“Hot Ones,” is a pop culture talk show that has gained over 500 million views on Youtube to its 8.6 million followers. Host Sean Evans is known for asking his celebrity guests detailed questions while they attempt to complete ten rounds of consuming spicy hot wings.
Sion’s very own Journalism and Digital Storytelling class decided to do their own spin on the show while picking up some journalistic skills along the way. Freshman Anna Chelepis is one of the hostesses of the show, giving her a platform to show off her bubbly personality and energetic spirit.
“I wanted to be a hostess because you are truly interacting with the people you are interviewing and I also would rather be in front of the camera than behind it,” Chelepis said. “I really love this assignment because it’s a different type of journalism than just writing. You really have to do your background research to ask those important questions and be able to ask them in person in front of a big crowd.”
According to the New York Times, the show “Hot Ones” was founded in 2012 by Complex Networks in an effort to create a spark of pop culture
“People are looking for something to puncture the veneer of celebrity,” executive producer of Hot Ones Chris Schonberger said to New York Times reporter Maya Salem. “Interviews were becoming less experiential and gamified, and we wanted to change that.”
Schonberger and Evans claim their rise to populatirity was due to their production to the dedication to the craft of interviewing. Notre Dame de Sion’s Journalism teacher Valerie Crook tried to implement this craft of interviewing into her curriculum by teaching her students informed questioning.
“The main purpose of this project was to mainly learn how to not only ask a question, but a informed one by really doing extensive background research on the teachers we are interviewing.” Crook said. “I even had a journalism professor from Mizzou named Mark Horvit come in, and teach them so many techniques on how to research everything about a person from just learning some google techniques.”
After learning how to properly be informed and ask interview questions, students choose their school’s versions of celebrities to interview. They all finally decided on two veteran teachers Richard Shrock and Reynold Middleton.
“We decided to pick Mr. Middleton because he is one of the teachers who has taught at Sion the longest and he is super funny,” freshman hostess Grace Lutman said. “We picked Mr. Shrock because he seemed super excited about the idea and has traveled to so many places so we figured he would have lots of good stories to tell.”
Like every good production, the main stars are not just the ones in front of the camera. Part of this journalistic assignment includes a camera crew and a marketing team to produce and promote the show.
“I do love the idea of this assignment because it not only helps with interview skills but other parts of a production as well,” freshman camera crew member Avery Yahaya said. “Working on one thing as a whole class is very different though, we are learning to work together on a very large scale.”
Producing the show involves both sections and requires them to work together as a team, helping to build up their teamwork skills and improve their journalistic qualities.
“I would say it is kind of hard to work fully as a team sometimes,” freshman Ava Doyle said. “It does majorly help with building communication skills and honestly some friendships too as you get to know some people a little better than before.”
Doyle was also one of the members on the marketing and social media team, which her jobs included promoting and marketing the production.
“I think marketing plays a big role in these types of productions,” Doyle said. “If you really think about it, marketing is some of the main reasons why people even buy or watch anything now, so learning how to promote that is a great skill to have that is not necessarily journalistic but goes hand and hand.”
The productions were set for October and November as the class prepared their final interviews and marketing strategies.
“I am honestly just really excited to show everyone what we created as a class,” Chelepis said. “We have been working so hard on it and I think the school is going to find it super entertaining while we learn many journalistic skills along the way.”
