(from Brian Seiken) Brian Seiken has uploaded a clip of Joey Chestnut on the Opie & Anthony show in which Joey discusses the post-Nathan’s state of his digestive system. Joey also says he would like to compete in the egg nog contest.

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From Erik Denmark’s blog:

For those of you in Washington State, you can see me on the popular mid-day talk show, Northwest Afternoon on KomoTV (ABC)tomorrow – Thursday, July 18 at 3:00 pm PST.

During the segment I will answer questions from the hosts Kent and Natasha and we will have a one minute jalapeno eating contest.

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Sports Illustrated NFL reporter Peter King trashed the Nathan’s finals in 2006 and has made a similar comment this year:

We ought to be ashamed in this country when events like hot-dog eating contests gain popularity — the Coney Island fiasco was actually covered on New York sports-talk radio on my vacation — instead of inviting revulsion. Stomach-gorging is not a sport, and it is abominable to try to make it one in a country where too many people go to bed hungry every night.

The Big Lead sports blog has a comment about King’s critique:

I think Point “i” is the funniest thing I’ve seen today. A fatass like King lamenting on the disgusting nature of a gorging contest in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Challenge at Coney Island. It’s one thing to mock a competition that is loosley defined as sport when it involves pounding hotdogs, but doesnt peter king weigh nearly 300 pounds himself, and shouldnt he be the last authority on what counts as disgusting eating habbits? Kobyashi can probably bench peter king himself.

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The “Science of Speed Eating” will be rerun on the National Geographic Channel at 2pm eastern today.

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R Suzuki reports that a movie based on the “Gourmet Fighter” anime is in production. Natsuko “Gal” Sone and Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota are in the cast listing.

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(From Jeff Chapman) “The Science of Speed Eating” documentary will be rerun on Sunday on the National Geographic Channel at 2pm eastern.

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From Real Time with Bill Maher, August 19, 2005:

New Rule: Competitive eating isn’t a sport. It’s one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What’s next, competitive farting? Oh wait. They’re already doing that. It’s called “The Howard Stern Show.”

From Jim’s Jottings column by Jim Sherman, Sr.

Competitive eating isn’t a sport. It’s one of the seven deadly sins. However, ESPN recently televised the U. S. Open of Competitive Eating, perhaps because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too exciting.

What’s next, competitive wind breaking? Oh, wait, they’re already doing that on way too many shows.

update Corrected author of quote from George Carlin (from Roscoe Manning)

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An email from Megamunch about ESPN radio’s Mike & Mike possibly hosting Nathan’s in 2008 follows after the jump. The email also includes a report of Kobayashi being ranked #22 in Stuff Magazine’s ranking of the most powerful men under 30.
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The debut episode of “Glutton for Punishment” will be televised on Food TV tonight at 9:30 pm eastern. All Your TV describes the program’s content:

The premise of the show is pretty straightforward. Blumer travels around the world testing his eating, cooking and overall food skills. He enters a chile-eating contest, takes on some of the world’s fastest oyster shuckers and tries his hand at being a breakfast line cook.

Tonight’s episode will feature a hot chile eating contest in New Mexico.

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(From Erik Denmark) A DVD titled “Major League Eaters Vol. 1”, apparently an official MLE product, is available on netflix. Netflix appears to be the only location with information about the DVD.

In another DVD starring a Major League Eater, DVD Talk has a review of “Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating”, which has the following description of the star, Crazy Legs Conti:

Conti is an interesting character. He sort of floats through life by taking these different jobs here and there to pay the bills but shows no real dedication to his employment at any given time. In fact, it’s almost as if whatever particular jobs he’s working at any particular time is little more than a joke to him. The only things in life that he seems to take seriously are the eating contests. This, obviously, sets him apart from your average American, most of who tend to be very job focused and career minded in this day and age.

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A teleblog of the “Science of Speed Eating” documentary is available after the jump.
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After the “Science of Speed Eating” documentary appears on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm eastern and pacific (midnight eastern), the next appearance for competitive eating on cable television might be the Clearfield High football team attempting to eat Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 100+ pound burger on Country Music Television’s “Country Fried Home Videos” on August 17 according to dennysbeerbarrelpub.com

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AOL FanHouse has an entry about competitive eating on television:

Richard Sandomir, the great sports TV reporter for the New York Times, explores the way Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest has become a big TV event, and he says that with about 1.5 million people tuning in (exact numbers have not been released), Major League Eating could become a major player on cable TV.

The entry also speculates that Nathan’s could move to Spike TV in 2008.

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Ryoko Aoki would like to contact a female American competitive eater who is interested in the following opportunity (from an email):

I am working on a TV show for Japan and looking for american female eaters to appear in the show with Gal Sone. We prefer someone who is in 20’s and not belong to IFOCE.

Please send responses to Ryoko Aoki – ryoko@officekei.net

OfficeKei offers the following description on its website.

Office Kei is one of the premiere television production, coordination, and research companies in the world. Since 1991, we have been providing outstanding television production and support services to major U.S. and Japanese broadcast companies.

