Speaker 1: Al Zoe Media Stay.
Speaker 2: Six Welcome back to sixteenth Minute, the podcast where we
Speaker 2: talk to the Internet's characters of the day and figure
Speaker 2: out how their moment affected them and what it says
Speaker 2: about us and the Internet. And today we are doing
Speaker 2: a little bit of bonus content bibe, a little treat
Speaker 2: for my friends, a little cyclical meat for my friends,
Speaker 2: because today I want to share a little bit about
Speaker 2: my time in Las Vegas from last month when I
Speaker 2: went to go see the Takaro Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut
Speaker 2: showdown that happened on Labor Day. The event itself was
Speaker 2: broadcast live on Netflix. It was called Unfinished Beef. Pretty
Speaker 2: good title, you gotta admit. And it was a part
Speaker 2: of this new initiative from Netflix that maybe you've noticed
Speaker 2: in the last year there live streaming more things across genres,
Speaker 2: and this appeared to kind of be an experiment to
Speaker 2: see how hotdog eating would play in this format. And
Speaker 2: to start, I want to be clear about one thing.
Speaker 2: Hot dog eating is sports. And this was the first
Speaker 2: event I had ever been to that unquestionably treated hot
Speaker 2: dog eating like sports. I would not have missed it
Speaker 2: for the world. I literally flew myself there. I am
Speaker 2: very invested in the rivalry of Kobayashi v. Chestnuts. So
Speaker 2: if you want to hear the full story of that rivalry,
Speaker 2: both online and off, as well as all of the
Speaker 2: intersecting media narratives that followed them over the years, that
Speaker 2: is in our episode that came out earlier this week.
Speaker 2: But today I am taking you to an event I
Speaker 2: was convinced would never happen the day that Joey and
Speaker 2: Kobe faced off one last time on September two, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. As well as a little more from our
Speaker 2: guest from our last episode, Nicole Lucas Haymes, who is
Speaker 2: both an executive producer on Unfinished Beef on Netflix as
Speaker 2: well as the director of the iconic twenty nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: for thirty documentary on this rivalry called The Good, The Bad,
Speaker 2: the Hungry. So come with me if you will till
Speaker 2: Las Vegas. It's September in Vegas, and so it's so
Speaker 2: hot I want to die and I'm here to see
Speaker 2: who after fifteen years of not competing against each other,
Speaker 2: has come out to see Kobayashi and Chestnut compete live
Speaker 2: at the Hyperax Arena in the middle of Labor Day,
Speaker 2: and as my friend and writer at The Ringer Jody
Speaker 2: Walker mentions in her wonderful coverage of the event, which
Speaker 2: I will link in the description, Labor Day clocks in
Speaker 2: as an American holiday pretty close in jingoism to the
Speaker 2: Fourth of July. It's a celebration of the social and
Speaker 2: economic achievements of the American worker, or it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2: It began as a celebration of unions and collective efforts
Speaker 2: to cut down grueling work schedules in favor of more
Speaker 2: manageable hours and wages. But like many American holidays, over time,
Speaker 2: Labor Day has become a day to enjoy heavily processed
Speaker 2: meat with your friends. But this year I am clo
Speaker 2: walking in on Labor Day in Vegas, in this blisteringly hot,
Speaker 2: completely mollified American city to hear why the workers of
Speaker 2: America are spending their leisure day watching these guys eat
Speaker 2: hundreds of hot dogs. And just as Labor Day is
Speaker 2: the second best holiday for such an event, Las Vegas
Speaker 2: feels like the second best location to Coney Island, where
Speaker 2: the Nathan's famous Hot Dog contest happens every fourth of
Speaker 2: July since the nineteen seventies and where Joey and Kobe
Speaker 2: faced off for the better part of the two thousands,
Speaker 2: kicking off this rivalry in the first place. And this
Speaker 2: event was happening right on the strip, and I like
Speaker 2: this strip. It's like if the Mall of America got
Speaker 2: drunk and sharded itself. When I arrive at the Hyperrex Arena,
Speaker 2: I am far from alone. There is a lot of
Speaker 2: press here and technically I'm not even here as press.
