Competitive eater Joey Chestnut broke his own record for most hot dogs and buns consumed in 10 minutes during a Netflix Inc NFLX live special that aired on Labor Day.
What Happened: Chestnut didn't take part in the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest earlier this year due to a dispute with competitive eating leagues and his sponsorship with Nathan's competitor Impossible Foods.
Chestnut consumed 83 hot dogs and buns in the 10-minute contest against his long-time competitive eating rival Takeru Kobayashi. His counterpart consumed 66 hot dogs and buns.
"This is amazing. I've been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years. Without Kobayashi, I was never able to do it. He drives it. We weren't always nice to each other, but I love the way we push each other to be our best," Chestnut said after the contest, as reported by the New York Post.
Chestnut and Kobayashi last met in the 2009 Nathan's contest with Chestnut winning in a sudden death overtime. Chestnut has won 16 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contests in his career and is considered one of the top competitive eaters in history.
The previous record for Chestnut was 76 set in 2021. Chestnut consumed 62 hot dogs and buns at last year's Nathan's event.
Without Chestnut present at this year's Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, Pat Bertoletti won with 58 hot dogs and buns consumed.
One major difference between the Netflix special and Nathan's annual competition was the rule that hot dogs and buns could not be separated or dipped in water (which Nathan’s allows).
Why It's Important: The Labor Day Netflix special is the streaming giant's latest push into live events and sports content.
The company turned the eating contest into a full spectacle with an undercard that included several contests. Competitive eater Matt Stonie ate 53 chicken wings in three minutes, which beat the combined total of 36 chicken wings from Olympic athletes Max Irving, Ryan Murphy and Ryan Lochte. Leah Shutkever ate 2,400 grams of watermelon in three minutes, adding another Guinness World Record to her portfolio.
Netflix releases viewership figures weekly and the viewers for the latest live special could show how strong interest is in events that aren't the four major North American sports.
While other media companies have landed rights to top live sports, Netflix has gone after what it calls sports-adjacent content like docuseries and bidding on smaller live sports rights. The company has also launched several live comedy specials in a move to test how strong live content performs and its lasting power on the platform.
The company's largest sports endeavors will come later this year with a live boxing event featuring Jake Paul against Mike Tyson on Nov. 15 and two NFL games on Christmas Day.
Analysts see the company being able to use the live sports content as a way to boost its advertising revenue and add subscribers for both the ad-free plans and ad-supported plans.
NFLX Price Action: Netflix stock is down 2.87% to $681.23 on Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $344.73 to $711.33. Netflix stock is up 45.7% year-to-date in 2024.
Read Next:
Photo: Unsplash
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
