In a medium.com post, Darren Rovell says that a report on Kobayashi's victory in the Nathan's 2001 finals where he doubled the pre-existing record was the most sent ESPN.com article of 2001.
ESPN has a blog entry about the competitive eating accomplishments of Dillan Gibbons, a Florida high school offensive lineman who has comitted to play for Notre Dame. He ate three challenge burgers at Cheeburger Cheeburger yesterday.
SportsTVRating has the viewership numbers for Saturday's televised sports. The rating for the live Nathan's brpadcast on ESPN2 was 0.4 (highest of the day) and the audience was 1,129,000 (second to primetime NASCAR race). The combined audience for the 4 showings of the finals on July 4 ws 2.38 million.
Hot Dog 148th anniversary / “Little Arlene” photoshop
Today is the 48th anniversary of an event held at Nathan’s Famous Coney Island location on June 30, 1967 to commemorate the centennial of the invention of the hot dog in 1867. The UPI reported that Walter Paul ate 127 hot dogs in an hour at that celebration. This is the first Nathan’s hot dog eating contest that can be found in online news archives.
Research has not been able to turn up any more information about the competition, but a picture taken at that event of a bathing-suit clad model holding a plate of hot dogs has been circulating on social media. I have not been able to determine the name of the model or the original image source.
A modified version of this image was used in ESPN’s documentary about the St. Louis Spirits of the ABA to illustrate big-eating “Little Arlene”, a halftime performer for that franchise. (direct link to image in youtube video.) I doubt the woman was Arlene, but I have never seen a picture of her.
The 2015 broadcast schedule for the men's Nathan's finals is now available. The contest will be live on ESPN2 at noon and then rerun seven more times on July 4. It does not appear the women's contest will be televised.
ESPN SportsCenter will be broadcast from Coney Island the morning of July 4 on ESPN2 to promote the Nathan's finals.
The schedule for the ESPN family of channels is now available for July 4, 2015. The men's Nathan's contest will be live on ESPN2 starting at noon and be rerun at 1pm, 2pm and 4pm (on ESPN) that afternoon. For the fifth straight year, the women's contest will not be televised on a cable channel; it does not currently appear on the ESPN3.com July 4 streaming schedule. (The ESPN3 schedule does list Ultimate Disc League and cricket competitions).
Sports Media Watch has this year's TV schedule for Wimbledon. ESPN will show tennis from 8am to 4pm Eastern, which will relegate the live broadcast of the Nathan's finals to ESPN2 or another network. (Since July 4 is a Saturday this year, the Nathan's finals could be shown on ABC without conflicting with local news or other weekday programming.)
Youtube has a mini-mockumentary about the Championship Eating Network. The fictional channel is used as an example of a minimally-viewed offering which is required to be included in cable packages and is part of Consumer Action's campaign against the practice of bundling. (via IBTimes.com)
Bill "El Wingador" Simmons is mentioned in Bill Simmons' latest grantland.com column in a section about people with the same name as famous sports figures. The "Sports Guy" does not think the connection works since he claims to have never used cocaine, and "El Wingador" went to prison for drug distribution.
ESPN has a blog entry about University of Virginia football players competing in the Munchin for Memory hot dog eating contest on Sunday to benefit Alzheimer's research. Fullback Vincent Croce was the runner up with 11 hot dogs.
UFC champion Ronda Rousey faced off against sports radio host Mike Golic in a marshmallow eating challenge.
Matt Stonie announces he will appear on ESPN2's SportsNation at 3pm EDT today and will face Michelle Beadle and Marcellus Wiley in a bacon eating contest. update A video of the appearance is available
Oregon Live has an article and video about Takeru Kobayashi's appearance at yesterday's Portland State game where he ate 16 slices of pizza in under 2 minutes. The appearance made #10 on ESPN's top 10 list for October 18. update A video of the top 10 list is available (via Robbie Parness)
The Cheap Seats episodes where the Sklar brothers commentate on the 2004 Nathan's finals and 2005 US Open of Competitive Eating can be viewed on youtube.
The National Buffalo Wing-Eating Championship will be web-streamed on ESPN3 on August 31 at 5 pm eastern.
SportsMediaWatch reports that the tape-delayed Nathan's finals set a viewership record on ESPN2 of 2.8 million. The audience was boosted by the World Cup match preceding it, which had 4.9 million viewers.
A press release announces that ESPN has extended its agreement with Nathan's Famous to televise its hot dog eating contest until 2024.