Speaker 2: I am technically here as a guest of Netflix. I
Speaker 2: took a meeting with some of the produce of this
Speaker 2: special while it was still coming together earlier in the summer,
Speaker 2: and I managed to scam my way into VIP access
Speaker 2: instead of mixing among the plebes, which was honestly surprising
Speaker 2: to me because I was fully planning on being one
Speaker 2: of the plebes. I just reserved normal tickets because I
Speaker 2: assumed I would not be able to con Netflix into
Speaker 2: letting me go, but I did. There was a lot
Speaker 2: of press around this event, and it's largely appealing to
Speaker 2: the nostalgia of this rivalry that's been going on for
Speaker 2: the better part of twenty years. So I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: what to expect, because it seemed like this event came
Speaker 2: together pretty rapidly, and down to the day it happens,
Speaker 2: I had a lot of questions about what this event
Speaker 2: was really going to be. What I did know was
Speaker 2: that the rematch was the brainchild of director Nicole Lucas Hayms, who,
Speaker 2: as we discussed in the last episode, was the first
Speaker 2: person to really pull in the personal narratives of both
Speaker 2: Joey and Kobe in her thirty for thirty, along with
Speaker 2: kN textualizing their relationship with Major League Eating and its
Speaker 2: top brass George Shay. Nicole had been wanting to make
Speaker 2: this happen for half a decade, and in summer twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, everything suddenly came together for the first time.
Speaker 2: Joey Chestnut was finally contractually available to do a rematch
Speaker 2: during a year that Netflix happened to be seeking out
Speaker 2: high profile live stream opportunities, and in the coincidence of
Speaker 2: the century, one of the producers that Nicole had worked
Speaker 2: with at ESPN on the thirty for thirty had since
Speaker 2: moved over to Netflix. So I met the hyperex arena
Speaker 2: and the line is winding and buzzing with energy, even
Speaker 2: though it's ten in the morning and everyone seems a
Speaker 2: little bit hungover, and the Paya Day workers that have
Speaker 2: been hired by Netflix are circling in the crowd and
Speaker 2: distributing T shirts for people to wear on the broadcast.
Speaker 2: The white T shirts say Team Chestnut, the black T
Speaker 2: shirts say Team Kobe, and yes, I managed to get
Speaker 2: one of each. The event is to be hosted by
Speaker 2: comedian and Daily Wire alumni Rob Wriggle, along with w
Speaker 2: w E wrestling legend Nikki Bella. I am two hours
Speaker 2: early and there's already hundreds of people in line, and
Speaker 2: I quickly realized the only way to narrow down who
Speaker 2: I should be talking to in this line was to
Speaker 2: commit to only talking to people who were dressed like
Speaker 2: hot dogs. What brought you here? Event?
Speaker 3: We were and I are dating.
Speaker 4: And the first thing that I saw when I went
Speaker 4: to El Nathan's hot competition nod.
Speaker 2: Like a first day. I really like the first day,
Speaker 2: but my first time.
Speaker 5: They have your family at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are you rooting for one person? Fore the today
Speaker 2: we're writing for kobyash You see how the underdog will
Speaker 2: compete with chests out for sure. Nice to meet you,
Speaker 2: great outfits were the same at home. Yeah, we're just
Speaker 2: out here because like it's a great time to hang
Speaker 2: out with friends, like everyone comes together for competitive eating.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, if you don't see Jillian Kobayashi, Like why
Speaker 2: are you even here? Are you from around here? Oh
Speaker 2: we're from Denver? Oh see?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And then who are you rooting for?
Speaker 6: Today?
Speaker 4: We were to Kobe but you can't both of them.
Speaker 7: Yeah, my name's Carrie, Hi, I shall Anastasia and j Hello.
Speaker 2: What brings you bird today? Yeah? Okay, oh my god,
Speaker 2: you live birthday.
Speaker 8: And here I am all on the same day.
Speaker 5: And this couldn't have happened at a better time. Part
Speaker 5: time in Vegas has been great, but were we're not
Speaker 5: here to experience Vegas now here the hand dog when
Speaker 5: here for the challenge.
Speaker 2: We're here to see Kobe.
Speaker 6: Take all.
Speaker 2: And he's gonna win.
Speaker 9: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not he especially the goal he is the goat. Okay,
Speaker 2: what brings you here today? Well, because I've never gone
Speaker 2: to a hot sageting competition before, no way, so, and
Speaker 2: I know Joey Chestnut because I've seen him.
Speaker 3: In like misteris Vidius.
Speaker 2: So I just really wanted to come and see them.
Speaker 2: So did you have the costume already? Yeah, because I were.
Speaker 2: I was a hot dog as for Halloween like two
Speaker 2: years ago. Sides, he's had the costumes all right.
Speaker 10: Well, crazy guys, Plezzy time, Gluzzy Goblin, that's his time.
Speaker 11: Yes, take it out.
Speaker 2: Were you watching as this rivalry was originally playing out, Yes.
Speaker 4: Joey Chestnut all day. I think you takes them down.
Speaker 4: I think it's with ease.
Speaker 8: I think Kobeyashi's puking at the animile.
Speaker 10: Joey's taken down his eightieth plesy.
Speaker 12: I would love to see our shirt.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, there custom made.
Speaker 5: Wait, our faces are like, god, wait, that's not us.
Speaker 7: You can't tell.
