The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest has been held at the
original location on
Coney Island most years since about 1972, usually in conjunction with
Independence Day. As Coney Island is often linked with recreational activities of the summer season, several early contests were held on other holidays associated with summer besides Independence Day; for example, multiple contests in the 1970s were scheduled on
Memorial Day In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the competition was dominated by
Japanese contestants, particularly Kobayashi, who won six consecutive contests from 2001 to 2006. In 2001, Kobayashi transformed the competition and the world of competitive eating by downing 50 hot dogs—smashing the previous record of 25.5. The Japanese eater introduced advanced eating and training techniques that shattered previous
competitive eating world records. The rise in popularity of the event coincided with the surge in popularity of the worldwide competitive eating circuit. In recent years, a considerable amount of pomp and circumstance have surrounded the days leading up to the event, which has become an annual
spectacle of
competitive entertainment. The event is presented on an extravagant stage complete with colorful live announcers and an overall party atmosphere. The day before the contest is a public weigh-in with the
mayor of New York City. Some competitors don flamboyant costumes and/or
makeup, while others may promote themselves with eating-related
nicknames. On the morning of the event, they have a heralded arrival to Coney Island on the "bus of champions" and are called to the stage individually during introductions. In 2013, six-time defending champion
Joey Chestnut was escorted to the stage in a
sedan chair. The competition draws many spectators and worldwide press coverage. In 2004, a three-story-high "Hot Dog Eating Wall of Fame" was erected at the site of the annual contest. The wall lists past winners, and has a digital clock which counts down the minutes until the next contest. In 2007, an estimated 50,000 came out to witness the event. Despite substantial damage suffered at
Nathan's due to
Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, the location was repaired, reopened, and the 2013 event was held as scheduled.
ESPN has long enjoyed solid ratings from its broadcast of the Hot Dog Eating Contest on Independence Day, and on July 1, 2014, the network announced it had extended its agreement with
Major League Eating and would broadcast the contest through 2024. The most recent broadcast rights deal, announced in November 2022, will keep the contest airing on ESPN through 2029. In 2003 former
National Football League player
William "The Refrigerator" Perry competed as a celebrity contestant. Though he had won a qualifier by eating twelve hot dogs, he ate only four at the contest, stopping after just five minutes. The celebrity contestant experiment has not been held since. At the 2007 contest, the results were delayed to review whether defending champion Kobayashi had vomited (also known as a "Roman method incident" or "reversal of fortune") in the final seconds of regulation. Such an incident results in the disqualification of the competitor under the rules of the IFOCE. The judges ruled in Kobayashi's favor. A similar incident occurred involving Kobayashi in 2002 in a victory over
Eric "Badlands" Booker. On July 4, 2011,
Sonya Thomas became the champion of the first Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest for Women. Previously, women and men had competed against each other, except for one Memorial Day competition held in 1975. Eating 40 hot dogs in 10 minutes, Thomas earned the inaugural
Pepto-Bismol-sponsored pink belt and won $10,000. In 2020, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the contest was held without spectators at an indoor location in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and only five eaters competed in each category instead of the usual 15. In 2021, the event was held at
Maimonides Park, with a reduced crowd of 7,000.
Competitor bans Kobayashi has not competed in the contest since 2009 due to his refusal to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating, which is the current sanctioning body of the contest. In 2010, he was arrested by police after attempting to jump on the stage after the contest was over and disrupt the proceedings. Some witnesses reported that Kobayashi was attempting to congratulate the winner, Chestnut. On August 5, 2010, all charges against Kobayashi were dismissed by a judge in Brooklyn. Despite his six consecutive victories in their annual event, Nathan's removed Kobayashi's image from their "Wall of Fame" in 2011. Kobayashi again refused to compete in 2011, but instead conducted his own hot dog eating exhibition, consuming 69 HDB, seven more than Chestnut accomplished in the Nathan's contest. The sports website
Deadspin deemed Kobayashi's solo appearance "an improbably perfect 'up yours' to the Nathan's hot dog eating contest." Chestnut was banned from the 2024 contest due to signing a deal with Impossible Food, which sells plant based products including hot dogs. A Major League Eating executive claimed that Nathan's asked for an exemption to the deal be made regarding Impossible Food's hot dogs which was denied with Major League Eating banning Chestnut as a result. On June 25, Chestnut instead agreed to attend
Fort Bliss' Pop Goes the Fort celebration and compete in a 4 versus 1 eating competition with a five minute time limit, with Chestnut prevailing 57 to 49 while raising $106,000 for
Operation Homefront.
Fake history of the contest In 2010, Nathan's promoter Mortimer "Morty" Matz admitted to having fabricated the legend of the 1916 start date with a man named Max Rosey in the early 1970s as part of a publicity stunt. According to that legend, on July 4, 1916, four immigrants held a hot dog eating contest at Nathan's Famous stand on Coney Island to settle an argument about who was the most
patriotic. Some accounts alleged that a man named Jim Mullen won the first contest. Others described
Jimmy Durante, who was
not an immigrant, as competing in that all-immigrant inaugural contest, which was judged by
Eddie Cantor and
Sophie Tucker. Another co-founder describes the event as beginning "in 1917, and pitted
Mae West's father, Jack, against entertainer Eddie Cantor." Nathan made the spurious claim that the contest has been held each year since then except 1941, "as a protest to the war in Europe", and 1971, as a protest to political unrest in the U.S. The legend grew over the years, to the point where
The New York Times and other publications were known to have repeatedly listed 1916 as the inaugural year, although no evidence of the contest exists. ==Results==