2014 Nathan’s finals live on ESPNews
The July 4 schedule for ESPNews shows that the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest will be shown live on that channel starting at noon. Only the men’s contest will be televised; ESPNews will show SportsCenter at 11:30. There will be three tape-delayed showings of the contest on ESPN2 on July 4, 5 and 6 and ESPN Classic will show 6 contests from previous years on July 4. The main ESPN channel has no listings of the 2014 Nathan’s contest, this would make it the first year since 2003 it was not televised on that channel.
A listing of MLE programming on ESPN networks follows:
- 2003 The contest was reportedly supposed to be televised in 2003, but was not broadcast. Issues with celebrity competitor William “Refrigerator” Perry have been cited for the cancellation.
- 2004 Nathan’s finals (926,000 viewers)
- 2005 Nathan’s finals (860,000 viewers)
US Open of Competitive Eating 3 prime time showings July 28, 29, 30 (Alka Seltzer planned to bring the US Open back in 2006, but its owner Bayer terminated the event)
Cheap Seats – commentary on 2004 Nathan’s finals - 2006 Cheap Seats – commentary on US Open of Competitive Eating
Nathan’s finals (1,460,000 viewers)
Sheboygan Bratwurst contest (pre-empted by NFL Hall of Fame induction ceremony)
Krystal Square Off finals (ESPN2) - 2007 Nathan’s finals (1,632,000 viewers)
Krystal Square Off finals - 2008 “Feast on the First” live eating contest on Mike & Mike
Nathan’s finals
E:60 (reporter roundtable) Brad Sciullo stars in this segment, and is ejected from MLE soon after - 2009 Nathan’s finals (1,340,000 viewers)
- 2010 Pat Bertoletti competes against Philadelphia Eagle Brent Celek on First Take
Nathan’s finals (1,677,000 viewers) - 2011 Nathan’s finals (1,949,000 viewers)
- 2012 Nathan’s finals – tape delayed (1,299,000 viewers)
- 2013 Nathan’s finals – live on ESPN2 / tape delayed on ESPN (1,146,000 viewers)
- 2014 Pizza eating contest on Mike & Mike
Nathan’s finals – live on ESPNews / tape delayed on ESPN2
(Nathan’s finals viewer numbers from this post)
The ESPN schedule for July 4 now lists live coverage of the men's & women's Nathan's finals on ESPN3. Coverage of the women's contest will begin at 11:15 am Eastern. ESPN2 will show the men's contest tape delayed at 2 pm.
The Atlantic has a report on last month's Eastern Shore Wing War asking the question "Is Competitive Eating a Sport?" containing quotes from Crazy Legs Conti, Juliet Lee, "Wild" Bill Myers and Eric "Badlands" Booker. Jason Bernstein of ESPN is also interviewed; the decline of competitive eating ratings and coverage on that network is not mentioned.
2014 Nathan’s finals to be tape-delayed on ESPN2
update June 6 The new poll asks what change you would like to see to have the Nathan’s finals covered live.
The July 4 TV Schedule for the ESPN networks is now available and lists the broadcast of the Nathan’s finals at 2pm eastern on ESPN 2. This means the men’s contest will be tape delayed (as in 2012) since the event starting time is noon eastern.
At that time ESPN will be showing the men’s Wimbledon semifinals and ESPN2 will be showing the first quarterfinal of the 2014 World Cup. (If that competition goes to overtime / penalty kicks, it will cut into the Nathan’s program). A rebroadcast is scheduled for July 6 at 1pm eastern.
ESPNU will be showing a rerun of the NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, so the Nathan’s finals could be shown live on that channel. The ESPN3.com schedule does not list the women’s contest; hopefully that will be added.
The July 4 schedule on NathansFamous.com appears to confirm that the telecast will be tape-delayed.
update The early World Cup quarterfinal on July 4 will have a team from group E or F vs. G or H. Germany vs. France appears to be the most likely matchup. The USA could play at that time in the extremely unlikely event they win Group G.
Tim Janus (without makeup) and Crazy Legs Conti competed in a pizza eating contest on Mike & Mike on ESPN2/ESPN Radio this morning against Mike Greenberg. They (and Pete Davekos) also competed in a wing eating contest on the program against Mike Golic in 2008.
Jimmy Dykes, who has served as a reporter in broadcasts of the Nathan's hot dog eating finals on ESPN, has been named head women's basketball coach at the University of Arkansas.
Joey Chestnut has been nominated for the "Outstanding New Limit" category of ESPN's Sport Science Newton Awards, which will be announced tomorrow on the 5 pm eastern edition of Sportcenter. One of Joey's rivals for the category is marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, who wrote an anti-competitive eating column for the Huffington Post last year.
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