Beloved food/interview YouTube series Hot Ones, in which host Sean Evans asks musicians, comedians, actors and athletes meticulously researched questions while eating increasingly spicy wings with them, is leveling up to television.
truTV announced Wednesday that Evans will be taking his talents (and ingenious premise) to Hot Ones: The Game Show, a weekly half-hour competition series premiering Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 10 p.m. ET. Now, instead of public figures, it will be regular Joes and Janes taking on the hot wing gauntlet, and rather than answering interview questions, they’ll be challenged with trivia questions, duking it out to win a $25,000 grand prize.
The WarnerMedia-owned network is going all-in on Hot Ones, issuing a 20-episode initial order, on which Evans and company have already wrapped production, and pairing Hot Ones: The Game Show with 20 newly licensed episodes of the flagship web series (a production of Complex Networks’ First We Feast), which will air after Hot Ones: The Game Show to make up truTV’s new Hot Ones hour.
Sadly, it appears Hot Ones: The Game Show won’t feature the web series’ tried-and-true sauces—a press release promises “all new blazing sauce recipes from around the country,” seeming to suggest Da Bomb won’t make the cut. And truTV is really playing up the wackiness of the show’s competitors, who will include teams of “grandmothers, drag performers, firefighters, engaged couples, father/daughter pairs” and more.
Hot Ones: The Game Show’s trailer, on the other hand, zeroes in on the abundant agony to which these poor saps must subject themselves for a shot at Hot Ones glory, to an almost grotesque extent. We’re talking pouring sweat, sauce-smeared faces, crying and keeling over, their mouths untethered from their minds. Whereas Hot Ones is more a test of its guests’ composure, the game show is essentially a festival of wretchedness—one from which the long-suffering Evans, who has climbed spice mountain on countless occasions, is mercifully liberated.
Speaking of Evans (who also executive produces), you can always count on him to shoot you straight: “It’s just hot sauces, questions and, eventually, some heartburn,” he says of his new show.
For those who prefer a good, old-fashioned interview over a board of impractically spicy wings, Season 11 of Hot Ones debuts Thursday, Feb. 6, at 11 a.m. ET on YouTube. Catch the Hot Ones: The Game Show trailer below … probably not while you’re eating.