Speaker 2: Because we're in disguised right now.
Speaker 10: That's yes, we brought two extras so we can handle
Speaker 10: Kobayashi and Chesna.
Speaker 2: So we've been rooting for Chessnut, but it just feels
Speaker 2: wrong to go against the og too.
Speaker 12: So that's what I just so thank yiss.
Speaker 9: Time.
Speaker 2: So you can tell a lot of different kinds of
Speaker 2: people are here in the people who had dressed up
Speaker 2: as hot dogs alone, and everyone was very very excited
Speaker 2: to be there, and particularly after I had scammed my
Speaker 2: way into Joey and Kobe t shirts because I don't
Speaker 2: take sides when both of my husbands are involved. I
Speaker 2: was eager to see how this event was going to
Speaker 2: be approached because the rollout for this event, well, there's
Speaker 2: some lore to the casual fan. A Joey Kobe rematch
Speaker 2: might have seemed like it came out of nowhere. It's
Speaker 2: been fifteen years since the very dramatic parting of this rivalry,
Speaker 2: which peaked with Kobe Yashi being publicly arrested on Coney
Speaker 2: Island while protesting Major League Eating's refusal to let him
Speaker 2: participate in the twenty ten contest. You can listen to
Speaker 2: our previous episode to know the full story. But a
Speaker 2: major factor as to why this.
Speaker 10: Happened Japan's Eating champion has been arrested after a fight
Speaker 10: at a hot dog competition in New York.
Speaker 2: Was because of Kobe's contractual issues with Major League Eating
Speaker 2: and xenophobia. But on paper contract issues, Kobeyashi felt his
Speaker 2: professional potential and ability to take on other sponsorships was
Speaker 2: extremely limited by Major League Eating because it was, but
Speaker 2: his pushing back on this did not go over well,
Speaker 2: and ultimately, amongst many other tensions, This was a major
Speaker 2: factor as to why he walked away from a contract renewal.
Speaker 2: But this was in the late two thousands, and it's
Speaker 2: interesting to watch why many people choose not to be
Speaker 2: with the mL now. The reason some eaters don't fuck
Speaker 2: with the organization is because you can make more money
Speaker 2: as an eating influencer. A great example is an eater
Speaker 2: named Matt Stoney, who has been the only person to
Speaker 2: defeat Joey Chesnut in the Nathan's Contest after Kobe departed
Speaker 2: in an otherwise uninterrupted seventeen year victory run.
Speaker 11: Now five seconds, what's in the mouthcounts, so they both
Speaker 11: are struggling to keep what's in the mouth in the mouth.
Speaker 11: The competition is now done and it appears that Matt
Speaker 11: Stony is our new champion.
Speaker 2: God Major League Gating has problems, but the commentary is
Speaker 2: just waw. Matt Stoney is still very much a working eater.
Speaker 2: In fact, he is basically the opening act at this
Speaker 2: Netflix event, but he doesn't compete in the Nathan's Contest anymore.
Speaker 2: He's been more focused on his YouTube channel in the
Speaker 2: past five years, where he currently has over sixteen million followers.
Speaker 2: And I don't have figures to certify definitely means more
Speaker 2: money than one would have under an MLA contract. But
Speaker 2: with the exception of the league's top eaters, most professional
Speaker 2: eaters have not quit their day jobs. But still, professional
Speaker 2: hotdog eating isn't really popular enough to command contract drama
Speaker 2: outside of their biggest stars. So really, if anyone was
Speaker 2: going to have enough name recognition to stir the pot
Speaker 2: when it came to renewing their contract, it would have
Speaker 2: to be like Joey Chestnut, And in June twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: it was Joey chest Nut.
Speaker 9: It's something that has left fans and competitors alike in shock.
Speaker 9: You might have already heard the buzz, but yes, it's true.
Speaker 9: Joey chestnutt, the king of the Nathan's Famous International hot
Speaker 9: Dog Eating Contest, won't be competing this year. This news
Speaker 9: has sent ripples through the competitive eating community.
Speaker 2: This was a lot of drama for me. I was
Speaker 2: in New York City. Why was I in New York City?
Speaker 2: Of course, to make a speech in front of the
Speaker 2: hot dog in Times Square that ejaculates confetti that you
Speaker 2: can listen to the episode about. But this was just
Speaker 2: a very dramatic time in the hot dog community. We
Speaker 2: didn't see it coming. We knew he was going to
Speaker 2: retire at some point, but this wasn't a retirement. This
Speaker 2: was walking away from the mL. And right away I
Speaker 2: noticed that there were a lot of media narratives that
Speaker 2: were competing with the real truth. It's very possible that
Speaker 2: there is some bad blood between Joey Chestnutt and Major
Speaker 2: League Eating, but none of that has been formally confirmed.
