One June 5, the official White House X account posted a picture of President Trump watching a New York Knicks game from courtside seats. His seatmate is believed to be Howard Lorber, his longtime friend and CEO of Nathan’s Famous. The picture was taken at a 2007 game against the Los Angeles Lakes and comes from a NY Magazine article which claims that Lorber was Trump’s most common companion at Knicks games. The game Trump attended on June 8 was the only game lost by the Knicks in a 4-1 NBA Championship Series win.

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Fox61 has an article about the qualifier

Results from today’s Nathan’s qualifier at Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT via MLE instagram

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Tonight’s weigh in at the Lincoln Memorial for Sunday’s UFC card at the White House is not the first time a weigh-in for a competition has been held at a major public building. Weigh ins for Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest were held at NYC City Hall until 2014 and the Brooklyn Borough Hall from 2015-17. The mayor often attended the weigh-in; Michael Bloomberg attended the weigh-in 11 of the 12 years he was in office and Rudy Guiliani was present at least three years. The hot dog documentary “Footlong” has footage (starts at 6:23) of the 1998 weigh-in attended by Rudy Guiliani and Curtis Sliwa, who ran for mayor in 2021 and 2025.

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The takeover of Nathan’s Famous by its meatpacker and distributor, Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods, was announced in January and expected to be completed in the first half of 2026. Various issues have postponed the closing to the second half of the year.

Completion of the transaction remains contingent upon meeting several conditions specified in the Merger Agreement. These include securing approval from the holders of a majority of Nathan’s outstanding stock, obtaining clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and fulfilling other closing requirements. However, given the impact of the partial government shutdown on statutory deadlines for CFIUS’s review process, our anticipated closing timeline has shifted, and we now expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2026.

update Jun 13 The Trump Administration has criticized foreign control of the American meat industry, but they have not expressed any criticism of the Nathan’s Famous / Smithfield Foods merger. One reason for the lack of opposition to the deal might be the longtime friendship between Trump and Nathan’s Famous CEO Howard Lorber, who has hosted fundraisers for the president.

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The July 4 schedule for ESPN is now available. The main channel will observe America250 by broadcasting British tennis while the men’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest is relegated to ESPN2 and the women’s division is streaming-only. The men’s contest will be rerun on ESPN2 at 4pm Eastern and the documentary “The Good, the Bat, The Hungry” will be shown at 5pm.

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Here is the number of Nathan’s Famous hot dog qualifiers in the database since 2002 by contest year. The list does not include non hot dog competitions like the 2005 UK sausage eating contest that awarded a finals spot.

A list of all the qualifiers follows after the jump
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Registration is now open for the 2026 Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest qualifiers. With just two competitions, the qualifier schedule can be more accurately described as a line segment than a circuit. Both contests will be held at northeastern USA theme parks in the middle of June:

• June 13, Lake Compounce, Bristol, CT
• June 19, Hershey Park, Hershey, PA

There were 16 qualifiers for the 2019 Nathan’s Famous finals, 6 for 2025.

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The New York City mayoral election is on Tuesday. The Republican candidate in that race, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, competed in several Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contests in the 1990s. At the July 3, 1998 weigh-in/press conference, Sliwa discussed his theory that defending champion Hirofumi Nakajima had been surgically modified to enhance his eating ability.

The source of the clip is “Footlong”, a documentary about a cross-country tour of hot dog restaurants. The Nathan’s weigh-in segment starts around 6:22

update Nov 1 The Daily Mirror has an article about competing against Sliwa in the 1997 Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest.

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ESPN coverage of introductions and contest

Official results

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Here are some statistics for the 2025 Nathan’s field. Explanation of the columns:
# Finals – number of Nathan’s finals appearances
Best – best finish in a Nathan’s final
Max – personal best Nathan’s result (finals and qualifiers)
Total – total number of hot dogs eaten in finals and qualifiers
Avg – average number of hot dogs (finals and qualifiers)

All previous finals results for the field
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Here are some statistics for the 2025 Nathan’s women’s field. Explanation of the columns:
# Finals – number of Nathan’s finals appearances
Best – best finish in a Nathan’s final
Max – personal best Nathan’s result (finals and qualifiers)
Total – total number of hot dogs eaten in finals and qualifiers
Avg – average number of hot dogs (finals and qualifiers)

All previous finals results for the field:
Read the rest of this entry »

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