Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN Settles for Smallest TV Audience Since 2005

The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN didn’t hit an all-time low in TV ratings this year, but the annual July 4 special was unable to crack one million total viewers.

Saturday’s socially distanced version of the Coney Island staple averaged 966,000 viewers, which is the lowest draw for an initial airing of the contest since 2005. Back then, the niche “sport” received 860,000 viewers.

At the time, the new-to-TV contest was in its cultural infancy, and was dominated by Japanese eater Takeru Kobayashi. It is now much more mainstream.

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This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event was held indoors with plexiglass partitions between the “athletes” and their gross work stations. Travel restrictions narrowed the field of competitors to only five men and five women. Americans Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo won — again.

In 2005, which again is the last time the Nathan’s event had lower television viewership, Kobayashi won his fifth-straight Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. He would win again in ’06, and then his dominance was exceeded.

The following year, Chestnut won for the first time, unseating King Kobayashi. Chestnut would go on to win a remarkable 13 of the next 14 years, falling only to fellow American competitive eater Matt Stonie in 2015.

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This year, Chestnut down 75 dogs and buns. Sudo, who claimed her sixth-straight first-place finish in the women’s division, gobbled down 48.5 hot dogs and buns. Both of those are world records in their respective divisions.

In the annual event sponsored by the hot dog brand, competitors are given 10 minutes to eat as much as they can stomach. The popular winning strategy includes ripping the hot dogs in half and dunking them in drinking water. It helps the hot dogs go down, but makes ours want to come up.

ESPN acquired the TV rights to the contest in 2003. Since 2004, the event has been airing live.

'OJ: Made in America': The 5 Biggest Shockers (Photos)

The first episode of ESPN's "OJ: Made in America," focuses on OJ Simpson's early years, and only hints at the tragedy to come. Here are five surprises, and why they're significant.

Also Read: How ‘OJ: Made In America’ Is Better Than Any Other OJ Simpson Retrospective
ESPN Films
1. He Married His Best Friend's Girlfriend

Childhood friend Joe Bell recalls how Simpson "stole his best friend's girl" -- convincing his first wife Marguerite to marry him instead of Al "AC" Cowlings.
ESPN Films
Cowlings, of course, was the endlessly supportive friend who took the wheel as Simpson fled police in the white Bronco.
2. He Knew How to Get Out of Trouble

In high school, when a coach caught Simpson and his friends shooting dice and took them to the principal's office, Simpson waited a few beats and then followed the coach out. Bell recalled him explaining, "I was just helping Mr. McBride bring these guys down here. And Dean Smith let him go."
ESPN Films
The film suggests that Simpson's gift for getting out of tight situations have him a false sense that he was indestructible.
ESPN Films
3. OJ's Father Was Gay

Bell also recounts his discovery that Simpson's father was gay: "Back in our day, that was the worst thing you could ever think about an African-American man," Bell said.
ESPN Films
Prosecutors say Simpson once beat Nicole Brown Simpson for letting a gay man kiss his son, Justin, during a family trip to Hawaii.
ESPN Films
4. "I'm Not Black. I'm OJ."

Sociologist Harry Edwards -- featured prominently in "Made in America" -- tried in the late '60s to get black athletes to take political stands.

"We were trying to get black athletes to understand they have a role in the current Civil Right movement," Edwards said. "His response was, I'm not black. I'm OJ."
ESPN Films
Edwards inspired two track stars, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, to give the black power salute at the 1968 Olympics. Simpson wondered if they had been used by the movement.
ESPN Films
"OJ's quest was to erase race as a defining factor in his life and that was the basis upon which white society not only accepted him but embraced him," Edwards says in the film. "Now there are problems with that because what enabled OJ to be OJ and not be black was that so many Negroes and black people stood up, made the sacrifice, paid the price."
ESPN Films
Though Simpson was skeptical of the gesture at the '68 Olympics, one of the jurors in his case -- a former Black Panther -- raised a fist to Simpson after finding him not guilty of murder. (The moment was dramatized in "The People v OJ Simpson")
FX
5. He Was Rough With Nicole on Their First Date

Her friend, David LeBon, remembers her returning from her first date with Simpson with her jeans ripped. "And she goes, well, he was a little forceful."
ESPN Films
Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, were murdered on June 12, 1994. Simpson was charged in the killings and acquitted the next year.
ESPN Films
Even if you've seen OJ: Made in America and "People v OJ Simpson," here are 5 OJ Simpson Facts You Still Don't Know.

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Episode 1 of ESPN’s ”OJ: Made in America“ only hints at the insanity to come

The first episode of ESPN's "OJ: Made in America," focuses on OJ Simpson's early years, and only hints at the tragedy to come. Here are five surprises, and why they're significant.

Also Read: How ‘OJ: Made In America’ Is Better Than Any Other OJ Simpson Retrospective

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Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN Settles for Smallest TV Audience Since 2005

'OJ: Made in America': The 5 Biggest Shockers (Photos)

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'OJ: Made in America': The 5 Biggest Shockers (Photos)

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