Just think of it as the Very Wide World of Sports.
ESPN, for the second year in a row will televise the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest live from Coney Island on Monday, July 4, at noon EST.
The event will be hosted by Paul Page, who will get expert commentary from George and Richard Shea, executives with the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
ESPN’s coverage will include a segment on the history of the competition and another segment “clarifying” rules of the game.
Last year’s winner was Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, who set a world record by eating 53½ hot dogs in 12 minutes. What happened to the other half? Probably sold on E-bay.
We’d like to give credit to ESPN for including in the same press release news that ESPN will also televise the U.S Open of Competitive Eating July 28-30, at 8 p.m. each night.
And talk about product placement! It’s sponsored by Alka-Seltzer. (The Nathan’s competition, when we think about it, is product placement too, and perhaps, in some cases, product displacement).
