I have no idea why the guy gets so much praise, he’s downright terrible at interviewing and makes his show so uninteresting.
A good interviewer is conversational and doesn’t sound scripted, but Sean Evans sounds like he’s interviewing someone for an entry level management position at a big box store. He does ask good questions sometimes but his delivery and interaction with the guest and failure to follow up on their responses is just annoying.
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I’m sure it’s hard to be a good interviewer when your whole body is on fire.
I’m convinced he’s an actual robot.
Do you really have to be any good when your interviewee can’t answer questions after 3-4 bites?
The point of the show is to go through a list of obviously pre written questions then laugh at the guests discomfort. It isn’t a freakin Inside the Actor’s Studio where they are going to get all deep and have an hour long conversation.
I don’t think you understand the premise of the show.
He’s actually really good at it. His questions are not the generic ones that you hear all the time, he does his research really thoroughly, and many guests have been surprised by it and recognized that he’s a good interviewer. Also, he lets the guest talks without interrupting.
Don’t you think it might be the product of doing an interview whilst eating hot wings and that a slightly “off” interview is the desired product?
He’s very well researched and generally very much in line with the celebrities PR angle… doesn’t really ask uncomfortable questions and always makes everyone look great.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but there’s something there definitely. A great interviewer will be able to take guests out of their comfort zone while not being too confrontational and disrespectful. I also agree on your point where he lacks the conversational skills
The people being interviewed generally think he’s an absolutely brilliant interviewer. They seem to comment on it nearly every episode.
He has good questions but no charisma
I think the semi-early-days (after he found his rhythm, before the show super blew up) was when he was at his best. Nowadays there’s too much money involved; too much sponsored shit and too many “recurring segments” to make it fit into a marketing formula. It has lost its edge.
Couldnt agree more, his questions are the most basic, chat GPT questions imaginable, dude is a total hack completely underserving of the praise he receives
>failure to follow up on their responses
I’d say that’s more to do with the way the show is edited.
Addit: Most interviews that follow a similar format, are absolutely scripted. Maybe it’s his cadence that bothers you.
I agree. Though I love him, he’s very robotic. His questions are good and his research it thorough. Watching one episode is fun. But if you watch a couple in a row you really get a sense for how robotic he is.
This opinion comes up all the time on here
He asks interesting questions. That’s it. But that’s just good research, which is done by a team at this point. That, in and of itself, doesn’t make him a good interviewer because one of the key traits of a good interviewer is the ability to ask organic follow up questions and speak extemporaneously, which he never does. Like, never. Is he capable of it and just can’t because of the show’s format? Maybe. The only skills/traits that we can realistically say he posseses is good delivery and an affable demeanor.
Go back and watch the Noel Gallagher episode. Poor Sean can’t keep up, and has absolutely nothing witty or interesting to respond, which is a skill of a good interviewer and part of what I believe the OP is driving at. So Sean responds with a trite “you’re telling me”. And he says it so many times that at one point Noel throws it back in his face: “yes I AM fucking telling you”.
His praise as an interviewer isn’t the questions he asks (although he does ask some good questions). It’s about how he connects with all of his guests. How many of the celebrities start off very hesitant, maybe quiet, but by the end they are laughing or crying together? That’s why he’s a good interviewer.
A good interviewer isn’t based on the questions they ask, but rather the quality of answer they get. And that quality in Hot Ones, is also dependant on how they handle the hot sauces, which adds another layer.
Take my upvote. He’s awkward, boring, and scripted. But the questions are usually really interesting and show a different side of celebrities, unlike shallow and repeated questions you get from other interviews.
That’s the point of the show. He’s just a normal guy trying to get normal answers from non-normal people.
The show has started losing its magic lately, and I’m not sure if Sean is to blame.
The stuff from a year or longer ago is still pretty good, but more recently they’ve been doing straight up commercials in their episodes and scripted bits, it just doesn’t have the same vibe anymore and I stopped watching.
The “Pepsi break” was the final straw for me along with the interviews beginning to feel robotic.
I’m on your side, buddy. He comes across as someone who is trying too hard to be a good interviewer as opposed to just naturally being good at it.