Speaker 2: What we know is that Joeoe was offered a contract
Speaker 2: with Impossible Foods that Major League Eating felt violated their
Speaker 2: long standing relationship with Nathan's Famous hot Dogs, which would
Speaker 2: be a rival brand, and for whatever reason legal, I'm
Speaker 2: assuming the mL forces Joey to choose between staying in
Speaker 2: the contest he became famous for, or this new deal
Speaker 2: with Impossible and Joey honestly, like I said in the
Speaker 2: last episode, Joey is more famous than the hot dog
Speaker 2: eating contest at this point, so he goes with Impossible,
Speaker 2: and this prompts a number of silly media narratives, including
Speaker 2: the idea that Joey went woke and went broke by
Speaker 2: taking money from Vegan hot Dogs, which isn't even true.
Speaker 2: He still eats meat The other narrative I saw a
Speaker 2: lot was that Joey had been banned permanently from the
Speaker 2: Nathan's Contest, which is also not technically true. Major League
Speaker 2: Eating has said he's welcomed back if he stops working
Speaker 2: with competing brands, and a quick side note here, Joey
Speaker 2: does have other ongoing business partnerships, I guess, just not
Speaker 2: ones that compete with a hot dog brand. I say
Speaker 2: this because I wanted to shout out my favorite Joey
Speaker 2: Chestnut collab, his ongoing partnership with Dudewipes.
Speaker 10: Horn seventy six hot dogs ten minutes to make a legends.
Speaker 2: But what happens after that's kind of explosive.
Speaker 10: To behind the eating with Joey Chestnuts presented by dude wipes.
Speaker 2: Sure, dude wipes are a gendered musky butt wipe for men.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're going to make aggressively gendered man wipes,
Speaker 2: I guess Joey Chestnut kind of he is your guy.
Speaker 2: He's a dirty boy.
Speaker 3: He needs his boy wipe.
Speaker 2: Anyways, it's the impossible foods partnership that severs the relationship
Speaker 2: between Joey and Major League Eating, and Joey makes a
Speaker 2: formal statement on what happened. From his perspective, on June eleventh,
Speaker 2: he says, I was gutted to learn from the media
Speaker 2: that after nineteen years, I'm banned from the Nathans July
Speaker 2: fourth hot Dog eating Contest. I love competing in that event.
Speaker 2: I love celebrating America with my fans all over this
Speaker 2: great country on the fourth, and I have been training
Speaker 2: to defend my title. To set the record straight, I
Speaker 2: do not have a contract with mL or Nathan's and
Speaker 2: they are looking to change the rules from past years
Speaker 2: as it relates to other partners I can work with.
Speaker 2: This is apparently the basis on which I'm being banned,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't impact the July fourth event. Sadly, this
Speaker 2: is the decision Nathan's and Major League Eating or making,
Speaker 2: and it will deprive the great fans of the huh
Speaker 2: Holiday's usual joy and entertainment. To my fans, I love
Speaker 2: you and appreciate you. Rest assured that you'll see me
Speaker 2: eat again soon. All caps stay hungry, and if you're
Speaker 2: a hot dog head, this is just like unbelievably juicy. Now,
Speaker 2: the really tricky thing here is that Joey says he
Speaker 2: does not currently have a formalized contract with the mL
Speaker 2: and part of the reason that is is because he
Speaker 2: learned from watching Kobayashi's experience. So there is a lot
Speaker 2: of frision between Joey and the organization, right It was
Speaker 2: a huge shakeup, and all of the fans, and by fans,
Speaker 2: I mean me, were waiting to find out if this
Speaker 2: issue was going to be resolved or if Joey was
Speaker 2: going to make the break between himself and the contest permanent.
