In their latest podcast, Fink Beats the Stomach interviews Mike Golic Jr. about covering the 2020 Nathan's hot dog eating contest.
Miki Sudo has uploaded a behind the scenes video of her experience at the 2020 Nathan's finals.
Miki Sudo and Nick Wehry have posted a video of their preparation for the Nathan's finals.
Daily Progress has an interview with Darron Breeden about his runner-up finish in the men's division at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating finals.
Nathan's Famous is selling T-shirts for its hot dog eating contest.
Geoff Esper uploaded a video of a pizza challenge yesterday. While eating 7 Domino's pizzas, he makes no mention of his mystery absence from the 2020 Nathan's finals.
According to ratings announced today, 966,000 viewers watched Saturday's broadcast of the Nathan's finals on ESPN. Despite that number being the lowest since 2005 (860,000), it was the top rated original cable program for the day. The official rating was 0.32, down from 0.55 in 2019.
Pro football writer Peter King's criticism of Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest and competitive eating in general is almost as much of an annual tradition as the competition itself. OutKick.com has an article about his comments this year and the reaction to them.
Joey Chestnut defends Nathan’s title with record 75
update Official results
| 1st | 75 | Joey “Jaws” Chestnut | contest record |
| 2nd | 42 | Darron Breeden | |
| 3rd | 39.5 | Nick Wehry | combined with Miki Sudo’s 48.5 to set couples record of 88 |
| 4th | 24 | George Chiger | |
| 5th | 20 | Eric “Badlands” Booker |
Joey Chestnut has defended his Nathan’s Famous hot dog title with a record 75 hot dogs.
Miki Sudo defends Nathan’s title with record 48.5
update Official results
| 1st | 48.5 | Miki Sudo | personal best, women’s record |
| 2nd | 18 | Larell Marie “The Real Deal” Mele | |
| 3rd | 15 | Katie Prettyman | |
| 4th | 8.5 | Julie Goldberg | |
| 5th | 7 | Rene Rovtar |
Miki Sudo has defended her women’s Nathan’s title with a record of 48.5 hot dogs.
The fields for the 2020 Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest have finally been announced. The big shock is that Geoff Esper is not competing with the men's field consisting of Joey Chestnut, Darron Breeden, Nick Wehry, George Chiger and Badlands Booker. This is the second consecutive surprise omission for Esper after he was left out of the Quarantine Challenge field. The women's field is as expected: Miki Sudo, Larell Marie Mele, Katie Prettyman, Julie Goldberg and Rene Rovtar.
Thrillist has an article about the 2020 Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest.
Quarantine expansion puts Nathan’s field in doubt
New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he is expanding the list of states whose residents must self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in his state, which will apparently prevent Matt Stonie (CA), Gideon Oji (GA) and Michelle Lesco (AZ) from competing in the 2020 Nathan’s Finals if they cannot get an exemption. Earlier today, Rich Shea appeared to confirm that Michelle Lesco will not be able to compete. Joey Chestnut is already in New York, so he is not affected by the directive.
update MLE has announced Nick Wehry will replace Matt Stonie.
update July 1 George Chiger will replace Gideon Oji.
update July 1 #2 A press release lists Miki Sudo, Katie Prettyman and Larell Marie Mele as female competitors. Katie Prettyman does not think that Sarah Reinecke and Sophia DeVita will compete due to schedule conflicts.
update July 2 NJ.com reports Rene Rovtar will be the 4th female competitor.
update July 2 #2 Julie Goldberg will apparently complete the women’s field.
News 12 has a video about Miki Sudo preparing for the Nathan's finals with assistance from Nick Wehry. In her latest training session, she ate 50 hot dogs in less than 10 minutes.
Joey Chestnut has announced his opponents for the men's division of the 2020 Nathan's finals: Geoff Esper, Matt Stonie, Darron Breeden, Gideon Oji and Badlands Booker. This will be the 21st Nathan's finals for Booker, the 16th straight for Chestnut.
Michelle Lesco announced that her competing in the 2020 Nathan's finals is in doubt due to New York's requirement that Arizona residents self-quarantine for 14 days after their arrival in the Empire State.
Joey Chestnut guarantees he will break the Nathan's hot dog eating contest record on July 4 in an interview with TMZ.com. He is hoping for a total of 77 hot dogs and believes the indoor setting will bolster his performance. In his previous indoor Nathan's contest, the 2007 Arizona Mills qualifier, he broke the existing record with a total of 59.5 hot dogs.
At the 17:30 mark of an interview with Zach Krantz, George Shea says that the July 4 Nathan's contest will be the final MLE event of 2020. There are currently 4 events after July 4 on the MLE calendar: 2 Buffalo Wingfest contests, Smoke's Poutinerie in Toronto and Lewisville, TX tamales. He also says that the July 4 contests will be 10 minutes long and that 5 or 6 entrants will compete in the men's division of Nathan's.
The Hampton Beach (NH) Seafood Festival announced it would not be held in 2020. The September festival held a lobster roll eating contest awarding $1000.
2020 Nathan’s finals to be held without fans
updateMiki Sudo recorded a video about the contest. She says (around 3:00) that the field will not be selected solely on MLE ranking but that geographic location and media availability will also be considered.
A press release (screen capture) announces that the July 4, 2020 Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest will be held without fans at an undisclosed Coney Island location. Five men and five women will compete; defending champions Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo are the only listed competitors. ESPN will televise the contest at noon Eastern with Mike Golic, Jr. replacing Adam Amin as commentator. The women’s division will be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2 for the first time with a starting time of 12:20 pm. The Wall Street Journal has a paywalled article.
The Iowa State Fair announced the cancellation of its 2020 edition today. A Nathan's Famous hot dog eating qualifier had been held at the August event from 2017 to 2019.
The July 4 schedule for the ESPN family of networks is now available, and the 2020 Nathan's finals are not currently listed. ESPN's schedule for noon Eastern has "Great American Events", which could be a placeholder for the competition.
Joey Chestnut posted a picture of a practice session for 2020 Nathan's hot dog eating contest to his instagram.
Joey Chestnut did an interview on KROQ yesterday. He says that Nathan's hopes to have some type of July 4 competition, but plans have yet to be fixed. They are looking at a Brooklyn site for the event away from the traditional Coney Island venue.
OddsCovers.com has a list of bets offered on the 2020 Nathan's finals. Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo remain the favorites. One of the wagers offered is PETA activists disrupting the competition. Betting against this proposition (bet $1400 to win $100) could be free money if the contest is held without spectators.
Loading ...