End of “Chicken Shop Date”: Zoom in on the fried chicken

The blonde hair fits perfectly, the make-up emphasizes her blue eyes. Amelia Dimoldenberg is a little overdressed for the date. She sits down at the small red and white snack table, in front of her there is a display advertising “Crispy Fried Chicken”, she looks past the camera and exhales. “I think we need to talk.”

After 12 years, the comedian is ending one of Britain's most popular interview YouTube formats. 3.45 million people follow her channel. “Chicken Shop Date”, the idea of ​​meeting celebrities in the British equivalent of a kebab shop, is considered a pioneer for many current YouTube and Tiktok formats. What is the charm of “Chicken Shop Date” and why is it so successfully copied?

“When I was 17 years old, I had the fantastic idea of ​​finding the love of my life in a chicken shop,” Dimoldenberg wrote in her farewell letter on Instagram. Its format began as a column in a London youth club magazine. Three years later she filmed her first YouTube video. An interview with British grime rapper Ghetts. In the first few years it was mostly rappers from Great Britain, but in recent years the format has expanded to include actors, athletes and internet personalities from the UK and USA.

“I was a very unrealistic teenager, I thought it would take six months before the big stars would sit with me,” she says in a recent radio interview. And you can feel this self-confidence from second one. Dimoldenberg organized the first YouTube videos alone. From concept to implementation. “I was working on a music video shoot at the time and asked the cameraman if he could help me film my interview after work,” she comments on her first chicken shop date.

The first videos have exactly this DIY charm. In the interview with Ghetts, Dimoldenberg's microphone is not on, her voice echoes off the walls. It's dark, a little shaky. At the age of 20, Dimoldenberg invented a YouTube format that years later helped her achieve enormous success in the entertainment industry and has hardly changed to this day, 12 years later. She meets her “dates” in chicken shops, eats fries and nuggets and asks her guests private questions without batting an eye.

Ghetts: “I love cats, they jump so high.”

Amelia: “What would you say your type is?”

The format has become so successful over the years because no one manages the balancing act between professionalism and flirtation as well as the British. She endures awkward silences, always has a good comeback, ignores the confused looks of her guests and cuts in shots from the chicken shop at the most inappropriate moments: sometimes the fries are bathing in hot oil, sometimes the employee is posing with his arms crossed in front of his kitchen. No music, no apparent connection.

Dimoldenberg himself insists that it is not a journalistic format, but rather “the opportunity to find the love of my life in a chicken shop.” The best thing is to see when a date plays along, gets involved with her and the akwardness and lures Dimoldenberg out of her role. Actor Andrew Garfield, for example, apparently took the date more seriously than Dimoldenberg himself. “We had some tension in our previous meetings,” he says. “So much so that you started avoiding me,” Dimoldenberg replies dryly.

For fans, it's the moment to see the star from a supposedly more private side. How do they behave on dates? Actor Paul Mescal giggles like a little boy when Dimoldenberg calls him “sad and sexy.” Singer Billie Eilish is annoyed when she finds out that Dimoldenberg wants to go on another date afterwards.

Instead of adoring the posters on the wall and the pictures online, “Chicken Shop Date” gives fans the feeling of getting closer to their idol at eye level. Wouldn’t everyone like to be on the other side of the table? Deep in conversation with a star? Lasciviously nibbling on a nugget?

The format received unexpected hype from the British-American journalist Louis Theroux, who raps a song from one of his documentaries in his interview. (“My money don’t jiggle jiggle”). A DJ duo remixed the rap and it became one of the most successful memes of the year on Tiktok and Instagram.

Tikotok was also crucial to the success of “Chicken Shop Date”. The format reached a new audience through excerpts shared on social media. According to Dimoldenberg, one of the most popular videos, a date with US rapper Jack Harlow, was the beginning of her success in the USA. Harlow charmed her from the word go, it was like watching a boy in the schoolyard teasing the girl he secretly liked. Dimoldenberg, completely in character, didn't bat an eyelid.

H: "You know those little libraries on the side of the street where you take out a book and put another in? I've never done that, but I like to walk by."

It is these very unplanned insights into the lives of the stars that viewers love about unusual interview formats. Dimoldenberg was not the first to understand this. The entertainer James Corden drove through London with stars and sang their songs with them. “Carpool Karaoke” is a must-attend event for many celebrities. There are also interview formats in the USA that are more of a challenge than a press event.

Sean Evans eats chicken wings dipped in various hot sauces with his guests. Singer Sabrina Carpenter even thought her “Chicken Shop Date” was about the sauce show “Hot Ones”.

In Germany it took a comparatively long time for the first imitators to publish their videos. Both Youtuber Mirella Precek with “Café Cringe” and comedian Marie Lina Smyrek on Instagram tried to copy the dry, ironic style with their interview formats. The “Take Me Späti” format even takes over the entire idea of ​​a date with celebrities. But nothing comes close to the original. Dimoldenberg remains an exceptional talent, cool and extremely quick-witted, no matter who is sitting in front of her.

Paul McCartney said to her during his “date” that she could also ask him about his album. Of course, the comedian also had the best comeback: “Sorry, it’s not that kind of show.”