Speaker 2: And we didn't need to wait long to find out,
Speaker 2: because the next day, Netflix announced hot dog eating champs
Speaker 2: Joey Chestnut and toa Karo Kobayashi will go head to
Speaker 2: head in a Netflix special. The contest, titled Chestnut for
Speaker 2: Versus Kobayashi Unfinished Beef, will feature the two chowing down
Speaker 2: on all beef hot dogs, likely in a nod to
Speaker 2: reports that Chestnut's rival brand deal is with Impossible Foods,
Speaker 2: which makes plant based hot dogs. Major League Eating, the
Speaker 2: organization that oversees the Nathan's contest announced Tuesday that Chestnuts
Speaker 2: deal was an exclusivity issue, saying that it was his
Speaker 2: decision to step back from the competition he's participated in
Speaker 2: since two thousand and five quote. We love him, the
Speaker 2: fans love him, said George Shay, a Major League Eating
Speaker 2: event organizer, adding he made the choice, Oh, oh my god,
Speaker 2: the boys are fighting. I don't know what scandaval is,
Speaker 2: but whatever it is, this is that for me. And
Speaker 2: now Netflix is announcing that not only is Joey not
Speaker 2: returning to the contest, he is taking a check from
Speaker 2: Netflix and going up against his greatest former Major League
Speaker 2: Eating rifle. And on the day, Netflix releases this sorry,
Speaker 2: very ugly AI generated poster, which led me to think
Speaker 2: this must have come together very quickly, not even enough
Speaker 2: time to hire someone to make a poster quickly. George
Speaker 2: Shay of Major League Eating tries to play off the
Speaker 2: suddenness of this announcement and says that it's going to
Speaker 2: be a pale imitation of the Nathan's Contest, and it's
Speaker 2: unclear if that'll be true or not. Also quick sidebar,
Speaker 2: New York City Mayor Eric Adams bravely weighs in and says,
Speaker 2: stop being such wienies. It would be impossible to have
Speaker 2: this year's Nathan's Famous International Hot Tag Eating Contest without
Speaker 2: Joey Chestnut. Let's find a way to squash this beef
Speaker 2: and bring back the champ for another Fourth of July
Speaker 2: at Coney Island, and Eric Adams is doing great, I hear.
Speaker 2: So when I spoke with Nicole, I wanted to know
Speaker 2: did this Netflix thing come together really fast? And the
Speaker 2: answer appears to be yes and no. Nicole Lucas Ames
Speaker 2: tells me that she'd been trying to make this happen
Speaker 2: for years and once started moving the Netflix production team
Speaker 2: was amazing. This just happened to be when the stars aligned.
Speaker 2: How did this end up coming together?
Speaker 6: So Jenna Anthony, who is a very bright and somewhat
Speaker 6: visionary executive, asked me when she was at thirty for
Speaker 6: thirty to come in with the take the Good, the Bad,
Speaker 6: the Hungry. She was part of the process in the
Speaker 6: making of the film, and when I knew that we
Speaker 6: could actually go to market, take this to market, that
Speaker 6: the rules had been agreed upon, Jenna was the person
Speaker 6: who I knew I wanted to take it to. And
Speaker 6: when we brought it to Jenna, she immediately grasped the possibility.
Speaker 6: The Live Division at that moment was evolving its own
Speaker 6: vision for programming, and a few months later she got
Speaker 6: back to us and said, let's keep talking, Let's try
Speaker 6: to get this moving. And there were some bumps along
Speaker 6: the way with Joey and Kobe, and she was absolutely
Speaker 6: instrumental in really fighting for this to happen. She was terrific.
Speaker 2: So that June announcement is made and then there's just mystery,
Speaker 2: which I can say before because I went to the
Speaker 2: Nathan's famous Hot Talk eating contest on the fourth of
Speaker 2: July on Coney Island this year thanks to a friends
Speaker 2: and family pass from wonderful hot dog eater Mary Bowers,
Speaker 2: and a part of me was sort of like, is
Speaker 2: Joey Cha's not going to show up as a surprise?
Speaker 2: Is there any chance that this is a pr stunt? No,
Speaker 2: it wasn't. In fact, Joey chesnut kind of pulls from
Speaker 2: Kobayashi's playbook. In twenty twenty three, when I went to
Speaker 2: the contest, there was this flying overhead plane advertisement from
Speaker 2: Kobe endorsing Heinz Ketchup. And in twenty twenty four, the
Speaker 2: recently ejected Joey had a Pepsi billboard right on Coney
Speaker 2: Island next to the contest. He was missing for the
Speaker 2: first time in twenty years. These fellas are petty. I
Speaker 2: love them, and so in twenty twenty four, for the
Speaker 2: first time in almost a decade, Joey Chestnut did not
Speaker 2: win the Nathan's Hota eating contest because he wasn't there.
Speaker 2: So it does seem that this relationship is indeed severed,
Speaker 2: and that at Netflix, Kobe and Joey are going to
Speaker 2: be acting completely independently of Major League Eating. And then
Speaker 2: things go silent again until August, when the promotional materials
Speaker 2: for the broadcast finally start to roll out. On August
Speaker 2: twenty third, the picture clears up a little bit when
Speaker 2: Robrigel and Nikki Bella are announced as the hosts and
Speaker 2: not Jamie. Yes, I tried that these hosts actually make
Speaker 2: a lot of sense based on what it seems like
Speaker 2: Netflix is trying to synergize, right, They're trying to get
Speaker 2: into live event streaming. They have just made a huge
Speaker 2: investment into the WWE, and they're also gearing up to
Speaker 2: stream a lot more sporting events. And so, to my delight,
Speaker 2: Netflix treated hot dog eating like a sport. They brought
Speaker 2: in pro sports commentators Carry Champion and Chris Rose, something
Speaker 2: that was never formally done on the Nathan's Contest, even
Speaker 2: though it was broadcast on ESPN. Then in late August,
Speaker 2: Netflix announces that this contest will have new rules. Previously
Speaker 2: at the Nathan's Contest, the eater with the most hot
Speaker 2: dogs with buns eaten in ten minutes wins. Water dunking
Speaker 2: is allowed, as are condiments, but most people will pass
Speaker 2: on that you can separate the hot dog from the bun,
Speaker 2: and partial hot dogs eaten will be counted as long
Speaker 2: as they are swallowed. Here are the rules that Rob
Speaker 2: Wriggle presented in a video Netflix posted to YouTube.
