ESPN has renewed its television contract with Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest for the next ten years. The United States may have been eliminated from the 2014 World Cup, but Americans took solace in the fact that they would be able to mourn the World Cup loss by trying to eat as many hotdogs as possible in ten minutes.
What could possibly be more American than that?
Fans of the popular competitive eating contest will have even more to cheer for as ESPN and Nathan’s Hot Dogs kicked off the traditional festivities today by announcing that they have extended their television partnership for another ten years, inking a deal that will guarantee a broadcaster of the popular event until the year 2024.
The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is a yearly competitive eating contest that is held every Fourth of July at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs in Coney Island, which is in the Brooklyn, New York area. The first competition was held in 1972, though legend has it that the first competition was held in 1916 when four immigrants held the contest to settle a dispute over which of them was more “American” and “most patriotic.” The competition is governed by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (or, the IFOCE).
Yes. There is, in fact, an organization that specifically monitors competitive eating. And yes, they take their job very seriously.
Fans always live in fear that one day, the Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest will cease being televised, but lucky for them, ESPN has renewed the contract for at least another ten years. This renewed partnership will bring a live one-hour television presentation on ESPN News, and then a future encore presentation on ESPN2. Competitors in the hot dog contest compete for prizes worth more than $40,000, and the popular eaters will get a guaranteed fifteen minutes of fame, or however long it takes for each contestant to digest the dozens of hotdogs they eat on live television.
The event has become so popular in the United States that the competition has since added a women’s competition into the mix as well. Over the years, people from all around the world have welcomed and embraced their favorite and most successful competitive eaters such as Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobyashi. But, as Americans, many are wondering whether it even matters if the best possible candidates are competing because the ratings have been holding steady, and even slightly rising at times, no matter who was competing. This point is brought up because in 2010, Takeru Kobyashi, one of the world’s most popular competitive eaters, left the competition because of contract disputes. However, even with contract disputes and the exit of a very popular competitive eater, the ratings have stayed steady between 1 million viewers and 2 million viewers – ratings numbers that are not seen often on ESPN News and ESPN2.
It is no wonder why the television contract renewal was a no-brainer for the popular sports broadcasting family of networks. There are a couple of things that are certain with the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest – thousands upon thousands of people will crowd the Coney Island Boardwalk to watch the competition – rain or shine – and millions upon millions of people will tune in to ESPN to watch a niche sport that has gained popularity over the years – all of this for another ten years on every Fourth of July since ESPN renewed the contract with Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest. The growth potential is unlimited, both financially and traditionally.