ESPN will celebrate the Fourth of July holiday with live coverage of the annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, but without arguably the event’s most famous competitor, 16-time champion Joey Chestnut.
The eating contest begins Thursday morning with the women’s competition broadcast at 10:45 a.m., followed by the men’s competition at noon, the network said. ESPN Outside the lines Host Jeremy Schaap and Major League Eating President Rich Shea host the competition for ESPN, which is airing the Hot Dog Eating Contest for the 21st consecutive year.
Noticeably absent from this year’s festivities is Chestnut, who has won the men’s competition every year since 2016. Chestnut was disqualified from this year’s competition after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, which makes plant-based hot dogs, according to ESPN.
Instead, Chestnut will compete in a hot dog eating contest against Takeru Kobayashi on Labor Day, which will be streamed live on Netflix.
In addition to ESPN’s live coverage of the event, streaming channel ESPN3 will feature solo cameras of top-ranked female competitor Miki Sudo and male competitor Geoffrey Esper. Other competitors include Mayoi “Ebimayo” Ebihara, Nick Wehry, Michelle Lesco, James Webb and Patrick Bertoletti.