Speaker 10: Rule number one, each contestant will have ten minutes to
Speaker 10: eat as many hot dogs and buns as they can
Speaker 10: Brule number two there will be no dogging or soaking
Speaker 10: of hot dogs and or bugs. Rule number three there
Speaker 10: will be no separation of hot dogs from buns.
Speaker 2: Rule okay if you're a fake fan of professional eating.
Speaker 2: These rule changes are significant, particularly no water and no
Speaker 2: bun in hot dog separation. These are big changes in
Speaker 2: terms of how Joey and Kobe approach eating, particularly Joey
Speaker 2: who famously separates the buns from the hot dogs in
Speaker 2: his technique. But before you get conspiratorial Nicole tells me
Speaker 2: that these were mutually agreed upon rules between the two
Speaker 2: and both were aiming to push themselves by trying different
Speaker 2: rules in the contest. And so I asked her more
Speaker 2: about what it was like to produce this event. What
Speaker 2: was it like having this be a live production like
Speaker 2: it seems it seemed very intense, totally intense.
Speaker 8: You know, as a documentarian, right takes you know, a
Speaker 8: long long time to make a film, and every frame
Speaker 8: of a project you sweat over and wanted to be perfect.
Speaker 6: And live is like playing jazz and it's wild and
Speaker 6: it's kind of amazing. Though to say that blies the
Speaker 6: amount of prep that goes into it. And that's what
Speaker 6: I learned, which I found extraordinary. There was an extraordinary
Speaker 6: challenge in food teams overseen by an executive producer by
Speaker 6: the name of Daniel Kalin, and the care and time
Speaker 6: that went into making sure that the competition worked according
Speaker 6: to the rules, the writing of the rules, how they
Speaker 6: did all these practices, the questions that came up in between,
Speaker 6: like who would know that vomiting You're going to deduct
Speaker 6: some hot dogs? But what happened if you vomit after
Speaker 6: the competition? Is done, and before and it's a tie
Speaker 6: and before start?
Speaker 5: How long do you have to keep it down kind
Speaker 5: of thing down before you if there's a tie, yeah
Speaker 5: you puke?
Speaker 6: Are you deducted? If the first competition has started but
Speaker 6: the second tiebreaker hasn't begun? Like all of the things
Speaker 6: that one would never think about, these guys thought.
Speaker 12: About, okay, let's return to Vegas.
Speaker 2: The moment I got into the event, it was clear
Speaker 2: that this was very much trying to be its own thing.
Speaker 2: It didn't resemble the outdoor, jingoistic Nathan's event I was
Speaker 2: used to. In fact, I would say it has a
Speaker 2: lot more in common with the aesthetic of the pro
Speaker 2: eating televised events that Kobayashi first became famous for in
Speaker 2: Japan in the two thousands. It was very chromatic, it
Speaker 2: was intense. It completely lacked the folksy vibe that the
Speaker 2: Nathan's contest puts on, as well as the jokey tone
Speaker 2: that that broadcast often has. They were straight up treating
Speaker 2: this like a sport, and.
Speaker 11: It's getting personal around here. Welcome to Chestnut first Kobyashi
Speaker 11: unfinished speep.
Speaker 10: Hello everybody, I'm Rob.
Speaker 2: Wriggle, and I thought this was really cool, and Riggle
Speaker 2: and Bella hosted the event well, but it was clear
Speaker 2: that they weren't the main attraction in the way that
Speaker 2: George Shay often was. The main event was Chestnut versus Kobayashi,
Speaker 2: and they were introduced as gods, but not in the
Speaker 2: way I was used to. Here are some clips from
Speaker 2: the pre tape packages that aired ahead of the contest.
Speaker 2: If I could talk to my nine year old self
Speaker 2: and tell them that there's gonna be the world.
Speaker 11: Champion of Bedi Eader and say, oh my god, my
Speaker 11: life is awesome, Joey do not supports them.
Speaker 4: They It's even.
