Joey Chestnut Takes Home The Gold At Netflix's Ultimate Hot Dog Eating Contest

When Netflix hosts an event where the "Weiner-takes-all," you tune in to find out what exactly went down. According to the results, contestants made competitive eating history. On September 2, 2024, Netflix aired a special live from Las Vegas called "Unfinished Beef," where competitive eaters and long-time rivals Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi faced off for the first time in 15 years in an intense, ten-minute-long hot dog eating competition staged WWE style — with a grand prize of $100,000 and a championship belt to match. The two champions have a long-standing rivalry that came to a head this past Labor Day, where Chestnut beat Kobayashi with a final score of 83-66.

Chestnut debuted on the hot dog eating scene in 2005 at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island, where he placed third behind Kobayashi, who took first place. Chestnut then beat Kobayashi at the same contest in 2007, fueling their rivalry. Chestnut's career has earned him 16 first-place championship titles and multiple world records for number of hot dogs eaten in under ten minutes. Six-time championship winner Kobayashi announced earlier this year in a Netflix Documentary, "Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut," that he will be retiring from competitive eating due to health concerns, speculating that he has eaten over 10,000 hot dogs in his career. But it seems that facing off against Chestnut one final time was too tempting to pass up; he added another 66 hot dogs to his career total.

Footage of the "Unfinished Beef" finale was released by Netflix on Twitter, showing competitive eater and fan-favorite Joey Chestnut swallowing hot dog number 83 with ten seconds remaining in the ten-minute-long competition. During this event, Chestnut broke his own world record and set the bar even higher for himself and fellow competitive eaters. Chestnut's previous world record of 76 hot dogs was set at the Fourth of July Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest back in 2021 — an event that was a bit of a sore subject for the competitive eater earlier this year. Chestnut was banned from the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island over contract disputes with Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs after signing with rival brand Impossible Foods.

Joey Chestnut beats Takeru Kobayashi AND his own World Record with 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes. #ChestnutVSKobayashi pic.twitter.com/ThF9GSkWQF

— Netflix (@netflix) September 2, 2024

In an exclusive interview with Daily Meal addressing his Nathan's Ban, Chestnut told us he was "hurt" and "blindsided" by the hot dog brand's decision. He claimed, "My partnership [with Impossible Foods] didn't go against any of our previous agreements. They changed the agreement."

Even amidst the controversy, Chestnut has remained a beloved face in the world of competitive eating, hearing thunderous applause from the crowd at the Labor Day 2024 event against Tobayaki. Netflix tweeted the competitors' final thoughts, where Tobayaki confirmed that this was the final match of his career. Chestnut, however, remains hopeful that they will face off again in the future.