Popular YouTube series Hot Ones is making the jump to traditional TV.
WarnerMedia’s TruTV has ordered 20 episodes of a game show based on the Sean Evans-hosted interview show, where celebrities discuss their work and lives while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. The cable network has also licensed episodes of the talk show and will air the two back to back as part of a Hot Ones hour.
Production on the game show is set to begin later in the fall for a premiere date in early 2020.
“Fans around the world have tried creating their own versions of the Hot Ones challenge for years, but there’s nothing better than the real thing,” said Brett Weitz, general manager of TBS, TNT and TruTV. “We’re going to up the stakes and take this show to a whole new level of heat.”
Hot Ones: The Game Show, also hosted by Evans, will feature two-person teams competing through three rounds of pop-culture trivia while also eating hot wings. The winning team moves to the final round, The Ring of Fire, where they play a password game to get closer to the top prize of $25,000 — and the antidote for their burning mouths.
“Our Hot Ones interview show is all about deconstructing celebrities and making them seem like normal people,” said Evans. “With Hot Ones: The Game Show, we’re excited to flip the script and give everyday people the chance to achieve hot sauce glory.”
Hot Ones is part of Complex Networks’ First We Feast brand, whose YouTube channel boasts more than 7 million subscribers. The seven episodes of Hot Ones‘ current season, which began in late September, have averaged about 5.45 million viewers to date.
The game show will be produced by DIGA Studios, with Scott St. John (Match Game, Card Sharks) serving as showrunner. He executive produces with Evans, DIGA’s Tony DiSanto, Tommy Coriale and Nick Rigg; Michael Bloom for Bongo Pictures; and Chris Schonberger and Justin Killion for Complex Networks.
The shows will join a TruTV lineup that includes Impractical Jokers, At Home With Amy Sedaris, Adam Ruins Everything, Paid Off, The Carbonaro Effect, I’m Sorry and Tacoma FD.
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