AICE news has a press release about the television schedule for the Collegiate Nationals. The coverage will start with a one hour special on the entire Collegiate Nationals May 25 on CBS. If footage from the eating contest appears in this program, it will probably be the first time competitive eating has appeared on national broadcast television since the Glutton Bowl on Fox in 2002 (with the exception of some short contests on morning shows). The Collegiate Nationals will receive 15 days of coverage on CSTV starting May 26, which will hopefully allow the eating contests to be seen in their entirety.

Text from the press release is available after the jump. I do not know what format the press release on the AICE website is in, but it is not in HTML, PDF or Word format.
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1up.com has a screen capture from the upcoming MLE video game showing Tim “Eater X” Janus and El Toro competing against each other. The score shows El Toro leading Eater X 10 hot dogs to 8. The game will debut as an exclusive to WiiWare, Nintendo’s upcoming downloadable game service for the Wii. WiiWare is expected to debut on May 12, but the MLE game does not have a price or projected release date. The game will use the Wii remote to simulate the action of eating competitively.

See also awn.com, ign.com Exophase.com has the full press release.

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A website about the “Battle of the Bone” wing eating contest sponsored by a Phoenix sports radio station has been set up at http://battleofthebone2008.com/ There will be 23 weekly qualifiers starting on March 19 held at Native New Yorker restaurant locations. The finals will take place on August 27 and the first prize will be a 2 year lease of a Honda Element. The 23 qualifiers are probably the most any contest has ever had.

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The Windsor, Ontario (Detroit area) Star reports that a burger eating contest will be held on Saturday for teams of 4 eaters from both Canada and the United States to benefit charities. Teams will attempt to eat Bunda’s Big V8 burger from Bubi’s Awesome Eats. The V8 burger has 8 pounds of meat and reportedly weighs 18 pounds in total. WDFN.com has more details about the event.

Bubi’s Awesome Eats has a standing offer of $1,000 to the first person to consume a Bunda’s Big V8 burger along with the bun and 4 of 7 possible toppings in under 90 minutes. Some of the possible topppings include eight tomatoes, 24 ounces of ketchup and 30 ounces of Bubi’s sauce. No diner has succeeded in that challenge in the five years it has been offered. Last month, the restaurant had Canada’s tallest man, 7 foot 7 inch Jerry Sokoloski, attempt the sandwich. He finished about 15% of it. A gallery and video of the attempt are available.

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1up.com has an interview with Bill Swartz, the head of Mastiff, the company developing the Major League Eating video game. Swartz says that the idea for the game was originally Mastiff’s:

We were looking for a product. We wanted to do a game with a under-appreciated IP that was still known by a large number of people. And the last thing we wanted to do was to try and be a mini-Activision or a mini-EA. I didn’t want to do robot soccer or baseball with penguins. And it’s [Mastiff Production Woof] Tom [Gaubatz], to his credit, he said, “Why don’t we do Major League Eating?” I called them up, frankly not knowing that much about it. I talked to them. And as we started this project, I fell head over heels in love. Major League Eating could be the best thing that has ever happened to me — as a human being, as a sports fan, as a game developer.

Bill Swartz also states that Joey Chestnut will appear in the game. He does not confirm any other names, but says there will be two beautiful female characters.

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The Houston Chronicle has a preview of Sunday’s World Championship Matzoh Ball Eating Contest. The contest will probably have the best field since the Krystal Square Off finals despite a relatively modest purse of $1,500. Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti are expected along with Chip Simpson, Juris “Dr. Big Time” Shibayama and Dave “SykoBozo” Cagle. Nathan Biller has also said he will compete.

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AICE News lists the top four seeds for the Collegiate Nationals:

1. Christian “Muscox” McCarthy University of Kentucky
2. “Furious” Pete Czerwinski McMasters University Hamilton Ontario Canada
3. Carey “Powerhouse” Poehlmann Montgomery Community College, Blue Bell PA
4. Brian “Eaten” Keaton” University of Maryland

update Pete Czerwinski has a poll on bodybuilding.com whether he should be called “Furious” Pete, “Iron” Pete (given to him by Arnie Chapman) or something else.

