Sean Evans, the person behind the hit YouTube celebrity interview series “Hot Ones,” was named one of Time’s 100 most influential creators of 2025. He was early to CTV, early to the interview-as-spectacle creator format, and among the first journalist-type creators to turn a YouTube show into a recognizable franchise.
He’s watched platforms and formats rise and fall, and has a front-row seat to how creator-led shows can shift culture — and command dollars.
Digiday sat down with Evans to discuss how the creator economy evolved, how interview formats and platforms have changed, what’s real versus hype around AI and CTV, and where the next wave of creator business is headed. Here’s what he had to say.
Paradigm Shifts Are Now Constant, Not Generational
Evans has lived through multiple shifts during his Hot Ones run, from the podcast boom to the CTV push to the rise of TikTok and livestreaming. He argues that media companies still looking for a “new normal” misunderstand the landscape, while creators are built for constant flux.
“I do believe that you’ll just see a Wild Wild West, just passing the torch — these paradigm-shifting moments that used to happen in media might be once a generation. People listened to the radio for decades, and then TV, live television, color TV, cable, the internet… But just in my time doing this show, I’ve seen about eight of these paradigm-shifting moments over the course of my career.”
Those moments result in eyeballs moving from platform to platform, with new generations of creators rising up to meet the moment. “There’s so much tug of war, push and pull. A new app comes out. A new platform catches fire. I’ve shot with Kai [Cenat] when he moves around, it’s like Justin Bieber moving around. Guys like iShowSpeed have become globally famous people. I have a job that didn’t exist when I graduated college, and these guys have jobs that didn’t exist even four or five years ago.”
Platform Distinction Is Collapsing at the Viewer Level
Having seen how much CTV and creator-led shows have grown over the last 11 years, Evans emphasized how hard it is to tell content apart across streaming platforms. “I don’t distinguish between YouTube and Netflix and HBO Max — these are apps that I just watch on my TV, I get my shows… There’s plenty on YouTube that is programming. Those lines have become so blurred. When you look at the cultural penetration, the ratings, the caliber of guests, they all rival one another.”
Interview Formats Have Exploded and Competition Has Caught Up
When Hot Ones launched in 2015, there weren’t many creator-led celebrity interview formats. Today, video podcasts and creative interview formats from Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” and the Kelce Brothers’ “New Heights” to traditional media outlets doing gamified celebrity content are everywhere.
“When we started, there weren’t that many interview shows on the internet and virtually no celebrity interview shows on the internet. It was kind of an event to have someone you usually see on the late-night couch doing an internet show. Podcasts were big, but not as big as they are now. Now there are all these unique formats, and celebrities are doing all these internet shows — because that’s where the audience is.”
With More Variety Comes More Competition
“It’s a much more crowded and competitive market now. The quality of interviews — there weren’t that many interview shows, and a bunch of them weren’t very good at all. Now there are a bunch of interview shows, and a bunch of them are quite good. The bar has been raised. A kid growing up now who has ambitions in broadcasting, I don’t think they’re dreaming of hosting ‘The Tonight Show’ — I think they’re dreaming of starting their own YouTube channel.”
Hot Ones Is a Salve for Empty High-Concept Stunts
Though Hot Ones may have spawned dozens of copycat interview shows, Evans stressed that at its core, the show was an attempt to conduct celebrity interviews that felt less like canned PR stunts. “The interview is the oldest form in the history of media. People ask me ‘What’s your next show?’ My next show is gonna be called ‘Just an Interview Show with Sean.’ We’re just gonna sit there and talk. With Hot Ones, there was a problem we were trying to solve. We did it to disrupt the PR-driven flight pattern of a celebrity guest. What if we had them eat increasingly spicy chicken wings? A simple, dumb idea, but there was a reason behind it.”
A Potential Return to Old Hollywood-Style Content
With platforms and media companies all trying to profit from the creator boom with big brand deals or production partnerships, Evans sees a potential pendulum swing coming. “Everyone is fighting for the same bandwidth of attention. The big studios and networks built on scale are having financial difficulties. Maybe instead of these giant media corporations, everything is more like a strip mall media company. Right now there’s endless ink spilled about how late night is struggling — too much overhead, too expensive. But YouTubers are doing shows at a fraction of the cost with twice the audience.”
He then wondered if things could swing back. “Maybe things get too low-fi and too real, that people crave an escape that’s bigger, brighter — lights, camera, action, Hollywood — and that makes a return because people get bored with the landscape of people in windowless podcast studios talking to each other.”
AI Won’t Disrupt Hollywood or Creators
Finally, what about AI? As deepfakes become a pressing issue across Hollywood and the creator economy, is Evans worried it will upend everything? Not really. “It’s hard for me to forecast AI’s impact on media. Deepfakes are crazy but it’d be more paradigm-shifting in the scam economy than in the media economy. I don’t know if it’s this huge disruptor to Hollywood or creators. So far, if there’s been any attempt, it’s kind of been a failure.”
