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Philly Voice has a review of the new documentary "No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story", which debuted last week at the Philadelphia Film Festival.
A 2013 episode of "Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy" in which Larry MCs a Quadruple Bypass Burger eating contest at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas will be rerun Saturday on The Nest network at 4pm Eastern. Miki Sudo was one of the competitors.

Joey Chestnut turned down “Beetlejuice 2” cameo

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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Adam Richman reported that his production van was broken into and many items were stolen at a M1 truck stop in Barnet, England while traveling between London and Birmingham. The former host of "Man v Food" was recording the second season of "Adam Richman Eats Britain".
The trailer for "No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story" can be viewed online and includes clips of Jason Kelce, Joey Chestnut and Molly Schuyler. On Pattison has an article about last night's premier of the documentary at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

NJArts on “No One Died”

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 to debut October 22

“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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Fox News has an article about a segment recorded in March 2023 for a new Netflix documentary, "Will & Harper", in which Will Ferrell attempts the 72 ounce steak at The Big Texan in Amarillo, TX and uses the challenge table to promote transgender rights.
Netflix is seeking extras for a hot dog eating contest scene that will be filmed in Atlanta this week for an upcoming comedy series. The pay will be $100 a day.

“No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story” documentary

The Philadelphia Inquirer and NBC Philadelphia have articles about an upcoming documentary about the Wing Bowl titled “No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story”. The assertion “No One Died” may not be 100% accurate. Fino “Chili Dawg” Cachola passed away soon after qualifying for the Wing Bowl in December 2004. An excerpt from “Horsemen of the Esophagus” by Jason Fagone chronicles the final weeks of Cachola’s life. A previous Wing Bowl documentary that followed six competitors in the 2005 Wing Bowl, “Swallow Your Pride”, has disappeared from the internet after being available on youtube. A few clips can be viewed on the film’s channel.

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Stonie & Shutkever in “Unfinished Beef” undercards

TVLine announces that there will be two undercard competitions for “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef” that will be streamed on Netflix from Las Vegas on September 2: Matt Stonie and Leah Shutkever will face off against opponents who have yet to be named. This will be Matt Stonie’s first public eating competition since a Draft Kings event in April 2021 and Leah Shutkever’s first public competition since the Highway 55 burger eating contest in June 2018. The broadcast co-hosts will be actor/comedian Rob Riggle and WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Garcia. Cari Champion and Chris Rose will be the announcers for the competitions.

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The "I'm a Competitive Eater" episode of MTV True Life can be viewed on youtube. The program documents the competitive eating careers of Takeru Kobayashi, Tim "Eater X" Janus and Ian "The Invader" Hickman in the summer of 2005. Watch (or record) it quickly; it may not remain up forever.
USA Today reports that the audience for Nathan's hot dog eating contest on ESPN2 fell to 831,000 after attaining about a million viewers the previous two years. The decline is attributed to the absence of Joey Chestnut.
Takeru Kobayashi appeared in a video promoting "Sausage Party: Foodtopia" on Amazon Prime in which he claimed that he extracted all the hot dogs he consumed during an eating contest after the competiton was over.
Jeremy Schapp will replace Mike Golic Jr. as Rich Shea's partner for announcing today's Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest on ESPN2. This is not Schaap's first coverage of eating contests; in 2008, he did a segment for E:60 about competitive eating. Tiffany Greene will be the sideline announcer. Schaap & Greene did an interview about their coverage of the event.

Nathan’s womens contest on ESPN3


The ESPN schedule for July 4 has been finalized and the women’s Nathan’s Famous contest will be streamed on ESPN3 yet again while ESPN2 shows the talk show “First Take”. ESPN3 will also offer individual cameras for Geoff Esper and Miki Sudo.

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TLC has uploaded a clip from an episode of "Cake Boss" about the production of a giant hot dog cake that was commissioned for Nathan's Famous 100th birthday. The segment includes footage of the 2016 women's hot dog eating finals.

2024 ESPN Nathan’s schedule

The ESPN schedule for July 4 is now out. The men’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest will be televised on ESPN2 at noon eastern and then rerun several times throughout the day. It appears the women’s competition will be relegated to streaming yet again. The 2019 documentary, “The Good, The Bad, The Hungry” will also be televised on July 4 at 10pm on ESPN2.

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EatFeats youtube channel started

I have started a youtube channel for uploading my competitive eating television archive. The first video is Eric “Badlands” Booker’s “Attack of the Show!” appearance on the G4 network on February 21, 2006. Booker discusses his competitive eating and hiphop career with host Kevin Pereira and then takes on Brendan Hermes in a one minute 100×100 In N Out burger eating contest.

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Awful Announcing has an interview with Paul Page about covering the Nathan's Famous finals for ESPN for 13 years. Erik Denmark did a post about the 2008 Time Magazine picture of Barack Obama watching the Nathan's finals that Page mentioned in the interview.
A Japanese television program has posted a casting call for American football players to attempt a steak challenge in New York City.
Several articles about Takeru Kobayashi's retirement due to an inability to feel hunger came out on May 21 even though it was originally announced in a Netflix documentary, "Hack Your Health", that was released on April 26: NY Post | TMZ | Barstool | BroBible

Kobayashi announces retirement in Netflix documentary


Takeru Kobayashi is one of four subjects in the new Netflix documentary, “Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut”. His segment focuses on his inability to feel hunger after a 20 year competitive eating career. He decides to retire from eating contests to improve his gastrointestinal health: (youtube trailer) (transcript)

After analyzing Kobayashi’s poop and also performing other tests, including scanning his brain’s responses to images of different foods, doctors informed him that his microbiome was actually in good shape, but his brain scans were abnormal. This revelation means that getting to the bottom of Kobayashi’s lack of hunger will be more complex, and in order to focus on restoring his health, he’s decided to quit competitive eating. He has “mixed feelings” about it, but after years of ignoring his body’s signals, he’s eager to see if he can repair his gut-brain connection.

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Geoff Esper wins TV Tokyo’s “King of Gluttony”

Results from the final round of today’s “King of Gluttony” program televised on TV Tokyo: (Full program video)
1) Geoff Esper 26 bowls
2) Molly Schuyler 24
3) Kawaxile 23
4) Angela Sato 19

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Linda Cohn has uploaded an excerpt from Friday night's ESPN Sportcenter of her interview with Joey Chestnut and Los Angeles Chargers defender Joey Bosa about competing in Monday's pistachio eating contest in Santa Monica. Bosa says that his new head coach Jim Harbaugh hoped he would win the contest.
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