Speaker 2: In Japanese. He's saying, well, this is true of any sport,
Speaker 2: but the thing that people most want to see is
Speaker 2: who's the best, And personally, I believe I became number
Speaker 2: one in the world. This is a pretty significant difference
Speaker 2: from the way that we're used to hearing these guys introduced,
Speaker 2: where the guys are introducing themselves instead of the institution
Speaker 2: doing it for them. Nicole Lucas Haims actually filmed and
Speaker 2: conducted these interviews, and it's really interesting noticing that since
Speaker 2: this rivalry began, the framing of it has changed. In
Speaker 2: the early at the mL Joey and Kobe were talked
Speaker 2: about in this almost Olympic style rhetoric. It's not Joey
Speaker 2: versus Kobe, it's America versus Japan. And by the time
Speaker 2: they get to Netflix in twenty twenty four, Joey and
Speaker 2: Kobe's history is framed as a pretty straightforward sports rivalry,
Speaker 2: devoid of the politics and contractual issues that we're now
Speaker 2: aware of, And in days leading up to the contest,
Speaker 2: they both did a fair amount of press to promote
Speaker 2: the event.
Speaker 11: Dude, Netflix put it together and because Koba, we really
Speaker 11: don't communicate me and Kobyashi, which is all right.
Speaker 2: It's kind of been a bumber that we haven't been
Speaker 2: able to compete. But thankfully Netflix they reached out and
Speaker 2: they were like, let's let's.
Speaker 4: Get this done.
Speaker 2: Kobayashi, this is might be your final event, this final
Speaker 2: face off with Joey.
Speaker 4: What does that mean to you? It means a lot, Talia,
Speaker 4: So I haven't a completed for all five ers. Literally,
Speaker 4: I'm back for a londe one day only.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: This also establishes their new dynamic, not as characters or
Speaker 2: national representatives, but as athletic rivals, and according to my sources,
Speaker 2: the animosity between these guys is still very genuine. By
Speaker 2: the time the guys come out on stage, the audience
Speaker 2: has been sorted to one side of the crowd or
Speaker 2: the other, wearing a Team Joey or a Team Kobe shirt,
Speaker 2: and of course the competitors friends and families are put
Speaker 2: front and center with a camera on them. And to
Speaker 2: fill out the hour, Netflix trotted out a couple other
Speaker 2: professional eaters who were not contractually barred by Major League
Speaker 2: Eating to participate. There was Matt Stoney, the only other
Speaker 2: guy who's beaten Joey at the Nathan's Contest, who did
Speaker 2: a brief segment where he beat three Olympians in a
Speaker 2: pool side wings eating contest. Great no notes. There was
Speaker 2: a section with Australian eater Leah Shutkiver, who broke the
Speaker 2: world record for watermelon eating live cool. I was glad
Speaker 2: to see a woman eater prominently featured. And while it's
Speaker 2: really dynamic, there's never a sense that anyone's making fun
Speaker 2: of anything. Really, the closest we get to levity or
Speaker 2: sketch comedy in this broadcast is a covert ad for
Speaker 2: the WWE, where two wrestlers Ramus Terio and Almos came
Speaker 2: out to declare their allegiance to Joey and Kobe whatever.
Speaker 2: And finally it's time Joey and Kobe come out, and
Speaker 2: I am barely holding it together. I happened to be
Speaker 2: standing on Kobe Yashi's side of the crowd, along with
Speaker 2: some TikTok food influencers, and I was very happy to
Speaker 2: be sorted here. Joey has won contest after contest for years,
Speaker 2: but for Kobe, after all this time, and after all
Speaker 2: he'd been put through by major league eating and being
Speaker 2: displaced by Joey, I wanted Kobe to win. And sure enough,
Speaker 2: as the guys start gobbling, and holy shit, if you
Speaker 2: haven't seen how efficient professional eaters are in the way
Speaker 2: they do this, I don't even know if I would
Speaker 2: recommend looking at it, but I think it's incredible. It's athleticism,
Speaker 2: and Joey and Kobe are neck and neck, hot dog
Speaker 2: for hot dog at the top of the contest. But
Speaker 2: as time goes on.
Speaker 11: Kobe Yashi is doubt about three dogs two plus minutes
Speaker 11: into this bad sign or can he make it up? Well,
Speaker 11: it's not a great sign, but he's not losing more ground,
Speaker 11: so at least he's holding steady.
Speaker 2: Now Tobe starts falling behind in numbers, and you can
Speaker 2: see the anxiety on his family's face, particularly his wife
Speaker 2: and creative collaborator Maggie. As things began to turn, she
Speaker 2: was openly crying, something that would really resonate with people
Speaker 2: who had seen her appearance in the thirty for thirty
Speaker 2: and so as Kobe starts to fall behind, the feeling
Speaker 2: in the room is nuts. I was screaming because while
Speaker 2: they're there this anxiety on one side of the stage.
