Sean Evans Reveals Unexpected Method to His Deep Dive Questions on Hot Ones (Exclusive)

A hot topic, to say the least.

Hot Ones host Sean Evans attracts millions of viewers for his A-list celebrity sit-down interviews while taste-testing hot wings that increase in spice, and just as the sauce gets hotter, so do the questions asked.

Evans’ interviews famously evolve from surface-level conversation starters to in-depth, deep dives into the lives of the talent in the hot seat, which often impresses — and, at times, shocks — them that his background research is so thorough.

Viewers, too, have speculated on the question-creation process that goes on behind the Hot Ones scenes — so naturally, PEOPLE asked Evans, himself, exclusively about it when speaking with him at YouTube’s Upfront Brandcast on Wednesday, May 14.

And, well, simply, Evans’ answer may come as a surprise.

“You know what? A lot of the time, it’s just kind of staring at a wall for 10, 15 minutes until something comes to you,” the Hot Ones host tells PEOPLE exclusively on the red carpet outside Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall in New York City.

Despite Evans’ outward-facing confidence when questioning the likes of Ariana Grande, Kevin Hart, Margot Robbie, Shaquille O’Neal, Sabrina Carpenter and more of the biggest names across sports and entertainment, even he still can’t quite pinpoint the recipe to his success.

“We’ve been doing it for a long time,” he says, explaining, “But I feel like that’s always a hard Rubik’s Cube to snap into place. So I’m still just trying my best, you know?”

Evans says he doesn’t create the questions himself; instead, he leans on his inner — rather familial — circle who’ve been with him since the unconventional interview-styled show debuted on YouTube in March 2015.

“It’s actually the same core group as it was in season 1 as it is today,” he shares. “Like me, Chris [Schonberger], my little brother, Gavin, together, we just try our best.”

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Evans, who was named one of PEOPLE’s 2024 Creators of the Year, also credits his inquisitive personality for aiding him in the question-making process.

“I think I was always curious,” he says of himself looking back. “I was always someone who could talk to any lunch table in the cafeteria kind of thing and trying to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and figure out their story.”

He concludes, “I’m just people watching, but through the medium of asking questions.”