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.
In his ESPN.com podcast series, Bill Simmons occasionally mentioned his friend Joe House's stomach capacity. A new video series for Grantland.com will document this ability. The debut episode of "House Eats" was recorded at Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe in Victorville, CA. In a new podcast Joe House discusses the project at the 47 minute mark.
Adam Richman will be doing a chat session on ESPN.com today starting at 1:15 pm eastern.
Tim Janus' 18 second burp is #8 in ESPN Sportcenter's Not Top 10 of 2012 (video).
"Cousin" Sal Iacono has a column for grantland.com about attempting an eating challenge at Popei's in BethPage, NY in 1993, which required some unconventional techniques to get credit for finishing.
Nathan’s contest to start at noon, to be tape delayed on ESPN
The Olympics will apparently not be the only tape-delayed sporting event this summer. The Nathan’s Famous facebook page announces that the Nathan’s finals will begin at the tradition starting time of noon eastern and a recording of the event will be televised on ESPN at 3pm. A comment says that the contest will be televised live on another ESPN network. (via Larell Marie email) update The schedule listing on ESPN.go.com does not currently show a hot dog contest at noon July 4 on any ESPN network.
update The Brooklyn Paper gives a conflict with a Brooklyn Cyclones game as the reason for the time shift. The game will start at 6 pm, two hours after original end of the contest. Presumably, the Cyclones schedule has been set since the start of the baseball season in April so it is surprising that no conflict would be announced until 9 days before July 4. The maximum attendance at the Cyclones ballpark is 10,000, a fifth of the estimated attendance at the Nathan’s finals.
update June 26 IFOCE.com announces the contest will not be televised live on any ESPN cable channel; it will be streamed on ESPN3.com
A press release announces the launch of ESPNW.com, an online channel devoted solely to women's competitions. The Nathan's women's finals is listed on the ESPNW.com schedule at 2:25 pm eastern, before the start of the 3pm program on ESPN.
The World Burping Championship won by Tim Janus is #2 in ESPN's Not Top 10 list of the week.
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