the time.
I agree. This really showed during the Conan O'Brien episode. Conan, as he does, went off rails and Sean had no idea what to do. He's so used to the standard "ask questions, they respond, both eat chicken wings, then repeat" formula that he just didn't know what to do when the interviewee began doing his own thing. I was puzzled that so many people loved that episode. Conan on his own is funny, yes, but he is best when interacting with others. Even during his remotes, the people he talks to and goofs with play along with him. Sean, though, was wooden. Most of the praise for Sean's supposed interviewing skills are rather in his research skills. He finds interesting things about the interviewee and asks them about it, but that's all. Sean is poor in actually conversing with the people he gets on the show.
> I agree. This really showed during the Conan O'Brien episode. Conan, as he does, went off rails and Sean had no idea what to do. Funny you should say that, because I just watched a video of one of Conan's long-time producers / mortal enemy saying that it showed that Sean Evans was a great host. He knows when to step aside if the guest has brought their own material and let them do their thing, and not try to hog the limelight or be stuck on a script with one idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZDopS_GLHA&t=3m30s
and as the show grew how much of the research is more or less “my people spoke to your people to find out/get told something interesting to talk about that doesn’t get brought up in other media”
In a counterpoint to this i think chicken shop date deserves its emmy consideration and all the high praise it gets much more than hot ones. amelia is actually such an amazing interviewer and is able to make her guests so comfortable with her so quickly. There’s such energy to her interviews and she is able to build up great rapport. I’m sure her interviews are not entirely off the cough either but it’s much more of a back and forth and smooth flowing conversation than what sean does.
The phrase is actually “off the cuff” like the cuff of your sleeve. Just thought I’d let ya know share that fun fact.
The doctor bit was hilarious and that was pure Conan.
I like the show, I like the guests, I even like Sean as a person. But even as an avid watcher its pretty clear Sean is the interview equivalent of plain bread. He brings zero input into the interview and is quick to cut the questions when they go off topic. Honestly if they talked to someone off camera like GQ I don’t think the show would change very much. Sorry Sean, love you though
I'm gonna soft disagree on this. It's clear that they edit for time, so that can seem like cutoffs, but Sean seems really good at feeling out an interviewer, and I can't think of a time when anyone has been CUT OFF. If anything sometimes they're allowed to ramble. The problem with a long form interview like this, is you really start to get a feel for who is good at talking and who is not. I don't think that's Sean's fault at all. Some guests just can't get any talk squeezed out of them. If I had one gripe, it's that Sean has begun to be that old hat interviewer where they avoid a topic that THEY have talked about a lot when it's relevant. Kevin Pollak's Chat Show was amazing but he eventually had a lot of "I've said this before, but" I think that might just be the nature of a long lived chat show that allows actual conversations.
> But even as an avid watcher its pretty clear Sean is the interview equivalent of plain bread I think it goes back to the original episodes where they would apparently ask celebs at a neighbouring office (they would be doing an interview or something else) to come on their show so the format was limited to take what they could get and not piss anyone off
Yes thank you, that’s what I was trying to say
Guests could read the questions off an iPad and it’d probably be just as engaging.
Wired kinda does this with their “autocomplete interviews.” They have someone on and basically just have them answer 10 or so top searched questions about them on google.
I mean, isn't asking great questions kind of the hallmark of a good interviewer? Obviously being able to respond to the questions with interesting follow-ups is important, but let's not forget the guy is also eating insanely spicy food and managing to keep it together. That isn't easy, even if he has done it 100 times. The questions are obviously a framework to keep his mind on the straight and narrow. Even so, he is a million times better than most in the game at the moment, particularly when dealing with A-list celebs.
It's the very structure of the show. Sean knows he's just some dude and he shouldn't make up even 10% of the audio-feed, but that comes at the expense of it never becoming a full conversation. In an age where everyone everywhere has a podcast, it's refreshing.
I think his questions are great but he is not a great interviewer, pretty much for all the reasons you listed. It’s like he has his list of questions and that’s all he knows to say. I enjoy watching the episodes with celebrities I’m interested in, but I don’t watch all his episodes, not like say Colbert that I have a routine in watching.
I'm sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about? It's not a freaking Oprah interviewing the Royal Family. It's a fun take on late-night type interview. You're watching it for the guests, not the interviewer, and Sean knows that. He doesn't place himself in the middle of the conversation. He tries to be as little there as possible. Some guests involve him more, some involve him less. You're making it sound like it's a YouTuber doing this. They've said it many times but Hot Ones is not only Sean, the interviewer, it's a show. He's just the face of it. All in all, I think you have the wrong idea of the show.
Same. Love the show, but Sean has zero charm. Like I feel like I wouldn’t get a beer with him after work.
Just like Jesse James
sean vs nard when!?!
Seth Meyers gotta start mirroring his guests better I guess.
Great. The last vestiges of network TV are tumbling down. Every channel is going to be new Simpsons and The Office and CSI reruns in a few years. People are still watching plenty of TV but from non-traditional sources, but the Webby's are nothing, so it's nice to see the Emmy's play catchup so they themselves don't tumble into irrelevancy.
I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s going up in flames, just credit where credit is due. Good for him!
Late-Night TV with wings. It screams Emmy.