Cheers to Cocktail Wars! Hosted by Lance Bass and Joey Fatone, each episode of E!’s boozy reality competition series features 3 seasoned mixologists competing in different challenges for their chance to win $10,000. Along to help Bass and Fatone decide which mixologist most deserves the prize money are expert mixologist Melissa Brooke and a star-studded lineup of celebrity guest judges including Rachel Maddow, Lauren Graham, Seth Green, Melissa Gorga and many more.
“It makes sense they thought of us to be part of the show,” said Fatone when asked about joining the series. “We like to have fun; we travel the world; we’ve tasted many drinks—responsibly, of course.” Bass, who lovingly calls Fatone his “work husband,” couldn’t have agreed more. “At the start of all this, we kind of thought we knew what we were talking about,” remembered Bass. “We learned quickly that we did not.”
As someone with Type 1 diabetes, Bass also wanted to prove to people living with the health condition that they still “can do anything.” “When you do a show like this, it’s difficult because the mixers are what get you,” said Bass. “[Now] that I’ve learned about all these different cocktails, I can drink the ones that don’t spike my glucose.” For his part, Fatone was impressed by the teamwork that went into making sure Bass remained safe. “Every time we took a sip, someone would be checking his levels,” marveled Fatone.
Bass and Fatone spoke to Decider during a press junket to discuss the series, reminisce about some old NSYNC tour hijinks, reveal why one of Bass’ oldest friends wasn’t a guest judge this season, and more.
DECIDER: Lance and Joey, what drew you to hosting a series like Cocktail Wars? Who signed on first?
JOEY FATONE: When they said, “Hey, would you like to do it with Lance?” I said, “No.” When I said no, they said, “Well, you have no choice.” [Laughs] No, they actually approached Lance first, and then they came to me. It makes sense that they thought of us to be part of the show. We like to have fun; we travel the world; we’ve tasted many drinks—responsibly, of course.
We’re open to experimenting and broadening our horizons, which we did in the show. I’ve never been a gin drinker before. Yuck! These mixologists came up with some incredible drinks that made me like gin. It’s pretty crazy.
Scott Gries/E!
Back when you were touring regularly with NSYNC, who was the designated bartender?
LANCE BASS: Ooh, I don’t think we really had one because we didn’t have much time to drink on the road.
JF: The only time we drank was maybe on the bus on the way to the next city.
LB: Oh, actually! We’ve never told this to anyone, but also on the last show of every single tour.
JF: Oh yeah!
LB: You and I would always put Jack and Coke in our water bottles so we could have a few drinks during the last few songs of the tour.
JF: Just the last few songs. It wasn’t during the whole show or anything.
LB: Then the guys got kind of mad at us. They were like, “You shouldn’t do that.”
JF: They always thought we weren’t serious, but hey, didn’t we perform every day? Yeah! Were we present? Yeah!
LB: Did we have any leads in any songs? No!
JF: Was there any pressure? Nah.
Cocktails are meant to be celebratory! You two and beverage consultant Melissa Brooke did a lot of celebrating on the show! What did you learn from her during this process?
JF: We learned a lot. Melissa would use terms like “flip.” We’d say, “I’m like, I’m sorry, what is that?” That’s using the whole egg in the drink, believe it or not. I had no idea. We learned about free-pouring. What else?
LB: These mixologists are basically using chemistry. At the start of all this, we kind of thought we knew what we were talking about. We learned quickly that we did not [laughs]. Thank you to Melissa Brooke, who really made us experts.
Lance, you document living with Type-1 diabetes on your social media. How did you manage your health while filming this show?
JF: That was very fun to watch for me, because either he was constantly watching his numbers or someone else was closely monitoring his numbers. At one point, his manager was on the plane texting us asking, “Can you look at his numbers?”
LB: Of course, when you do a show like this, it’s difficult because the mixers are what get you. In the past, when I would go out for drinks, I would stick to vodka sodas because I knew I could handle those.
By doing this show, I’ve learned all these different cocktails I can have that don’t spike my glucose. Now certain drinks, like a margarita or a pina colada, are gonna kill me, but other than that, I think we did well. We had a lot of water on the set. A lot of people were watching my levels.
JF: Every time we took a sip, someone would be checking his levels.
LB: It’s not just the drinks. It’s just standing for hours. That type of stuff really affects you. So yeah, I have a whole team watching my numbers. See kids, even with diabetes, you can do anything. You can host a cocktail show.
Joey, there are some extremely tricky feats these mixologists are asked to execute, like using smoke in their cocktails. What skills challenge impressed you the most?
JF: The one skills challenge that really impressed me was one you’ll see later this season. We asked these mixologists to make a specific drink multiple times, but make it look and taste the same each time. Somebody made 14 Manhattans or so in a row. It was insane! We had to try all of them.
You had to taste 14 drinks at one time? Did you taste then spit like you would at a wine tasting?
LB: Basically! You just take a little taste. Although there are some drinks that you love so much that all of a sudden you look down and you’re like, “I accidentally finished this whole thing.”
JF: That’s when you know it’s good. We learned very quickly just to take a sip. You just need to find out if the drink hits all the notes that it needs to. Does it taste good? Is the drink visually appealing? Did the mixologist complete the challenge? That’s what you need to judge.
Scott Gries/E!
Lance, you’ve got several Real Housewives as celebrity guest judges—Melissa Gorga, Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer. I have to know: where was your close personal friend, Lisa Vanderpump? Could she appear on Season 2?
LB: Well, she was going to do it, but she was about to start her new show, and she just opened up her hotel the week that we were doing this. She was trying to get on a flight. She was like, “Darling, I’m going to get there.” I felt so bad. I was just like, “Please, don’t. It’s fine. We’ll see you for Season 2!”
Joey, was there any celebrity guest judge that you were excited to have on Cocktail Wars?
JF: Of course, Peppermint was really awesome. What a firework she was. Seth Green was obviously great. He’s a good buddy of ours. Rachel Maddow knows a lot of history about alcohol. She’s very meticulous about her martinis.
Lance, I saw a question in the comments that I just have to ask: who is your platonic soulmate and why: Joey Fatone or Danielle Fishel?
LB: I saw that comment!
JF: You better say me [laughs]! It’s probably Danielle.
LB: Well, he’s my work husband, but she’s my wife!
JF: Exactly. We’re hand in hand [laughs].
LB: [Laughs] I learned to tune you out in 1998.
JF: Danielle and I should fight over you.
LB: Let’s do it.
JF: I really don’t want to. She’d kick my ass.
Finally, if you both had to name a cocktail after an NSYNC song, what would it be and why?
JF: “Gone.”
LB: “Gone,” for sure.
JF: “Bye, Bye, Bye.” Maybe a tropical cocktail called “Sailing.”
LB: The possibilities are endless.
Cocktail Wars airs Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT on E!