Please, do not compare him to Nardwuar, they are miles apart. Nardwuar’s style is to get so personal and in depth that he gets a natural, emotional response from his guests which lets you peek behind the curtain and see a glimpse of the person, not just the celebrity. Evans asks interesting questions, sure, but the response he gets is “good question”.
You don’t feel a connection between the guest and Evans, he’s too robotic.
I actually agree with this. He asks great questions, but when the celebrity his responding, he’s no longer very clever. Often times he leaves really interesting stings unpulled..
It’s always funny that proper unpopular opinions get so much hate.
Good job posting what this sub is for!
100% agree
I agree tbh
I don’t think he’s a bad interviewer, but he’s not a conversational one. He’s a scripted, set number of questions based interviewer, which is intended to tie into the wing eating and the effects of the capsaicin on the guest.
It’s an interview style that is closer to the traditional talk show or late night format (which a lot of people may not be aware of–the big late night shows actually pre-script their questions, and even assist the guests in coming up with funny quips and comments as well on an as-needed basis), and divergent from the popular “conversational podcast” style of interview that is more popular now.
But I don’t think it makes Evans bad, he just is doing a specific type of interview with a very specific premise, and within the confines of those parameters I think he does a good job.
I mostly agree. He’s good compared to the average talk show host (do those still exist?), but he simply asks “deep cut” questions that his team provide and hopes the guest is inspired to produce an interesting answer. He isn’t conversational, charismatic, or intelligent about it, and so each question hard cuts to the next with some “gee, that’s hot” to cover the lack of follow through. It worked when the show was new and it caught guests and audiences off guard (“hey, this silly youtube sideshow is actually trying!”), but the schtick is tired now.
I posted this comment in this same sub for the same post idea:
“Yes this is an unpopular opinion! But I would encourage you to watch Hot Ones from the early seasons and see how he progressed into his current version of “Sean Evans, Host of Hot Ones”. In the beginning he had a hot head personality and challenged (argued with) his guests at times and it felt adversarial and defensive at times. He’s learned to become the antithesis of a focal point in the interview and let the guest take the spotlight, that’s by design. In the same way that he mirrors his guest’s drinking (won’t touch the milk until they do), he will mirror the same emotions and some sound bites so it’s less of his individuality in the episode. He’s turned into a good host by– I heard this comparison somewhere else– being a canvas for the guest.”
I see what you mean re: his tone of voice, but I will say dude is prepared. Routinely asks questions that surprise his guests because it’s some deep cut knowledge from an obscure part of their life
A genuine unpopular opinion! Nice job OP
Completely agree! I never got the Sean Evans hype and actually find the whole show quite boring. Even as a hot head myself! I think the guests like him bc he asks questions they haven’t gotten before, on topics they actually want to elaborate on. But from an audience perspective I couldn’t care less about that stuff 9/10
Congrats on a truly unpopular opinion!
Agreed. He doesn’t have much personality and isn’t very funny/entertaining.
A good interviewer gets people to open up and drop the act, his manerisms and the format are very good at acomplishing that.
You don’t have to like the guy or his content, but even Conan on video praised Sean Evans. I don’t know many other interviewers that are well liked by mainstream celebs other than Nardwuar
Take my upvote because boy do I disagree!
Finally a real unpopular opinion. Sean Evans is one of the best interviewers i’ve ever seen. So much so that most of his guests are taken aback by his ability to be a great conversationalist who asks interesting questions even when under the duress of hot sauce pain.
Well, that sure is an unpopular opinion. Upvote.
He’s eating death wings wtf are you talking about
It’s Hot Ones. Not 60 minutes.
I love the show. Sean & the team always do some good research – it’s almost like Nardwuar in that regard.
It would go off the rails pretty quickly if it were just a casual conversation, imo. The format also minimizes the animosity between him & the guest.
A more conversational interview is better for a podcast. Sean needs to get through all the wings and the questions, plus introduce each hot sauce in like 25 minutes.
I’m personally not the biggest fan of his personality but I still think he’s really great at what he does, he doesn’t interrupt, he asks very specific and well thought out questions, and he’s just overall very friendly and easy to talk to
Sorry but if you think that, you don’t know what a good interviewer is.
>A good interviewer is conversational and doesn’t sound scripted
No, not at all. Interviews are about asking a series of questions. They’re inherently not very conversational at all. If you want to watch a conversation, watch a podcast or something.