Fortnite Friday is an American talk show, hosted by live streamer ConnorEatsPants. First aired in 2020, the show centers around Connor interviewing celebrities, political figures, and internet personalities while playing the video game Fortnite Battle Royale. The show is broadcast irregularly, airing live on Twitch with no set schedule. Notable guests include political figures such as California governor Gavin Newsom and expelled former congressperson George Santos.
Format Fortnite Friday sees a celebrity guest join Connor, rarely showing his face during an episode, to play Fortnite Battle Royale while he conducts an interview. Throughout the show, Connor intersperses legitimate questions in between comedic moments. The gaming aspect of the show has been noted as an unserious backdrop, allowing Connor to catch guests off guard with challenging questions. He admitted to "prefer people that aren't- that don't play a lot of Fortnite" because of skill-based matchmaking. Public comments from viewers using the Twitch chat have been noted to influence topics presented by Connor in real-time.
Sports Illustrated writes that whenever a guest is considered controversial, Connor starts his interview more slowly before getting increasingly "heavyhanded" and attempting to make them "slip". Aftermath described him as never breaking his character, with his questioning unpredictable. Rather than preparing with notes, he tends to create mood boards.
Appearing on various podcasts, he has claimed to want "packaged episodes" uploaded onto his main Youtube channel. Even though he had "gotten the work started on a couple" by January 2025, the first apparent upload since those comments would be over a year later in September 2026 with guest Hunter Biden.
Background
Connor, known online as ConnorEatsPants, was born on August 26, 1999, and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He has said that an improv class he took while attending middle school gave him transferable skills to streaming. Known for gaming content, Connor began streaming consistently in 2017 and didn't publicly reveal his face until 2019. Although credited as being a member of the Dream SMP, a Minecraft roleplay server, as early as 2019 he expressed a desire for his growing audience "to watch even when I'm not playing Minecraft" since it bored him. In a 2020 discussion on brand discovery, Connor revealed his decision that summer to end reliance on SMP fans for stable viewership. He also claimed that Fortnite did not do well for Youtube until he put another popular streamer in the thumbnail. By mid-2021 he openly discouraged fans of prior SMPs from associating him with the groups.
The idea for Fortnite Friday originated as a repeating bit within Connor's community during the COVID-19 pandemic after he had previously experienced "failed attempts to get in touch with Soulja Boy and his team" for customer service reasons. In 2020 Connor streamed himself playing Fortnite with the rapper after the idea of doing so became an inside joke. In a contemporary interview, Connor described apprehension at the idea of reaching out to anyone for collaborations until the beginning of that year, when other streamers began to contact him. For the next few years he would continue joking about hosting other celebrities, such as an existing May 2022 podcast episode where he purports to have told Jason Nash "Fortnite Friday, it can happen." By 2023 he stated that he wanted to be "smart" with collaborations to ensure viewers on his stream weren't "here for maybe other people." The show officially started up again in November of that year for reasons Connor implied were related to the release of Fortnite OG.
Although he is represented by a talent agent, most of the guests that have appeared on Fortnite Friday were contacted directly by Connor, usually done publicly through Twitter. Described by Aftermath as a "snowball effect," the popularity of the guests that have appeared on the show has slowly escalated from minor internet personalities like Jacob Sartorius and Baby Gronk, to major politicians like Gavin Newsom.
Guests +List of Fortnite Friday guests Guest Year Notes Soulja Boy 2020 Rapper; played Valorant as well Tubbo2021Youtuber; unplanned collaboration, sarcastically referred to as "the first guest on season 2 of Fortnite Friday." Scott Wozniak 2023 YouTuber; credited as Scott the Woz. Jacob Sartorius Singer and internet personality Saltydkdan 2024 YouTuber; credited as Elmo Baby Gronk Internet personality; interview interrupted by father Mckenna Grace Actress and singer; was surprised by prerecorded questions submitted by online creator Jschlatt, conservationist Maya Higa, and twin duo Sinjin Drowning Lil Pump Rapper; unknown "Raymond" could be heard on mic, referred to as his "manager" by Connor. Later on other voices appeared which Pump referred to as his "girlfriend" and "mom". Joe Exotic Media personality; did not actually play Fortnite, Connor created an account called "Santa Rosa Police Department" and had a viewer play George Santos Expelled former U.S. representative; see below Zachary Levi Actor Anthony Fantano Music critic and internet personality; cut off by Connor due to differences of opinion on Sabrina Carpenter Adrian Dittmann 2025 X user rumored to be Elon Musk; see below A.J. & Big Justice Internet personalities Bhad Bhabie Rapper and media personality; Connor asked about her experience at Turn-About Ranch then alleged similar experiences at another camp, later elaborated on in a podcast episode. Bhabie also disputed alleged comments by previous guest Soulja Boy (unclear when) on any sexual relationship between them, and claimed inappropriate behavior by rapper lil mosey when she was 15. Soulja has denied prior claims by Bhabie. Colby Covington Mixed martial artist The Rizzler Internet personality Ashley St. Clair Conservative influencer and author; despite being promoted as "Elon