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.
Nathan’s Television Ratings 2004-2007, 2009-2013
Here are the official television ratings for 9 of the 10 years that Nathan’s has been televised on ESPN / ESPN2. (I have not been able to find 2008). Results are from SportsMediaWatch, NY Times and TBO.com
| Year | Rating | # Viewers (000) | Network |
| 2004 | ? | 926 | ESPN |
| 2005 | ? | 860 | ESPN |
| 2006 | ? | 1,460 | ESPN |
| 2007 | 1.3 | 1,632 | ESPN |
| 2008 | ? | ? | ESPN |
| 2009 | 1.0 | 1,340 | ESPN |
| 2010 | 1.0 | 1,677 | ESPN |
| 2011 | 1.1 | 1,949 | ESPN |
| 2012 | 0.8 | 1,299 | ESPN (tape delayed) |
| 2013 | 0.7 | 1,146 | ESPN2 |
In the Marie Claire Australia about female competitive eaters, the claim is made that the broadcast on ESPN2 received a higher rating than the major league baseball game on July 4. That is an interesting assertion since no baseball game was televised on ESPN / ESPN2 on that day. Sports Business Daily has a list of ratings from early July; the July 7 baseball game had a higher rating than the Nathan's programming (1.3 vs. 0.7).
2013 St. Elmo’s Shrimp Cocktail eating contest
update Dec 12 He Eats She Drinks has a contest video
Crazy Legs Conti has a blog entry for the Huffington Post
update Dec 10 CT News has a contest report
update #2 The Indy Star also has a gallery. WISH TV has an article and video. Big City Photography has a facebook gallery.
update The Indy Star has a video
The top 6: (Part 1 | Part 2)
1) Joey Chestnut 9.25 lb 8 minutes
2) Yasir Salem 5 lb.
3) Crazy Legs Conti 4.25
4) Matt Raible 4
5) Tracy Goode 3
6) Craig “The Doctor” Evans 2
This might be the coldest outdoor contest in IFOCE/MLE history. The current temperature in Indianapolis is 25F
Joey Chestnut appeared on ESPN College GameDay earlier today and picked the Big 10 championship game.
Ray Steele has interviews with Joey Chestnut and Tracy Goode.
According to TheWrap.com, Tim "Eater X" Janus appears in the background of the latest "This Is SportCenter" commercial on ESPN (around the 15 second mark).
Halftime promotion Little Arlene, billed as the "hot dog queen" made a brief appearance in "Free Spirits", a documentary about the St. Louis Spirits of the ABA that debuted tonight on ESPN. According to a 1986 LA Times article, she ate 23 hot dogs, 22 large slices of pizza and 16 large Cokes during a Philadelphia 76ers game.
In an outtake video from ESPN's Around the Horn, Pablo Torres talks about his attempt at the Fifth Third burger challenge available at West Michigan Whitecaps games.
The Hollywood Reporter announces that the broadcast of the 2013 Nathan's finals on ESPN2 attracted 1.15 million viewers and a 0.7 rating, a decline from the 0.8 rating the tape-delayed broadcast received in 2012 (# of 2012 viewers not specified). The last live coverage on ESPN in 2011 attracted 1.949 million viewers.
ESPN Sportsnation has several poll questions about competitive eating.
ESPN Sportsnation will host an online chat session with Joey Chestnut today at 2:30 ET / 11:30a PT.
ESPN2 to show Sportscenter instead of Nathan’s womens finals
The 2013 Nathan’s TV schedule is now out (scroll down to “Great Events”). ESPN2 will start live coverage of the men’s finals at noon EDT while ESPN televises Wimbledon. The broadcast will be rerun on ESPN at 1 pm EDT and 7 pm EDT and on ESPN2 at 5 pm EDT.
The women’s finals will be webcast on ESPN3.com starting at 11:30. ESPN2 will be showing Sportscenter at that time, so the women’s finals could be televised live if the Sportscenter starting at 7 am EDT on that channel was truncated from five hours to 4:30.
The television schedule for this year's Wimbledon tournament lists that ESPN will televise the women's semifinals from 9am - 1pm eastern on July 4, which will conflict with live coverage of the Nathan's finals on that channel. Last year's Nathan's finals were webcast live on ESPN3.com and tape-delayed on ESPN. update June 14 An IFOCE.com page about the finals (which lists the defending women's champion as Sonya Morgan) says they will be televised live on ESPN2.
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is #2 on Awful Announcing's ranking of ESPN alternate programming. (The World Series of Poker is #1).
ABC15 has a news video segment about Jeff "The Beastman" Butler. The accompanying article claims that the Nathan's telecast on ESPN will be tape-delayed again this year at 3 pm Eastern (but shown live on ESPN3.com).
Videos of the eating contest held in New Orleans the day before the Super Bowl betweeen Grantland.com writers Joe House and "Cousin" Sal Iacono have been posted to youtube: contest | bonus clip - cheating | bonus - showing off | outtakes
The episode of Cheap Seats where the Sklar brothers commentate on ESPN's 2005 telecast of the US Open of Competitive Eating can be viewed on youtube.
The episode of ESPN's Cheap Seats where the Sklar brothers commentate on the telecast of the 2004 Nathan's finals can be viewed on youtube.
The gambling website Sportsbook.ag is accepting bets on an eating contest to be held today in New Orleans between Grantland.com (ESPN) personalities Joe House and "Cousin" Sal Iacono. (video preview | podcast preview | "House Eats" video #2).
In Grantland.com's list of 2013 predictions, "Cousin" Sal Iacono claims that Joey Chestnut will become a vegetarian after being held hostage by PETA.
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