Hot Ones Details They Don't Show On Camera

The setting is always the same: a celebrity and a host face one another in the arena. In a black-curtained limbo space, they're each confronted with 10 hot wings and 10 bottles of fiery sauce ranging from sweat-inducing to the flames of Armageddon. It sounds silly and maybe even a bit simplistic, but somehow, host Sean Evans and his team have turned "Hot Ones" into a YouTube sensation.

When the show made its low-key debut in 2015, the guests were mostly rappers with the occasional athlete thrown into the mix, but by Season 28, which was released in 2025, the A-list seemed to be gung-ho to face down the "wings of death." That season, celebrated actors and comedians like Kate McKinnon, Channing Tatum, Jason Bateman, and "The Bear" star Jeremy Allen White all submitted to the hot sauce sweats and survived. But most of what goes into the show happens below the surface or, in this case, behind those mysterious black curtains. So what is Hot Ones' secret sauce? Read on to discover all the Hot Ones details they don't explain on camera.

Back in 2015, Christopher Schonberger was working as a digital content creator Complex Media, and the company needed a food-related video property with no budget. This called for some out-of-the-box thinking. As his then-coworker Sean Evans recalled in an interview with The Verge, Schonberger came to him one day with a pointed question: ​​"What do you think of a show where we interview celebrities while making them eat violently hot chicken wings?" To some, that may sound like a terrible idea. Thankfully for "Hot Ones" fans, Evans was up to the task. By the time the two friends had fleshed out the concept, an entertainment juggernaut was ready to be born.

Ten years later, "Hot Ones" is still streaming, and so are the eyes and noses of the guests who sit across from Evans with their platters of violently hot wings. Everything about the show works — maybe because producers trusted their original concept. From the beginning, Schonberger wanted to find a format that blended pop culture and food, while still being entertaining. In an interview with Inc., he explained: "We followed our creative hunches, including our feeling that most celebrity interviews are boring — they are far too transactional and rarely break through the veneer — and that eating spicy food is hilarious." He was right. You can't hold your soon-to-be-released album up to the camera when your hands are dripping with hot sauce.

Different people tolerate spice differently, but there is a scientific way to quantify how much heat a sauce is packing. The Scoville Scale for peppers is like the Richter scale for earthquakes: the higher the number, the greater the danger. To find that number, the concentration of capsaicin in a pepper is measured and a score — the number of Scoville Heat Units — is assigned. These numbers can reveal a lot about the heat level of the wings on "Hot Ones."

In "Hot Ones" Season 28, wing number one is coated in Dawson's Coffee Date Hot Sauce. This particular hot sauce has a Scoville score of 1,800. That's somewhere between a bell pepper with a score of zero and a poblano, which scores 1,000-2,000 on the scale. Tabasco has a score of 2,500, so wing number one should be very tolerable. But that's just the gateway wing.

Wing number ten is also a gateway, only this time it's the entrance to the fiery pits of hell. Season 28's ultimate wing is doused in Hot Ones' The Last Dab: Thermageddon Hot Sauce, with a score of 2,693,000. Thermageddon is fueled by Pepper X, the pepper that dethroned Carolina Reaper as the hottest in the world. Invented by chili pepper breeder Smokin' Ed Currie in 2023 after years of development, Ghost Peppers and Scotch Bonnets were soon left in the dust. Part of the untold truth of "Hot Ones" is that the atomic bomb-level kick that comes with wing number ten is a major reason guests are required to sign a waiver.

You might assume the "Hot Ones" production team fries up their own wings before each episode, but it's not a show about chicken. When they need wings, the team hits up a number of preferred 24-hour wing joints in New York, Los Angeles, or wherever they happen to be filming. But who exactly makes the wings on "Hot Ones"? It's not always the same spot, but Shorty's is a frequent flyer when the show is in Manhattan. Shooting can begin as early as 8 a.m., which means 50 wings have to be bought, prepped, and ready to go ridiculously early. There have been guests who've requested only flats or only drums, and the show honors their wishes.

The wings are bought plain, preferably battered and fried, so there's more surface area for sauce. "Hot Ones" applies the sauce itself, and executive producer Domonique Burroughs has developed systems for keeping the wings fresh and warm for interview time. When it comes to saucing the wings, there's a dedicated Wing Tossing Station at the studio. In an interview with IndieWire, Burroughs shared: "A pro tip is to use two bowls when tossing your wings in the sauce — one bowl for the wings and another to cover the top — this prevents splatter." Good idea. You don't want Thermageddon in your eyes.

What happens when a guest isn't a fan of the humble chicken wing? No problem. "Hot Ones" doesn't discriminate against the chicken-averse. They pivot. Natalie Portman, Kate McKinnon, Maisie Williams, and Ricky Gervais are just a few of the guests who've been strict vegans or vegetarians. Producers have found a variety of workarounds, including seitan for McKinnon. It didn't seem to blunt her experience, considering that, on sauce number six, she gasped: "I feel like anyone could abduct me right now, and I would let them." Michael Che opted for fish sticks, out of personal taste, while Billie Eilish ate meat-free wings and killed the heat with soy milk.