Speaker 2: Joey was relentless. It was wild. So any concern that
Speaker 2: these new rules would set either competitor behind was a mistake.
Speaker 2: They were both performing better than ever, but by the
Speaker 2: last few minutes, who was going to win? The writing
Speaker 2: seemed to be on the wall.
Speaker 11: Christ that's Drue six dogs ahead of his world record
Speaker 11: pass Joey Jessa as he just climbed past seventy with
Speaker 11: under two and a half minutes to nose. There is
Speaker 11: limit other this work.
Speaker 2: It's going to fall and in pretty short order, after
Speaker 2: a ten minute contest, both Joey and Kobe broke their
Speaker 2: personal best hot dog records. But Joey wins the contest.
Speaker 5: Beating Kobe Yashi in an absolutely terrifying eighty three hot
Speaker 5: dogs to Kobe's sixty six, and Kobe fans, myself included,
Speaker 5: are pretty devastated.
Speaker 2: I mean, this loss is significant, particularly after he'd spent
Speaker 2: such a long time out of the mainstream spotlight in
Speaker 2: the US, and considering that Kobayashi was the inspiration for
Speaker 2: Joey Chestnut to even try this career in the first place.
Speaker 2: It was a moment where the mentee had surpassed the mentor.
Speaker 2: But that was it. The rivalry was settled, the event
Speaker 2: was over. After the Netflix broadcast wraps, the reporters and
Speaker 2: influencers and other people kind of just dispersed. It was
Speaker 2: one in the afternoon, it was a holiday weekend, and
Speaker 2: a lot of them had flown out to Vegas for
Speaker 2: the event and wanted to enjoy the rest of their time.
Speaker 2: But I'm standing there like gutted, not even because Kobyashi
Speaker 2: had lost, but because it was over. And while most
Speaker 2: people understandably leave the auditorium and continue their day, it
Speaker 2: was comforting seeing that there were a few other people
Speaker 2: there who had sunk hours and days and weeks into
Speaker 2: being a fan of professional eating and really never thinking
Speaker 2: this day would happen, standing in shock at what they'd
Speaker 2: just seen. It sucked watching Kobe Yashi loose. And I
Speaker 2: say that as someone who is in love with Joey Chestnut.
Speaker 2: I saw him break his record back in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one with seventy six hot dogs and I couldn't eat
Speaker 2: for days. It was incredible. But of course Kobe winning
Speaker 2: is the better story. But maybe that's the ultimate validation
Speaker 2: that this really is a sport. No one knew what
Speaker 2: was gonna happen, and the results were indisputable. So no,
Speaker 2: it didn't have the electric energy of a George Shay introduction.
Speaker 2: You don't have Joey Chestnut coming out to Baba O'Reilly,
Speaker 2: you don't have Kobe Yashi being called poetry in motion.
Speaker 2: But to Netflix's credit, they did take this seriously. This
Speaker 2: was the most legitimized I'd ever seen hot dog eating,
Speaker 2: And for my money, that's a win for both of
Speaker 2: the rivals, because in many ways, being taken seriously is
Speaker 2: my much of what they've been asking for. So Joey
Speaker 2: and Kobe, my boys, your sixteenth minute will never end
Speaker 2: in my Heart. Thank you again to Nicole Lucas Hyms
Speaker 2: for her time. You can watch her thirty for thirty
Speaker 2: and Unfinished Beef on Netflix now, and keep your eyes
Speaker 2: peeled for her latest work, which is a documentary about
Speaker 2: policing in America sometime next year. And what do you know, folks,
Speaker 2: If you want to hear more about my time at
Speaker 2: the Netflix event and about the history of hotdogs overall,
Speaker 2: you can buy my book Raw Dog, The Naked Truth
Speaker 2: about hot Dogs, which will be available in paperback next
Speaker 2: year and is available in hardcover at this very moment.
Speaker 2: We'll see you again next week with an episode about
Speaker 2: Yes you Win. You have been heard. We're talking about
Speaker 2: Moo Dang Bye.
Speaker 7: Sixteenth Minute is a production of Whole Zone Media and Iheartwordtaps.
Speaker 7: It is written, posted, and produced by me Jamie Lastus
Speaker 7: executive producers are Sophie Lichterman and Robert Evans.
Speaker 12: The amazing Ian Johnson is our supervising.
Speaker 2: Producer and our editor. Our theme song is by Sad thirteen.
Speaker 2: Voice acting is from Brant Crater and Pet shout outs
Speaker 2: to our dog producer Anderson, my Kat's Flee and Casper
Speaker 2: and my pet rock Bird, who will outlive us all Bye.