The main purpose of interviews in magazines, television shows and social media for years has been to learn more about celebrities and bring in more publicity. In the past, interviews have had a basic format of simply asking questions and receiving answers. Companies have realized that they need to up their game to gain views, so they have put a spin on the questions, come up with new games, bring in special guests and put on new personas to make their interviews more entertaining.
“Chicken Shop Date” is a British interview show on YouTube that is hosted by Amelia Dimoldenberg. Dimoldenberg takes celebrities to chicken shops where she puts on an awkward and flirtatious front to make her interviews humorous. She came up with the idea for a youth club magazine and then expanded the idea to YouTube. Her first episode premiered on March 14, 2014, with Grime MC, Ghetts. Since then, she has had many stars on her show including Jennifer Lawrence, Ed Sheeran and Jack Harlow. Her interviews have proved to be very successful, and she has been invited to interview at several award shows in the past such as the Golden Globes.
Bella Burnett (11) is a fan of “Chicken Shop Dates” and watches them regularly.
“I love watching Amelia interview celebrities,” Burnett said. “She is super funny, and all of her guests seem very comfortable and happy to be there.”
“Wired” is a magazine company that focuses on how technology affects the culture of today’s world. They use this focus in their interview show, “Wired Autocomplete Interview,” where they get their questions from the top Google searches on their guest. The guest peels away the paper on the board to reveal the questions the world is asking the most. They often interview celebrities whenever they are starring in a new movie or TV show, released new music or have recently gone viral.
Buzzfeed is a digital media company that strives to make the internet a more inclusive and creative environment where they inspire their audience to live better lives. They bring their creativity into their interviews where they bring in puppies and kittens for their guests to play with. They do this to make their guests happy and to engage the fans with the adorable animals.
Allie Pedone (10) enjoys watching Buzzfeed animal interviews.
“I like the puppy and kitten interviews a lot,” Pedone said. “Watching them always brightens my day because the animals are so cute.”
“Hot Ones” is a YouTube interview show where celebrities answer questions while eating chicken wings that get progressively hotter throughout the interview. It’s a game to see how high a guest’s spice tolerance is and how they react to different wings. The most watched episode is Gordon Ramsey’s interview sitting at over 100 million views. In this interview, Ramsay told host, Sean Evans, about the keys to making a great burger and other kitchen secrets. Once he reached the eighth and final wing, Da Bomb, Ramsay pulled out all the stops to try and cool down such as eating donuts and limes. His determination and high notoriety made it a hit and he came back for the holiday special in 2021.
Frances Calvert (10) thinks that recent interviews have become increasingly authentic with creativity.
“I think that the more creative interviews bring out the celebrity’s personalities more,” Calvert said. “It’s nice to see them be more engaged in what they are doing instead of just answering questions.”