Paul Rudd is one of the rare celebrities who made it through all ten wings with no chaser — no water, no milk, no ice cream. He's not a vegetarian, but he went for cauliflower wings, and, in a feat of true bad-assery, Rudd mixed all ten sauces together for his last dab. In a super on-brand move and a "Hot Ones" first, committed carnivore Bear Grylls ate steak tips. Meanwhile, The Rock hasn't yet appeared on the show, but he's been asked, and, according to Bloomberg, he replied with the question: "Would you be willing to do, instead of wings, grilled salmon strips?" No doubt.

If you're considering a home version of the "Hot Ones" challenge, you'll want to stock up on digestive aids beforehand. Just ask Jennifer Lawrence, who told Andy Cohen, "I passionately threw up after — violently ... My stomach gave me like eight minutes to get upstairs and then, whoa" (via X, fomerly known as Twitter). If that sounds fun to you, crack on. Be aware, though, that in some of the most unhinged moments on "Hot Ones," guests have made mad dashes for the restroom and even passed out from the challenge. 

Do the wings of death present any real physical danger? Yes and no. In the good news department, eating capsaicin releases dopamine and feel-good endorphins, and it can even boost your metabolism. On the other hand, eating capsaicin can cause nausea, vomiting, heartburn, acid reflux, and other unpleasant symptoms. Some people are allergic to the stuff, which can be life-threatening. And when it comes to all things hot peppers, we cannot say this enough: don't get it in your eyes.

After trying Hot Ones The Last Dab Experience, one Redditor's girlfriend had a gall bladder attack that sent her to the hospital. And Eddie Huang, who ate wing number ten first, made the simple but revelatory pronouncement: "I was worried about pooping. Now I'm worried about my life" (via YouTube). If you're still on the fence about attempting your own last dab, we should probably warn you that pepper breeder Ed Currie named his company PuckerButt.

Soul-searing wings notwithstanding, "Hot Ones" interviews are more NPR than ET. This is by design. Evans prepares for about a week for each guest. He told CNN: "I really like to marinate in the art of someone's work. 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 may be the one who asks the questions, but he doesn't come up with them by himself. Schonberger and Evans' brother Gavin do their own deep dives into upcoming guests before helping to construct the interview. That's why, in any given episode, you're not going to hear the celebrity trot out the same tired talking points about whatever project they're shilling. Evans asks about that at the top, then moves on to the good questions. He's a genuinely curious individual, and his guests appreciate it. Take Jason Bateman, who commented on Evans' probing, original inquiries, saying: "Your journalistic rigor is impressive" (via YouTube). Conan O'Brien agreed. Before succumbing to the heat in a particularly wild episode, he gave Evans props, saying: "Thank you for doing your research" (via YouTube).

Each season, there's a new line-up of sauces, and they inevitably get hotter. In 2015, the hottest sauce, Mad Dog 357, came in at 357,000 on the Scoville Scale. As we mentioned earlier, season 28's final sauce clocks in at a homicidal 2,693,000 Scoville units. To make the annual selection, Schonberger brings in expert Noah Chaimberg, who owns Heatonist, a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, hot sauce boutique, three words you've likely never heard in that order. The two assemble an array of sauces, somewhere between 20 and 30, then they start the process of tasting. They do this without the vehicle of a wing. It's just hot sauce on a spoon, with no relief. Chaimberg admitted to The Verge: "We're sitting there crying, taking notes."

Once the selections are made, there's an official announcement. In a fit of daring, Evans doesn't try the sauces in advance. When he sits down with the first guest each season, he has no idea what the wings are going to do to him. So far, he hasn't fainted, lost the power of speech, or worse, but as the sauces get hotter each year, so does the risk to the host. That's entertainment.

At one time, telling Charlize Theron her press junket would include a YouTube interview that could be subtitled Survivor: Flaming Tongue Edition would have sounded like a prank. These days, though, "Hot Ones" is a direct conduit to fans of all ages, and the show's booker, Kelly Weber, works hard to make sure the slate is diverse. Evans told The Wrap: "Overall, philosophically, in a season I would like to have a variety of personalities, different people in there from different walks of life."

In the planning stages, the team looks at what's coming up, from sports to music to movies and beyond, and, from there, they put out feelers. After 28 seasons, though, potential guests are now calling them. Big names want to come on the show, and there have been plenty, although the list of the best "Hot Ones" interviews of all time is hotly debated, pun intended.

Even so, Evans admits that there are a few personal white whales out there, guests he'd love to interview. They include one of his idols, Howard Stern. As for the fans, they're clamoring for Keanu Reeves, but they shouldn't hold their collective breath. Reeves himself laid it out in a Reddit AMA, writing: "I love chicken wings, but I don't want to eat really spicy chicken wings, especially not in public, and certainly not with the consequences in private." We feel you, Keanu.