10 of Hot Ones’ best and spiciest interviews

polygon.com:

For a number of years, the on-camera long-form celebrity interview was in a rut. Outside of some podcasts and public radio programming, the appetite for self-serious conversations about the entertainment industry had diminished, and most of the personalities that had once made them digestible were either dead or retired. But then came along a YouTube show called Hot Ones, [cut to two-shot] a show with hot questions and even hotter wings. Hot Ones rejuvenated the format by solving two major problems: a) getting the guest out of their own head by providing them with a distracting challenge and b) removing any whiff of showbiz brevity with the nature of the challenge.

If you are unfamiliar with Hot Ones, the premise is simple. It’s a one-on-one interview show where host Sean Evans asks guests remarkably compelling questions while both host and guest attempt to eat 10 increasingly spicy chicken wings. The spice level of each wing is measured in Scoville units, and to give you some idea of how spicy it can get, the first wing is measured at 1800 Scovilles while the final wing has over 2.5 million. For comparison, that final wing is roughly 500 times hotter than a jalapeño.

The questions posed are surprisingly thoughtful, often eliciting audible disbelief from the guest at the amount of preparation Evans has done for the interview. These moments alone would be enough to make the show endlessly watchable, but it’s the wings that add an element of unpredictability, requiring you to come back for more. Many guests cry trying to eat all 10, others panic, one guest pooped his pants, and a very elite few display minimal signs of distress. A guest could always be answering a question deceptively to make themselves look better, but