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Here is a list of all the deaths in eating/drinking contests I am aware of:

1999 Chicago, a 12 year old school girl dies playing “Chubby Bunny” in an unsupervised classroom. The goal of “Chubby Bunny” is to say “Chubby Bunny” after stuffing one’s mouth with as many marshmallows as possible.
2002 Japan, school boy dies in cafeteria after attempting a stunt seen on a televised eating contest.
2004 Canada man dies after choking in chicken wing eating contest held at Regina bar.
2004 Japan, housewife dies in bread eating contest in Fukusaki, Hyogo Prefecture
2006 Canada, woman dies in “Chubby Bunny” contest held at Ontario fair
2007 Sacramento, woman dies of water intoxication after competing in a bladder endurance contest sponsored by a radio station.
2007 India, man (believed to be epileptic) dies from breathing complications in an idli eating contest
2008 Wales, man dies in unplanned post party cupcake contest to use up left over buffet food. Articles about the contest do not make it clear if the contest was a mouth-stuffing contest or a speed eating contest

Of the above 7 deaths, 3 (India, Japan, Regina) occurred in scheduled conventional eating contests. It is not mentioned what medical personnel was on site at those events.

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Miami Herald columnist endorses Ryan Nerz’s call for a jalapeno eating contest between Obama and Clinton to determine the Democratic nomination
Maori wins New Zealand pizza contest
Frederick Kaufman (A Short History of the American Stomach) podcast on Seattle Public Radio
Munch Madness 2008, Connecticut team “bar bite” contest w/ 4 qualifiers, first prize is 4 Opening Day NE Patriot tickets (from Jill Stoler’s blog)
Emmanuel wins Chicago Wing Fest (see picture above)
PaulieSaurus Pizza prize now over $350
Cereal Mega Bowl challenge equal to 1 box of cereal in now closed Asheville, NC cereal restaurant
Kyoto tofu contest, won by Hiroko Kurita
Podcast of “Furious” Pete’s appearance on Frank Pastore’s radio show in which they discuss their 72 ounce steak marks (from AICE news)
Denver meetup group Feb 29 Slyder contest to award $100 gift certificate

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Lyrics for 2 of the sample songs on beautifulbrian.com are available after the jump:
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In his myspace blog entry from February 20, Pat Bertoletti announced his plans for the upcoming Sunday night:

This week saw me getting a tuxedo for the escoffier(my idol and the greatest chef of yesterday) society dinner on sunday. I am going as steve dahls date( the greatest talk radio personality this city has seen). I thought about giving him a garder and emailing asking what time my mom should drop me off for pre prom pictures. I hope I can eat and drink because I will hopefully be coming back with another jalapeno title under my belt( laredo tx on saturday) . The tux is going to look great with the mohawk spiked up. I’m pretty sure having that hair will insult more chefs than I can imagine but that’s why it’s going to be such a good time.

Pat Bertoletti talked about his experience at the dinner on Monday’s Steve Dahl show. A podcast and log of the show are available. Pat’s segment begins at the 13 minute mark. Dahl calls Bertoletti a “knucklehead” after he hangs up.

Pat Bertoletti also sponsored a high school science project titled, “Music and Speed Eating” which analyzed how eating speed was affected by the tempo of music.

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Philly.com reports that the Phillies training camp and the world of competitive eating continue to intersect a week after making a fake trade for a “Kobayashi”:

Moments after learning that his big off-season acquisition would require knee surgery and probably won’t be ready for opening day, Pat Gillick huddled in his office with Charley Kerfeld, one of his top lieutenants, yesterday afternoon.

The laptop computer was open, and Gillick was reading aloud when a reporter entered the room.

Scouting report?

Uh, not really.

Gillick was captivated by the story of a Michigan restaurant that had a 134-pound burger on its menu. Apparently, it took three men to flip the sucker.

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A link to the list of eating challenges has been added to the blog header. There are now over 100 challenges in that list.

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Freep.com reports that Mallie’s Sports Grill & Bar in Southgate, Michigan unveiled a 134 pound hamburger on Saturday. The restaurant will apply for Guinness world record status for the sandwich as the largest commercially available hamburger. The current holder of that title is Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 123 pound burger. A picture of the Guinness certificate is available at Denny’s home page.

The burger will sell for $350 and must be ordered a day ahead of time.

Freep.com video clip

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Beautiful Brian has a commentary on Chestnut vs. MLE and a CD update
Hall Hunt does eating contest at Rays Fan Festival and eats 13 hot dogs in undisclosed time (Kobayashi attended last year’s Rays Fan Festival)
Picture of Kobayashi before 2007 Nathan’s finals, used on wikipedia page
Frank Pastore mentions the breaking of the 72 oz steak record on his blog (from supersizedmeals comment)
Picture of 37 inch pizza from Big Lou’s Pizza in San Antonio
Dude a Palooza has male oriented events including eating contests
Liz K buys a house (gallery)

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AICE News announces that the finals of the Collegiate Eating Championship will take place at the Wave House in San Diego on April 19. Three collegiate eaters with impressive eating resumes will receive byes, others can enter the finals by competing in a qualifier on April 18. “Furious” Pete of bodybuilding.com will probably be one of the three eaters to receive a bye. Entrants must be currently enrolled in at least three college credits. Foods have yet to be determined, but will be items popular with college students. Jack in the Box is the primary sponsor, so the contest might feature food from that chain.

