First We Feast’s Hot Ones has become an internet phenomenon in recent years, reminding audiences everywhere that even the most famous and glamorous of human beings still have capsaicin receptors in their heads, and will thus react poorly when exposed to chicken wings that have been doused in riot-strength-grade pepper spray. Now host Sean Evans is taking his tongue-inflaming act to TruTV, not just in the form of broadcasts of his now celebrated interview program, but also as a game show designed to allow regular folk to also just absolutely fuck themselves up on some of the most potently foul-tasting hot sauces around.
Per a press release from TruTV, Hot Ones: The Game Show will challenge teams of players to answer trivia questions and tests of visual acuity, all while also eating what we can only assume will be an ever-escalating series of wing-shaped tickets to Scoville scale hell. Each episode will culminate in a Password-style game that will force contestants to guess words in order to put out the circles of a literal ring of fire, with $25,000 in cash—and a glass of milk—waiting at the center.
In other words, this is the latest entry in the fine tradition of the “Let’s make people put up with some gnarly shit for money” school of game show design, a discipline that also includes such series as Fear Factor, The Chamber, Awake, Cram, Survivor, and so many different Japanese series that it’s become something of a cultural cliche. Evans, at least, isn’t forcing people to undergo 24 hours of sleep deprivation or actual torture, even if his contestants will likely be struggling to find something charitable to say about him after they’ve dabbed a jar of liquid pain directly into their mouths.
Hot Ones: The Game Show will air in an hour-long block on TruTV, alongside episodes of the original interview program. It’s expected to debut some time early next year.