Musk's Baby Momma", Clair refused any question about the man for lack of "liberty to discuss". Prior guest Rizzler returned for a game without audio connection to Ashley. Gavin Newsom 40th Governor of California; see below Haliey Welch Internet personality; tech assistant could be heard on Welch's microphone at certain points. Connor's prior Twitch emote controversy came up when discussing Hailey's emotes. Varis Gilaj2026Internet personality; credited as ASU Frat Leader. Shared Mic with roommate who asked Connor to show his face briefly. Connor had no mood board created due to the last minute invitation. Ironically, Gilaj would be late to the stream. Nick ShirleyConservative influencer Mitchel MussoActor and singer; appeared to have forgotten his own prior statements on reshooting an episode of Hannah Montana when Connor inquired about it, resulting in both repeatedly asking the Twitch chat for assistance "fact-checking" claims made later on. Hunter BidenArtist and son of former president Joe Biden
Notable guests George Santos George Santos, the former congressperson who represented New York's 3rd congressional district, appeared on Fortnite Friday on October 4, 2024, playing under the screen name 'MrSantosNY'. Santos had originally asked for a $6,000 dollar appearance fee, but later waived it in exchange for Connor agreeing to appear on a future episode of Santos' podcast. Connor claims to have pretended a contract between him and Twitch prevented the payment. During the stream, Connor wore a Buffalo Bills skin adorned with O. J. Simpson's number. Topics discussed on the stream include abortion, gun control, the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and current House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson. Discussions unrelated to U.S. politics included favorite childhood Pokémon. The stream with Santos would be nominated for Best Streamed Collab at the 2024 Streamer Awards. Over a year later Connor would tell Santos that he felt "vindicated" with his perspective on the second Trump Presidency.
Adrian Dittmann An account on X was operated by a man rumored to be Elon Musk after his voice appeared to sound similar to listeners on the platform. This rumor gained traction based on a prior deposition Musk gave admitting to have used alternative accounts "for testing." With the username "AdrianDittmann", Dittmann came on the show January 3, 2025. During the stream Connor repeatedly made reference to Musk, implying certain answers given by Dittmann supported the rumor, such as their apparent shared enjoyment of Diablo 4. Topics discussed include H-1B visas, Musk's former partner Grimes, and the 2025 Las Vegas cybertruck explosion. Shortly after the stream an investigative report by Maia Arson Crimew and Ryan Fae would come out proving that Dittman was someone else, though Connor would still express varying levels of skepticism about Dittman's relationship with Musk in different public comments.
Gavin Newsom Then-governor of California Gavin Newsom appeared on the show on October 3, 2025, playing with the screen name 'CAGovXL'. Newsom criticized fellow Democrats for not performing as well as Republicans on mass media, implying his appearance was an attempt to conduct outreach towards the youth, and certain outlets speculated if it was groundwork for a presidential run. On the show, he relayed an interaction with Trump where he was asked how he liked the nickname 'Newscum' during their last call, which Newsom described as childish. After Connor asked him about Kamala Harris' book 107 Days suggesting that he had initially avoided endorsing Harris, Newsom responded that he had confronted her in text about the statement. Other topics discussed on the stream include transgender athletes, the Gaza war, Newsom's support for the two-state solution, artificial intelligence, home ownership, and the acquisition of Electronic Arts by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Newsom said that he was "on [his] hands and knees" multiple times during the stream. Connor later publicly stated that he wanted to be particularly "mindful" of his interview with Newsom due to how "high-profile" he was, so as to not "let him get off the hook" for certain policy decisions.
Reception Sports Illustrated notes that Connor's "viewership usually spiking during his interviews", indicating that the format "has a draw" compared to his typical content. In 2024 his episode with Joe Exotic was considered "gotcha journalism" by fellow Twitch streamer Northernlion. After his interview with Newsom, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker called Connor "the number one political journalist right now", though Andrew Bracken of KPBS considered it "tongue-in-cheek". Connor considers the increase in political guests has made it harder to get traditional celebrities on his show.
Different outlets have characterized Fortnite Friday as part of a larger trend, such as Dexerto writer Connor Bennett who brought up prior examples of celebrities collaborating with Twitch streamers while playing Fortnite. More often it is contextualized it within a narrower scope of politicians appearing on Twitch steams to win over Gen Z as a demographic. Connor himself has clarified that the show is mainly comedic and that despite many of his guests having associations on the political right, he himself is "more left than right" and wants to highlight "that side of humor, where a lot of times it's kind of labeled as, like, the side that can't be funny."
GQ magazine called Fortnite Friday "a Gen Alpha Hot Ones" while interviewing QTcinderella, who described Connor as someone that could "thrive at any table." Aftermath reporter Nathan Grayson said of his Newsom interview, "I don’t know if anyone has held Gavin Newsom’s feet to the fire on, like, Israel-Palestine stuff that well, he just like kept him on track. It was really impressive."
Awards and nominations