Rival hot dog-eating legends Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi are set to face off in an upcoming Netflix competition.
The popular streaming service announced the face-off challenge Wednesday titled “CHESTNUT VS. KOBAYASHI: UNFINISHED BEEF,” with a set airing date of Sept. 2.
“Watch live on Sept. 2 as hot dog-eating champion Joey Chestnut faces off against rival Takeru Kobayashi in the ultimate wiener-takes-all competition,” the announcement read.
A rivalry simmering for 15 years.
CHESTNUT VS. KOBAYASHI: UNFINISHED BEEF — the ultimate hot dog eating competition — will air LIVE on Netflix, Monday, September 2. pic.twitter.com/MeVQP1lQuS
— Netflix (@netflix) June 12, 2024
The announcement comes one day after Chestnut was banned from the annual July 4 Nathans Hot Dog Eating Competition after taking on a sponsorship deal with a vegan food brand, The New York Post (NYP) reported. (RELATED: Hot Dog Eating Champ Joey Chestnut Banned From Competition For Endorsing Vegan Beef).
The annual hot dog eating contest has taken place in Coney Island, New York, since 1916, the outlet reported. Chestnut has won the competition a total of 16 times, with an ongoing streak since 2016.
Chestnut was set to endorse the vegan brand Impossible Foods, sources told The Post. Impossible Foods is most notably known for its meatless Impossible Burger. The brand recently unveiled a hot dog “made from plants,” the NYP reported.
A Major League Eating (MLE) representative told The Post they refused to accept the hot dog-eating champ’s pitch for the use of a different hot dog brand.
“We are devastated to learn that Joey Chestnut has chosen to represent a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs rather than competing in the 2024 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest,” MLE said in a statement to The Post.
The statement continued to note how the MLE made accommodations to Chestnut and his team, including allowing him to compete in an unbranded, rival hot dog eating contest on Labor Day.
“For nearly two decades we have worked under the same basic hot dog exclusivity provisions. However, it seems that Joey and his managers have prioritized a new partnership with a different brand over our long-time relationship,” the statement continued. “Joey Chestnut is an American hero. We would love nothing more than to have him at the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest. We hope he returns when he is not representing a rival brand.”
Kobayashi, a 46-year-old Japanese world-eating champ, announced his retirement in a Netflix documentary released in April titled “Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut,” according to another NYP report. Kobayashi won six consecutive Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contests, the outlet noted.
He explained in the documentary all those years of competitive eating ruined his appetite.
“When you eat too much, you lose the ability to smell the food, and you also ignore signals from your body, such as feeling full,” he said in the documentary, the NYP noted.
