BuzzFeed Sells Production Company Behind ‘Hot Ones’ YouTube Show for $82.5 Million to Mitigate Debt

First We Feast was sold to ‘Hot Ones’ host Sean Evans, Crooked Media, and the Soros Fund, among other investors.

BuzzFeed screens in Times Square during BuzzFeed Inc.'s Listing Day at Nasdaq in New York City on Dec. 6, 2021. Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BuzzFeed Inc.

BuzzFeed has finalized the sale of First We Feast, the entertainment brand behind the popular YouTube talk show “Hot Ones,” in an eight-figure deal aimed at helping the company reduce its debt.

“The proceeds of the transaction combined with a partial prepayment of the Company’s outstanding convertible notes has the Company operating with a cash balance that exceeds its remaining debt,” BuzzFeed said in a Dec. 12 statement announcing the $82.5 million all-cash deal.