ScreenRant.com has a post about director Tim Burton’s request for Joey Chestnut to have a cameo role in Beetlejuice 2. Chestnut turned down the offer to focus on training for a contest, most likely Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest in 2023.

During Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice 2 commentary feature, the director speaks about the creative nature of developing the latest batch of dead people seen in the afterlife. Among the group is a man who died during a hot dog-eating contest, one of the first afterlife characters Burton created, and someone Betelgeuse is sitting next to while in the waiting room in the sequel. Burton’s Beetlejuice 2 commentary reveals he actually wanted famous hot dog contest eater Joey Chestnut to play the afterlife character, but the competitor was too busy training for an upcoming event.

Burton shared that he was inspired by Chestnut’s record-breaking events when creating afterlife characters, so he decided to add someone who died as a result of eating too many hot dogs. When Beetlejuice 2 started filming, Chestnut would’ve been prepping to compete in the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest held every Fourth of July.

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NJ Arts has an article about the new documentary, “No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story” which includes an interview with contest co-founder Angelo Cataldi. He discusses the medical personnel (or lack thereof) at the event:

Which was a good thing because, until 2007, the only medical personnel at Wing Bowl was Dr. St. George Hunt, a local veterinarian. “He couldn’t Heimlich anyone,” says Cataldi. “Basically, he neutered cats. I ended up with two of them.”

He laughs. “It was a joke.”

Yes, a big ha-ha, until Ice Cream Man showed up. “A guy came in for an eating stunt. He wanted to eat two gallons of ice cream, and we thought that was cool,” says Cataldi. “So, the guy ate the first gallon of ice cream fine. He was feeling good.”

But a few spoonfuls into the second gallon, his lips started turning blue. “By now, the guy is shivering and he’s moving slower. We ended up calling 911. He was in some physical jeopardy at one point. And that was the day we were told all eating stunts had to be approved by the legal department and that there had to be doctors on duty at the event — things we should have been doing all along.”

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“No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story” will debut at the Philadelphia Film Festival on October 22. Another screening will take place on October 26. Directory Pat Taggart and producer Frank Petka will hold a Q & A session following the screening. The synposis:

A hilariously captivating retelling of Philadelphia’s infamous Wing Bowl, spiced with colorful commentary from iconic eaters, organizers, and celebrities, as they recount the event’s wild journey from humble beginnings to an unbelievable spectacle. Featuring legendary tales of eaters like the notorious Wing Bowl villain “Damaging Doug” with his larger-than-life aura, and the shocking moment when Matt “Sloth” Dutton delivered the most artistic vomit in event history, all amid the chaos unleashed by the rowdy, alcohol-fueled audience. Reigning champion “El Wingador” reflects on his moments of glory and the journey to reclaim his title after it was unexpectedly nabbed by the small-but-mighty outsider Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas. No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story is a thrilling look at an electrifying era of trash talk, out-of-control crowds, and mouth-watering wings that took hold of the City of Brotherly Love, birthing a cultural phenomenon that will never be forgotten—from the first bite to the final wing.

It will be interesting to see if Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas was interviewed for the film. As far as I know, she has been radio silent for the past six years.

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Entertainment Strategy Guy has a post about viewership for competitions that were streamed online with a section about Netflix’s “Unfinished Beef” hot dog eating contest between Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi on Labor Day. The audience was too small to make any streaming ratings chart.

So that’s the real sports. Now let’s talk not-so-real sports: Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef, Netflix’s latest foray into sort-of sports specials. This year, instead of competing in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Competition (due to a sponsorship dispute), Joey Chestnut signed up for a Labor Day special on Netflix.

It didn’t make any of the ratings charts I track. It didn’t make Netflix’s global charts, either, so it either had less than 2.5 million hours or less than 1.5 million views global.

And I didn’t hear anyone talking about it either. The usual argument for these specials is all the free earned media that Netflix can get, but this rebuts that. I did a Google search a week later, and there were very few articles about Joey Chestnut setting a new record. There were a handful, mostly from the trades or Netflix itself.

I have not seen any official audience statistics from Netflix for “Unfinished Beef” and they have announced no plans for any future eating contests.

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