Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) - bonus episode: the kobayashi vs. chestnut rematch, live in las vegas

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

FIELD TRIP! Jamie heads to Las Vegas to see the closing moments of the Kobi-Chestnut sixteenth minute -- and watches them face off live on Netflix after fifteen years without competing in a broadcast called Unfinished Beef. We talk more with documentarian Nicole Lucas-Haimes, and take a look at what the greatest hot dog and sports rivalry of all time looks like at the highest level. Watch 30 for 30: The Good, The Bad, The Hungry on Netflix here: https://www.netflix.com/title/81752194 Watch Unfinished Beef: https://www.netflix.com/title/81743617 Read Jodi Walker's terrific coverage of the event on The Ringer: https://www.theringer.com/tv/2024/9/19/24248057/joey-chestnut-takeru-kobayashi-netflix-unfinished-beef-hot-dog-eating Buy Jamie's book Raw Dog here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250847768/rawdogSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. CoolZone Media. I'm not so bad when you turn up the lights, but I'm going to be perfect all in a time. Don't make me a star. Take it too far

That give me one more more Let's see A minute of fame Sixteen minute of fame Sixteen minute of fame Sixteen minute of face One more minute of me I'm not so bad

Welcome Welcome Welcome Welcome Welcome Out of the internet And what it's Welcome back to 16th minute

The podcast where we talk to the Internet's characters of the day And figure out how their moment affected them And what it says about us and the Internet And today we are doing a little bit of bonus content, babe A little treat for my friends A little cyclical meat for my friends, because today I want to share a little bit about my time in Las Vegas from last month when I went to go see the Takeiro Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut Showdown that happened on Labor Day.

The event itself was broadcast live on Netflix. It was called Unfinished Beef. Pretty good title, you got to admit. And it was a part of this new initiative from Netflix that maybe you've noticed in the last year. They are live streaming more things across genres. and this appeared to kind of be an experiment to see how hot dog eating would play in this format. And to start, I want to be clear about one thing. Hot dog eating is sports, and this was the first event I had ever been to

that unquestionably treated hot dog eating like sports. I would not have missed it for the world. I literally flew myself there. I am very invested in the rivalry of Kobayashi v. Chestnut. nut. So if you want to hear the full story of that rivalry, both online and off, as well as all of the intersecting media narratives that followed them over the years, that is in our episode that came out earlier this week. But today, I am taking you to an event I was convinced would never happen, the day that Joey and Kobe faced off one last time on September 2, 2024.

As well as a little more from our guest from our last episode, Nicole Lucas Haim. who is both an executive producer on Unfinished Beef on Netflix, as well as the director of the iconic 2019 30 for 30 documentary on this rivalry called The Good, the Bad, the Hungry. So come with me, if you will, to Las Vegas. It's September in Vegas, and so it's so hot I want to die, and I'm here to see who, after 15 years of Netflix, not competing against each other, has come out to see Kobayashi and Chestnut compete live

at the HyperX Arena in the middle of Labor Day. And as my friend and writer at the ringer Jody Walker mentions in her wonderful coverage of the event, which I will link in the description, Labor Day clocks in as an American holiday pretty close in jingoism to the 4th of July. It's a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the American worker. Or it's supposed to be. It began as a celebration of unions and collective efforts to cut down grueling work schedules in favor of more manageable hours and wages. But like many American holidays, overtime, Labor Day has become a day to enjoy heavily processed meat with your friends. But this year, I'm clocking in on Labor Day in Vegas in this blisteringly hot, completely

mollified American city to hear why the workers of America are spending their leisure day watching these guys eat hundreds of hot dogs. And just as Labor Day is the second best holiday for such an event, Las Vegas feels like the second best location to Coney Island, where the Nathan's famous hot dog contest happens every 4th of July since the 1970s, and where Joey and Kobe faced off for the better part of the 2000s, kicking off this rivalry in the first place. And this event was happening right on the strip.

And I like the strip. It's like if the Mall of America got, drunk and sharded itself. When I arrive at the HyperX Arena, I am far from alone. There is a lot of press here. And technically, I'm not even here as press. I am technically here as a guest of Netflix. I took a meeting with some of the producers of this special while it was still coming together earlier in the summer. And I managed to scam my way into VIP access instead of mixing among the plebs. Which was honestly surprising to me because I was fully planning on being one of the plebs. I just reserved normal tickets because I assumed I would not

be able to con Netflix into letting me go, but I did. There was a lot of press around this event, and it's largely appealing to the nostalgia of this rivalry that's been going on for the better part of 20 years. So I wasn't sure what to expect, because it seemed like this event came together pretty rapidly. And down to the day it happens, I had a lot of questions about what this event was really going to be. What I did know was that the rematch was the brainchild of director Nicole Lucas Hames, who, as we discussed in the last episode, was the first person to really pull in the personal narratives of both Joey and Kobe in her 30 for 30, along with contextualizing their relationship with Major League eating and its top brass George Shea. Nicole had been wanting to make

this happened for half a decade. And in summer 2024, everything suddenly came together. For the first time, Joey Chestnut was finally contractually available to do a rematch during a year that Netflix happened to be seeking out high-profile live stream opportunities. And in the coincidence of the century, one of the producers that Nicole had worked with at ESPN on the 30-for-30 had since moved over to Netflix. So I'm at the HyperX Arena and the line is wind and buzzing with energy, even though it's 10 in the morning and everyone seems a little bit hungover. And the pay-a-day workers that have been hired by Netflix are circling in the crowd and distributing t-shirts for people to wear on the broadcast.

