10 September 2020
A hot take is an opinion, often ill-considered, delivered more for its sensational effect than to contribute to reasoned debate. Given that people have been delivering hot takes since antiquity, it is a bit surprising that the term is so new.
The earliest use in print that I have found is from a 29 July 2013 television review in the Fitchburg, Massachusetts Sentinel & Enterprise:
Here's a hot take: Orange is the New Black isn't just the best Netflix show, or even the best new show of the year—it's the best show of 2013 period.
About a year later, the phrase is recorded in Urbandictionary.com:
hot take
An opinion based on simplistic moralizing rather than actual thought. Not to be confused with a strong take.
That's a hot take.
Hot takes are not limited to show biz. They are, obviously, perfectly at home in the world of politics, as this Politico piece from 23 July 2014 shows:
Today’s scorching hot take: “If anything, this year's environment for Democrats is shaping up to be as bleak,” reports NJ’s Josh Kraushaar.
And within a few years, you have university professors opining on the deleterious effects of political hot takes. From a 9 November 2016 Boston Globe piece quoting Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy:
“I read good, long pieces in several newspapers ... on this left-behind generation of the white working class that was supporting Trump," he said. "But it comes on a Sunday, you read it, and then it's gone. It's not top-of-mind, the way the day-to-day punditry and the latest Trump hot take is.”
But then given the rise of social media and clickbait journalism, perhaps it isn’t so surprising that hot takes are only now getting a name.
Sources:
“Bite into Shark Week; ‘Orange’ is hot.” Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, Massachusetts), 29 July 2013. ProQuest.
Burgess, Everett. “Perdue vs. Nunn in GA.” Politico.com, 23 July 2014.
Scharfenberg, David. “Pundits, Politicians Failed to Detect Depth of Trump’s Support.” Boston Globe, 9 November 2016, A14. ProQuest.
Urbandictionary.com, 19 June 2014, s.v. hot take.