STARS ONLINE SHINE : INTERNET

INTERNET talk shows tap the flock of celebrities who prefer games to chatting.

''NOW, your press day is doing a lie-detector test, followed by trying out a new skill, followed by eating insane chicken wings,'' said Chris Schonberger, the creator of the talk show ''Hot ones''.

Sean Evans, the host of the show, added, ''Followed by building an Ikea desk.''

On ''Hot Ones,'' A-list celebrities eat increasingly spicy chicken wings. It is one of the most popular of a crop of new talk shows that shaken up the celebrity industrial complex.

The passive celebrity interview is over. Now celebrities must work for their press - or, at worst, they have to be interviewed by another celebrity. That's the case with ''Red Table Talk,'' a show hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, her her daughter, Willow, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, known on the show as Gammy.

These practices make sense in the social media era. Instagram, Twitter and other platforms are designed to let fans feel closer than ever before, and have allowed these celebrities a control over their personas that they did not previously have. So, the new shows do what they can to soothe - or rattle - celebrities into a state resembling authenticity.

''It does feel like a natural place that we had to get to in the age of social media,'' Mr. Schonberger said.

''Hot Ones'' lives mostly on YouTube. ''Red Table Talk'' airs on Facebook. It has hosted top-tier guests including Gabrielle Union, Alicia Keys, T.I. and Will Smith, who is also Ms. Pinkett Smith's husband. In lieu of a hook like having to eat outlandishly spicy food, its creators are constantly in search of ways to connect authentically with audiences.

This is a second generation of these new talk shows. Their predecessors included ''Billy on the Street'' [started in 2011], ''Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee'' [2012] and one of the earliest and the most influential of the major online talk shows, ''Between Two Ferns'' [2008].

That show was hosted by the actor and comedian Zach Galifinaakis playing an ignorant, patronizing and unexpectedly aggressive version of himself.

It laid the groundwork for the off-the-wall interview shows airing now, which all tend to elevate the host as a central element and have a willingness to grant celebrities an escape from rote questioning.

[This differentiates then from the heyday of David Letterman, the host who was known for leaning into the banality of the talk-show format.]

The so-called active celebrity interview also happens on the realTV, and much of its DNA evolved there. James Corden, the host of '' The Late Late Show,'' has found a successful formats with his ''Carpool Karaoke'' and ''Spill Your Guts'' series.

Jimmy Fallon has played games with his celebrity guests from the beginning of his run on ''The Tonight Show,'' in 2014, translating some games played with guests from ''Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.''

Gavin Purcell, the showrunner of ''The Tonight Show,'' who also worked with Mr. Fallon on ''Late Night'' and pioneered these formats there, said that he had found that many celebrities enjoyed playing games like charades and catch phrase more than they did sitting passively for interview.

The honor and serving of the latest developments in Talk Shows and the Social Media era, continues. The World Students Society thanks author, Jonah Engel Bromwich.