The contest will be held as part of the Collegiate Nationals sponsored by CSTV. The Collegiate Nationals will consist of four multi-sport events for college students to be held this spring. The other San Diego events will be beach volleyball, flowboarding and a battle of the bands.

CSTV has been acquired by CBS and will be rebranded as the CBS College Sports Network in March during the NCAA basketball tournament. It was not announced if the eating contest will be televised on CSTV. I believe this is AICE’s first deal with a television network.
CSTV has its headquarters in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, like IFOCE / Shea Communications.

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The Daily Mail reports that Adam Deely died after getting five fairy cakes lodged in his throat in a cake eating contest at the at the Monkey Cafe in Swansea, South Wales. The competition was not medically supervised or even planned; it was held after a party concluded and guests decided to clean out uneaten food left over from a buffet spread.

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The Laredo Morning Times has an article about last night’s jalapeno contest. The top 3:

1. Pat Bertoletti, 266 peppers, 15 minutes, new contest record
2. Sonya Thomas, 170 peppers
3. Erik Denmark, 147 peppers

The previous record was 141 in 15 minutes, set in 1991 by Braulio Martinez

The article reports that competitors were banned from drinking beers during the contest, but Pat Bertoletti drank a beer in “about a second” after he was announced as the winner.

Erik the Red has a blog entry about his contest participation and made the cover of the Laredo Times entertainment section.

Sonya has a contest report on her news page.

The IFOCE contest report does not mention Sonya by name; the runner up is listed as “Major League Eating’s top female eater”.

IFOCE’s press release to promote the contest called for a jalapeno eating contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to decide the Democratic nomination.

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A competitive eating themed screenplay (pdf format), titled “The Gurgitators”, is available. The project was submitted as a thesis for a Master of Fine Arts at Louisiana State University.

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In researching eating challenges, I discovered the database of diners who finished the 48 ounce steak at Don Shula’s Steakhouse. The website claims that over 32000 people have finished the 48 ounce steak. If all those diners are in the database, it would be much larger than eatfeats. (Eatfeats has about 3000 eaters and 6000 contest results)

The website reports that Taft Parker has consumed the 48 ounce steak over 175 times.

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The Kestrel Inn offers a 200+ ounce steak on it’s menu, which is reportedly the world’s largest commercially available steak. The BBC has an article about a 2005 contest in which diners attempted to complete that steak. Sara Manifold of Wigan was declared the winner in that contest after eating 100 ounces of steak over five hours. The article also says that the landlady of the restaurant claims her son in law ate 120 ounces of the steak.

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I have made a list of all the eating challenges listed in the database sorted by state at http://eatfeats.com/challenges.php There are now 96 challenges in that lists. I have included menu items that are abnormally large even if they do not have an award if they are finished in a certain time. I want to add the ability to search the list by food type.

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Feb 23 Flan Fest / eating contest in Tampa (Flan is creamy Spanish custard)
Feb 23 Ramen eating contest at anime festival in Anchorage, AK
March 1 Boston bacon eating contest
Mudbug Madness - 5 crawfish eating contests May 22-25 in Shreveport, LA
Video of Flushing, NY dumpling eating contest conducted in Chinese language
Picture of biscuit eating contest for Chinese couples
IFOCE.com claims Ray Meduna predicts Erik Denmark will win the jalapeno contest, a pro-Bertoletti prediction is sought

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BeautifulBrian.com has samples from 4 songs on his upcoming CD. The titles of those songs:

1. Stink for yourself (parody of “Think for Yourself” by the Beatles)
2. Dont ever call me again
3. Retaliation
4. Black and White

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(From Rhonda Evans) Joey Chestnut was interviewed by Ben & Matt on KNIX Country of Phoenix on February 13 to talk about the upcoming MLE video game. Joey is unable to provide any details about that project except for the fact that the IFOCE contract signs away video game rights. He does not disclose how much he was paid, if any, for the use of his electronic likeness but does say that he is looking for a good competitive eating agent.

Joey also says that he expects to break Badlands Booker’s matzo ball record in Houston and calls Kobayashi a “little liar” for claiming he had an injury in the 2007 Nathan’s finals.

Streaming audio of interview, Direct link to MP3 file of interview (9 MB, 9 minutes)

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