ESPN will celebrate the July 4 holiday with live coverage of the annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest without arguably the event's most famous contestant, 16-time champion Joey Chestnut.
The competitive eating event will begin Thursday morning with coverage of the women’s competition at 10:45 am, followed by the men’s competition at 12 noon, according to the network. ESPN Outside the Lines host Jeremy Schaap and Major League Eating president Rich Shea will host the competition for ESPN, which is airing the Hot Dog Eating Contest for the 21st consecutive year.
Conspicuously absent from this year’s festivities is Chestnut, who has won the men's competition every year since 2016. Chestnut was banned from this year’s competition after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, which makes plant-based hot dogs, according to ESPN.
Chestnut instead will compete in a Labor Day hot dog eating contest against Takeru Kobayashi that will stream live on Netflix.
Along with ESPN’s live coverage of the event, streaming channel ESPN3 will offer isolation cameras of the top-ranked women’s competitor Miki Sudo and men’s participant Geoffrey Esper. Other competitors include Mayoi “Ebimayo” Ebihara, Nick Wehry, Michelle Lesco, James Webb and Patrick Bertoletti.
