The format involves Evans and his guests eating ten chicken wings, each prepared with a progressively hotter hot sauce. Evans states the show's taglineat the beginning of each episode: "The show with hot questions, and even hotter wings." The first sauce presented is relatively mild such as Sriracha, which has a rating of 2,200 Scoville units. The final sauce, Hot Ones' own The Last Dab, has a Scoville rating of 2,000,000+. As per "tradition", the guests are encouraged to put a minuscule amount of The Last Dab on the final wing; they are told this is not required, but most guests opt to do so even when already struggling with the heat of the previous wings. After each wing, Evans asks his guest an interview question. As the wings get hotter, the guest typically begins to display the effects of eating the spicier wings and the interview becomes less focused on the guest and more so the struggle to finish the wings. The guests are also provided glasses of water and milk to counteract the effect of the wings. The standard show is Evans and one guest eating ten wings each, but in some episodes where there are two guests, only five wings are given to each guest. A guest who successfully finishes all ten wings is given the opportunity to promote their upcoming projects. Guests who fail are still afforded this opportunity but are also added to the show's Hall of Shame.
Show history
The show was created by First We Feast Founder Christopher Schonberger. Schonberger cites Alexa Chung's quirky interview show Popworld as the inspiration for the show. The show is hosted by Sean Evans.
On September 26, 2017, First We Feast featured an episode of Hot Sauce remedies, using sauces from Hot Ones, starring Sean Evans and Michael Stevens from Vsauce
Note that in earlier seasons, the number of sauces was cut in half when there were multiple guests on the show. The Scoville units listed below for Season 1 are based on Scott Roberts web Scoville scale whereas the following seasons are based on the units displayed in the episodes, which sometimes results in the same sauce having different ratings in different seasons.
On February 18, 2020, a spin-off titled Hot Ones: The Game Show premiered on truTV. Hosted by Evans, the series pits two pairs of players against one another for a chance to win up to $25,000. The main game is played in three rounds, using wings that have been cooked in hot sauces whose Scoville ratings increase from one round to the next. Players are not provided with any water or milk to reduce the effects of the wings, but are given buckets in which to vomit if necessary. In each of the first two rounds, the players begin by eating one wing apiece and the host asks three toss-up questions open to all. The first team to buzz-in has five seconds to respond; a correct answer awards them money, while a miss gives it to the opposing team. Questions are worth $100/$200/$300 in the first round, and these values double for the second. In the third round, the players begin by eating one bite of a wing. The host reads a series of clues, and players may buzz-in at any time to identify the subject being described. Three puzzles are played, worth $1,000/$2,000/$3,000; the team that scores on each puzzle must then take another bite. In this round, if a team misses, the opponents must give the correct answer in order to score. Both teams keep their accumulated winnings. The higher-scoring team advances to the "Ring of Fire" bonus round, in which each member must drink a shot of mixed hot sauce at the outset that includes a sauce with a Scoville rating of 2 million. One member is then shown a series of words and must get his/her partner to guess each one by describing it. The clue-giver may pass ona word at any time. If the team can solve five words in 60 seconds, their winnings are increased to $25,000 and they are given large milkshakes to relieve the effects of the sauce and wings they have eaten.
