Hot Goss is an E! News digital original series where two handsome hosts break down the hottest news in Hollywood… shirtless in a sauna! In each of two new episodes every week, co-hosts Eyal Booker of the Love Island UK franchise and social media personality Lonnie Marts deliver trending pop culture stories for global audiences while offering transparent love and relationship advice from their authentic perspectives. By blending sharp commentary, off-the-cuff reactions, and candid, witty banter- like two best friends blowing off steam- Hot Goss has reinvented the way viewers experience entertainment news, turning heads and headlines into must-see convos.
Our goal for the show was to develop a social-first series that informs and invites audience participation, bringing viewers in on every joke to laugh out loud and engage with our hosts. Whether they are dissecting the latest celebrity couple drama, analyzing red carpet chemistry, or calling out the Internet’s wildest breakup theories, the guys of Hot Goss deliver fast-paced, high-energy takes in a casual setting that’s easy on the eyes and enjoyable for everyone!
Our team initially brought the project to life through a series of talent auditions and chemistry tests to find our perfect hosts. Love Island UK’s Eyal Booker and influencer-host Lonnie Marts immediately stood out to us with their warmth, charisma, hilarious POVs, and captivating personalities. During pre-production, we purchased a real sauna as the set and added custom red neon lights to align with our theme. We then determined a three-camera production style, sourced trendy music tracks, and developed a unique graphics package. Once we began filming, we created the @ehotgoss Instagram and TikTok pages to post all of our content in collaboration with @enews (6 million+ TikTok followers; 25 million+ Instagram followers). In order to build out our online presence, our team created memes of footage stills and sourced behind-the-scenes footage for our sub-series called “Behind the Steams.”
The biggest challenge we have faced so far is the turnaround time between filming and posting a polished, timely episode for audiences to enjoy as soon as the stories break- but hey, that’s the nature of news! To overcome this challenge, we invited more of our talented team members of editors and producers to help consistently create two new episodes each week. As a brand, we were excited to add another social news series to our slate to connect with audiences in new ways. Some of our favorite comments we’ve received from viewers include: “Is this the new way to say the news??? Great idea,” “I can watch these two gossip all day,” “You make me like gossip like never before,” “I love these 2!!” and our favorite: “This feels like home.” The show has garnered enough success in its first season thus far that E! News executives have extended the show run through October 2025!
Since its October 2023 launch, the series has driven record high engagement for the brand, proving that audiences crave a mix of wit and relatability in their pop culture coverage. The catalogue of 31 episodes and counting has generated over 36M total views for the entire season, surpassing initial estimates of 7M views in the first 8 weeks. To date, Hot Goss episodes have averaged 1.2M video views, 14K engagements, and reached 870K users across the 31 episodes. E! News’ average users are up +165% vs other brand digital franchises, video views are up +650% above, and engagements are up +62%. Hot Goss reaches a larger share of Gen Z and Young Millennials (18-34) (42% of total reach) compared to E! News’ average reach in this demographic (30% of total reach) and 50% of E! News reach is Gen Z and Millennials (18-40).
Hot Goss's top performing episode "Does Kim Kardashian Have a New Boo?" has earned a staggering 3.1M video views, proving our audience relies on E! for celebrity relationship news, discoveries, and Kardashian-related content. Hot Goss has become a huge success for our team, so much so that it is now streaming on Peacock's mobile app under “Can’t Miss Clips!” We are very proud to submit Hot Goss for a 2025 Shorty Award and thank you for your consideration. Hot Goss is proof that at E!, we’re not just covering celebrity pop culture stories…we’re making them even more fun to goss about!
