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Library/Series/Hot Ones
Grade A23 sourcesHIS-01295

Hot Ones

Series · 2015 · Notable

40Editable slideCertificate

The wing-interview show's sauces made $7 million in a year, its producer reported.

Original · First We Feast / Chris Schonberger / Sean Evans
Clip · First We Feast on YouTube
Clip · First We Feast on YouTube
The Hot Ones season 20 sauce lineup.
HEATONIST
Official Season 31 ten-bottle sauce lineup, sold by HEATONIST.
HEATONIST / First We Feast
Hot Ones: The Game Show logo.
Complex
Maya Rudolph as Beyoncé in SNL's Hot Ones parody.
Complex / First We Feast
Wings, fries and sandwiches from the Hot Ones delivery menu.
Grubhub / PRNewswire
Sean Evans interviewing John Mulaney over a row of hot sauces.
Variety
A Hot Ones hot sauce bottle with wings.
HEATONIST / PRWeb
Sean Evans with The Last Dab sauce.
First We Feast on YouTube
Conan O'Brien on Hot Ones.
First We Feast on YouTube
Sean Evans in 2021, BRUNCH; Commons labels CC BY 3.0, with licence review pending.
BRUNCH / Wikimedia Commons
Idris Elba reacting to a hot wing, a widely shared meme.
BuzzFeed News

Spread Score

How it works
Reach30Contagion45Breadth80Velocity0Longevity4040

Numbers

Seed to observed peak
3.9 years
Mar 12 ’15 to Jan 30 ’19
Platforms
7
Started on YouTube
Origin
Seeded
Entertainment

Mechanics

  • ChallengePrimary
  • Underdog
  • Platform jump
  • Press loop
  • Scarcity drop

How it spread

Trace the origin

Hot Ones began on YouTube with Tony Yayo, and Key & Peele brought a Reddit breakthrough. Reaction clips spread on X; sauces, retail tie-ins and television followed. Its producer First We Feast sold for $82.5 million.

Observed peak within the documented measurement window; not an all-time maximum.

Wikipedia views · Google searchesOct ’14Nov ’15Nov ’16Nov ’17Oct ’18Sep ’19Jun ’20Oct ’21Jan ’23DecOct ’24Observed peakYouTubeRedditPressRetailTVOpen webX
YouTubeRedditPressRetailTVOpen webX

13 more events on this chart

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Timeline (16)

  1. March 2015

    First We Feast / Sean Evans seed · Mar 12 ’15

    First We Feast released its first Hot Ones interview, with rapper Tony Yayo.[1][2][3]

    Open the first post ↗

  2. April 2016

    Reddit readers platform jump · Week of Apr 28, 2016

    Key & Peele's episode reached Reddit's front page and passed a million YouTube views within three days.[4][3]

  3. October 2016

    Los Angeles Times press · Oct 20 ’16

    The Los Angeles Times profiled Evans and the celebrity wing-interview format.[5]

  1. commercial · 2017

  2. backlash · Dec 11 ’17

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Why it worked

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Pro opens the playbook, all 14 sourced numbers and 23 sources. Start with a free account.

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Origin
Seeded
Sector
Entertainment
Region
US
Reported figure
—
Evidence
Grade A

Spread the same way

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100 sold

1 / 8

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New cases, every week

How the next thing spread, the week it does.