Scott Evans is living in his ‘you’re right about me’ era

After 11 years at “Access Hollywood,” Scott Evans is his own boss for the first time, and he’s betting on the community that bet on him.

For more than a decade, Scott Evans has been the one asking the questions. On red carpets, on “Access Hollywood” and, most famously, in his own backyard, he has made an art of getting our favorite stars to exhale. So when the tables turn, the creator of “House Guest” and “Game Night” arrives exactly as advertised: warm, funny, and honest. 

Settling into a cozy corner in his home adorned with Black-owned artwork, Scott Evans begins our conversation apologizing for a slight delay triggered by the unexpected arrival of a gardener just as he was due to log on. And for a man whose backyard doubles as one of the most welcoming production sets for celebrity interviews, it counts as a real work emergency.

“The garden is part of the party,” he shared, revealing just how important the landscape is for his Webby-award-winning YouTube series. “The garden is part of the party.” 

So much so, that in the minutes leading up to a celebrity guest’s arrival, Evans can sometimes be seen walking the yard, shears in hand, clipping whatever imperfections may wander into the shot. 

“There is no job too big or too small,” he explained. “I want it to feel special. I want it to be special for every single guest that comes to the show.”

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That care has carried Evans through a career he first predicted in the third grade. Born on the East Coast and raised in Indianapolis, he climbed from local access television to national news to 11 years at “Access Hollywood,” which aired its final episode in September after three decades. In our conversation, barely a week removed from the finale, Evans is reflective and, for the first time, entirely in charge.

“This is really my life, and not a life that was given to me,” he says. “This is a life that I have earned, I’ve worked for, I have been determined, while at the same time recognizing that it is so out of my control…I met every opportunity with an amount of preparation and sincerity, and was met with serendipity and providence that I believe is at work in my life every single day.”

Now, with this newfound freedom, Evans is asking himself: “Who are you gonna be now that there are no barriers to what it is you want to do? I’ve never been my own boss like this.”

And his audience has been helping him answer that question long before he even knew “Access Hollywood” would be canceled. Earlier this year, Evans took “House Guest” on the road for a three-city tour to Chicago, New York, and Atlanta, and every date sold out before a single guest was announced. The message, as he heard it: “If you’re coming here, we’re betting on you. Our money’s on Black.”

And even when circumstances tested his faith, community still provided a shield for him. For the New York show, Evans recalls his main guest canceling less than 24 hours before showtime, and that a phone call to Don Lemon saved the day. That night, as he stood on stage looking into the sold-out crowd at City Winery, he remembered getting emotional. 

“I was like, damn, y’all are really making me feel like I am somebody up here,” he recalled. “Four people shouted out at me, ‘You are somebody,’ and another group of people was like, ‘I know, that’s right. We love you.’ And it was like, then people are standing on their feet, cheering for me, and I burst into tears… You would have no idea what it took for us to get to just be able to share this space.”

The power of community has been following him since he was a child. His mother worked for the Indiana Black Expo, the cultural exposition whose slogan was “Working Together Works,” and he was, as he puts it, “raised within it.” It was during one of those Black expos that a 15-year-old Evans interviewed Erykah Badu, who invited him to sit on her dressing room floor, shoes off. In addition to foreshadowing the unique intimacy Evans would go on to foster with culture’s biggest celebrities, the “House Guest” creator recalls the songstress giving him instructions he would never forget. 

“She was like, ‘You better protect this,'” he recounted, “And I was like, ‘Well, no, we got tapes. It’s gonna be safe.’ She was like, ‘No, you better protect this…Your questions are so different and insightful, and I’m having fun answering. I don’t love to do an interview. I’m having fun having this conversation with you and watching you maneuver this interaction.’ And when we ended the interview, she pulled me aside and she was like, ‘I’m serious. You need to protect this, and you need to have people around you. Keep people around you who feed this.’” 

“It was the first time I felt someone was like, I see this, and if you don’t see what this is, let me help you,” he continued. “So, community has always been closely tethered. I’ve always been closely tethered to one, my own, but also the significance, the impact of what working within a group can be…community is everything as far as I’m concerned.” 

And since then, Evans has been protecting the spark the “Bag Lady” saw in him by using and not squandering the gift he’s been blessed with. However, not everyone was as discerning as Ms. Badu. He recalls the AP literature teacher who told him he wouldn’t graduate despite him having enough credits to finish early, the fifth-grade math teacher who placed stereotypes on the Black students in the classroom rather than helping them. 

“I have, for a long time, operated with a feeling of needing to prove people wrong, needing to achieve, needing to do and be so that you could be wrong about me … and I have moved into a place where you’re right about me. It’s a totally different kind of fuel.” 

It is, he admits, the first time he has put it quite that way, connecting the dots between these various experiences. However, just as he remembers the adults who challenged him, he remembers the people, the Black women who poured into him. Evans is quick to credit the “incredible Black women” like his mom and teachers like Miss Smith, Miss Brooks, and Miss Cook, “who poured into me the good that I’m still running on.”

“When I’m celebrated by a Black woman, it feels like that,” he shared, explaining how that reverence continues to show up. “It’s that deep for me. It’s not just applause.”

It explains why praise from Black women lands the way it does, his awe that former Vice President Kamala Harris came to his home, ate the pizza he made, and told him the work mattered. So when he thinks about his platform and the career he’s built, though he acknowledges his work, he cares more about the impact when it’s all said and done. 

“What I want to sit in is not my own ability, not my own opportunity or my own excellence, but in the way that that excellence and opportunity and ability illuminate or encourage others to find their own,” he explained. “Owning it to me means that there are people who are affected, impacted positively by what we’re doing, what we’re creating, and that some of that in some way is measurable…I just want to do good work.”

Getting ready to enter a new decade of life in December, Evans is just getting started. A second series, “Game Night,” now runs on alternating weeks, a bigger tour is planned for 2027, and he promises more announcements before the year is out. 

“I will not let you down. I’m going to prove you right,” he told audiences. And when reflecting on his future, Evans’ message to his future self is:  “I hope that you are still proud of the person you’re becoming, 10 years from now. And I know that I’ll still remember why we’re doing this.”