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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.
The Major League Eating Top 50 has been updated. Joey Chestnut remains #1 despite his estrangement from the organization. Nathan’s winner Pat Bertoletti jumps to #2. The new top 10
Entering
leaving
Notable omissions: Takuya Yamomoto, William Lyon, Max Stanford, Yasir Salem, Kylan Lee, Tandra Childress
Time Magazine has an article about competitive eating health risks which also offers an update on Tim “Eater X” Janus.
Tim Janus, a 47-year old ex-competitive eater who Metz has studied in scientific research, quit the sport in 2016 after 11 years “out of an abundance of caution” partly based on Metz’s findings about the risks. He was also concerned about the harms of throwing up following competition, a practice that he describes as widespread. “When you’re eating that much food, you can’t digest it all,” he says. “Your stomach is too full to move things along. Throwing up after the contest is a necessary part of the sport.”
Janus tried to collaborate with other pro eaters to share and track their health to better understand the effects of competing, but he couldn’t rally their interest. He’s now a foreign service officer in Mexico City in good health. Most of his former competitors say they’re healthy, too, but he “didn’t want to continue and realize I made a mistake.”
Joey Chestnut did an interview with Sports Illustrated about his estrangement from MLE
SI: So you felt blindsided? This was just out there, and it wasn’t something you’d known would happen when you signed with Impossible, and it wasn’t something you’d heard about from the Shea brothers or Major League Eating?
JC: Absolutely not. Everything with Impossible was perfectly fine by all my previous agreements. They changed terms and conditions [around] exclusivity. And it’s not the first time they’ve changed some things, but it’s the first time they’ve really changed things after the fact, and I had to say, “Hey, it’s too late, I’ve already started working with this brand.” This was never an issue in the past. And they tried to dance around it—they changed a lot of terms, and then they escalated things to a degree they didn’t imagine when they started leaking information and telling people I was banned and that I turned vegan, which clearly isn’t the case.
SI: When was the last time you talked to the Shea brothers?
JC: They both sent me a little message saying, pretty much, that they’re sorry it got ugly. One of them said hopefully we can have beers in the future. But they’re not bad people, they’re just them, and that’s the way they are. I just—I didn’t expect it to go the way it did. I’m always willing to make concessions and willing to meet people in the middle. If I start something, I like to finish it, and if we started negotiating, I didn’t want to be sent away or banned. I thought we could finally get it. But it didn’t work out that way.
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.
Daily Mail has an interview with Joey Chestnut about his July 4 event at Fort Bliss in El Paso and his breakup with Major League Eating. He says he feels bullied by the organization and demands an apology to return to MLE events. He also discusses the possiblity of a Netflix hot dog eating contest on July 4, 2025.
However, he remains hopeful that he can get back to competing on July 4th next year, either with Netflix or at the Nathan’s Famous contest. For him to re-enter the Coney Island event though, he’d need to make up with the event organizers, Major League Eating.
‘I feel bullied,’ Chestnut shared. ‘If I’m ever going to work with them again, they’re going to have to apologize,’ Chestnut said.
According to a statement from spokesman George Shea, Major League Eating said it eventually conceded the sponsorship issue.
‘Unfortunately, this was not enough to get us to an agreement,’ the statement said. ‘We think this is a powerful tribute to our armed forces and we wish Joey the best of luck at his event.’
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.
Joey Chestnut announced that he will not be competing in this year’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest and his relationship with Major League Eating appears to be over. Via twitter:
I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years Im banned from the Nathan’s July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title. To set the record straight, I do not have a contract with MLE or Nathans and they are looking to change the rules from past years as it relates to other partners I can work with.This is apparently the basis on which I’m being banned, and it doesn’t impact the July 4th event. Sadly, this is the decision Nathan’s and Major League Eating are making, and it will deprive the great fans of the holiday’s usual joy and entertainment. To my fans, I love you and appreciate you. Rest assured that you’ll see me eat again soon!! STAY HUNGRY!
According to the New York Post, Joey Chestnut’s endorsement deal with Impossible Foods for plant-based frankfurters for $1.2 million over four years was the cause of the breakdown of the relationship. (MLE statement).
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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