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Brian Seiken has written an article about his thwarted quest for a higher level pass at the Nathan’s finals Wedneseday.

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Richard Sandomir, the television sports columnist for the New York Times, wrote about competitive eating on television. Cable network deals and ratings are discussed at the end of the column:

ESPN started carrying the Nathan’s event in 2004, and it drew 926,000 viewers. In 2005, it dipped to 860,000, but it leaped to 1.46 million last year, a level it probably reached on Wednesday.

“We’ve done other competitive eating contests,” said David Berson, an ESPN executive vice president. “But we focus on the hot dog. It’s the marquee event.”

But with ESPN’s deal now expired, Spike wants to take gluttony (not entirely a male pursuit, as the M.L.E. star Sonya Thomas shows) to its male-focused network as a companion to its Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise. Spike has shown one Major League Eating event (the St. Patrick’s Day corned beef and cabbage, jalapeños and green doughnuts show from Savannah, Ga., attracted 739,000 viewers) and is scheduled to carry three more.

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(from Paul Barlow) Video of Tim Janus on the Today Show this morning to promote Sunday’s “Science of Speed Eating” documentary on the National Geographic channel is available. Tim did a one minute donut eating exhibition during his appearance.

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The excising of Kobayashi’s reversal from Nathan’s reruns noticed by MegaMunch was also commented on by the hosts of ESPN radio’s morning show according to Michael David Smith on AOL FanHouse

“There was an edict last night to stop showing the regurgitation,” said Gottlieb, filling in for Mike Greenberg on Mike and Mike in the Morning.

Co-host Mike Golic asked, “We can’t show that?” and Gottlieb replied, “We can’t show the puke.”

Golic said, “I’ve got an issue with that.” So do I. Vomiting is a part of competitive eating just as concussions are a part of football, and ESPN shouldn’t sugarcoat the truth.

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(From Dave Shoffner) Nathan’s finals reruns (all times eastern)

7/4 11pm ESPN2
7/5 2:30am ESPN2
7/5 7pm ESPN2
7/6 8pm ESPN
7/8 1am ESPN2
7/8 5pm ESPN
7/12 2pm ESPN

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Nathan’s Finals results

1. Joey Chestnut 66 HDB (listed at 63 when contest ended), $10000
2. Takeru Kobayashi 63 HDB (appeared to have a reversal near contest end), $5000
3. Pat Bertoletti 49 HDB, $2500
4. Tim “Eater X” Janus 43.5 HDB, $1500
5. Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas: 39 HDB (new female record, breaks 37 HDB plateau), $1000
6. Bob Shoudt 35 HDB
6. Chip Simpson 35 HDB
8. Rich LeFevre 31 HDB
9. Hall Hunt: 29 HDB
10. Juliet Lee 26 HDB (finals record for rookie female)
11. Dale Boone 25 HDB
12. Pat Philbin 24 HDB
13. Crazy Legs Conti 23.5 HDB
14. Erik “the Red” Denmark 23 HDB
15. Tim Brown 22.5 HDB
16. Arturo Rios, Jr. 21 HDB
16. Allen “Shredder” Goldstein 21 HDB

update Full results are available on IFOCE. The IFOCE report mentions neither Kobayashi’s possible reversal nor Joey’s “phantom” extra 3 HDB. The reported attendance is 50,000.

NYTimes.com has an article mentioning the post contest jump in Joey Chestnut’s result. You would think that scraps would result in a deduction and not an increment:

After both men appeared to finish with 63 hot dogs eaten, the judges spent several minutes in a somewhat bizarre recount. To determine a winner, the judges counted the scraps left on the plates.

The liveblog of the telecast follows after the jump
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SPTimes.com has an article about Sunday’s “Science of Speed Eating” documentary.

The second half of the show follows gastroenterologist Dr. David Metz as he tries to figure out if there’s anything qualitatively different about how competitive eaters digest. To this end, Janus eats 36 hot dogs and radioactive scrambled eggs with a sidecar of barium smoothie.

The conclusion? Competitive eaters seem to relax their muscles in such a way that postpones peristalsis (waves of muscular contraction in the stomach that break down food into smaller pieces). Their stomachs become, as Dr. Metz notes, “giant flaccid bags,” four times their normal size. Their stomachs remain inert, their brains don’t experience satiation, and the eating machines keep eating.

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A listing of the Japanese top 30 places “Boom Boom Meccha Maccho” at #19 in its first week of release.

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(From AICE news) Ian Hickman will be interviewed on Mix 103.7 tomorrow morning at 8:35 am eastern. The interview can be listened to online at http://mix1037.com/

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On ESPN’s Sportcenter, several analysts in various sports provided commentary about Kobayashi’s jaw arthritis. Dave “MegaMunch” Shoffner provided a transcription for that segment which follows after the jump.

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(From Nathan Biller) In Jim Caple’s rankings of 101 sporting events for ESPN.com, the Nathan’s finals are #94. The Wing Bowl is #9 on the list of the top 10 events to avoid.

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