The white t-shirts say team chestnut, the black t-shirts say team Kobe. And yes, I managed to get one of each. The event is to be hosted by comedian and Daily Wire alumni Rob Riggle, along with W. W.E. Wrestling legend, Nikki Bella. I am two hours early, and there's already hundreds of people in line, and I quickly realized the only way to narrow down who I should be talking to in this line was to commit to only talking to people who were dressed like hot dogs. What brought you here? Her and I are dating, and the first thing that I saw when I went over to a house was Nathan's hot dog eating competition.

No way. We had like a first date gone? Well, not really like a first day, but more like first time being at the family at her house. Yeah, who are you? Are you rooting for one person versus the other? Today we're rooting for Kobayashi. See how the underdog will compete with chestnut for sure.

It's nice to meet you. Great outfits. Thank you. Thank you. We're just out here because it's a great time to hang out with friends. Like, everyone comes together for competitive eating. Yeah. If you don't see Joey and Kobayashi, like, why are you even here?

Are you from around here? Oh, we're from Denver. Oh, so you travel out just to see it. And then who are you rooting for today? We're on team Kobe, but, I mean, you can't root for both of them. My name's Carrie. Hi. Michelle.

I'm Anastasia. And CJ. Hello. What brings you were today? Kobayashi and birthday. Oh, my God. Bucket list birthday. And here I am all the same day.

couldn't have happened in a better time. Our time in Vegas has been great, but we're not here to experience the Vegas stuff. We're here for the hot dogs. We're here for the challenge. We're here to see Kobe take all. God, I hope. Yeah, clear that it's 110 degrees here.

No. And he's gonna win, I know it, I know it! He is officially the goat. He is the goat. I can't say. What brings you here today? Well, because I've never gone to a hot dog eating competition before.

No way. Yeah, so, and I know, Joe Chessnut because I've seen him in like mr. B studios so I just really wanted to come and see him So did you have the costume already? Yeah, because I wore I was a hot dog as a for Halloween like two years ago So I just had the costume all right what brings you here Lizzie Lizzie time Lizzie Goblin yeah that's this time yes were you watching at as this rivalry was originally playing out? Yes Joey Chestnut all day. I think he takes him down. I think it's with ease. I think Kobayashi's

puking at the end while Joey's taken down his 80th plizzie. I would love to see our shirt. Oh my gosh, they're custom made. Wait, that's... Our faces are in the background. Oh my god, wait. That's us. You can't tell because we're disguised right now, but that's us.

We brought two extra so we can hand to Kobayashi and Chestnut. So we've been rooting for Chestnut, but it just feels wrong to go against the OG too. So that's what I just hope they're a kiss and everyone has a good time. So you can tell a lot of different kinds of people are here. In the people who had dressed up as how hot dogs alone. And everyone was very, very excited to be there. And particularly after I had scammed my way into Joey and Kobe T-shirts, because I don't take sides when both of my husbands are involved, I was eager to see how this event was going to be approached. Because the rollout for this

event, well, there's some lore. To the casual fan, a Joey Kobe rematch might have seemed like it came out of nowhere. It's been 15 years since the very dramatic parting of this rival which peaked with Kobayashi being publicly arrested on Kony Island while protesting Major League Eating's refusal to let him participate in the 2010 contest. You can listen to our previous episode to know the full story, but a major factor as to why this happened... Japan's eating champion has been arrested after a fight at a hot dog competition in New York. Was because of Kobe's contractual issues with Major League eating.

And xenophobia, but on paper, contract issues. Kobayashi felt his professional potential and ability to take on other sponsorships was extremely limited by Major League Eating because it was. But his pushing back on this did not go over well, and ultimately, amongst many other tensions, this was a major factor as to why he walked away from a contract renewal. But this was in the late 2000s, and it's interesting to watch why many people choose not to be with the MLE now. The reason some eaters don't fuck with the organization. is because you can make more money as an eating influencer.

A great example is an eater named Matt Stoney, who's been the only person to defeat Joey Chestnut in the Nathan's contest after Kobe departed in an otherwise uninterrupted 17-year victory run. Now five seconds. What's in the mouth counts. So they both are struggling to keep what's in the mouth in the mouth. The competition is now done. And it appears that Matt Stoney is our new champion.

God, Major League eating has problems, but the commentary is just, M-Muha. Matt Stoney is still very much a working eater. In fact, he is basically the opening act at this Netflix event, but he doesn't compete in the Nathan's contest anymore. He's been more focused on his YouTube channel in the past five years, where he currently has over 16 million followers. And I don't have figures to certify death.

definitely means more money than one would have under an MLE contract, but with the exception of the league's top eaters, most professional eaters have not quit their day jobs. But still, professional hot dog eating isn't really popular enough to command contract drama outside of their biggest stars. So really, if anyone was going to have enough name recognition to stir the pot when it came to renewing their contract, it would have to be like Joey Chestnut.

And in June 2024, it was Joey Chestnut. It's something that has left fans and competitors alike in shock. You might have already heard the buzz, but yes, it's true. Joey Chestnut, the king of the Nathan's famous international hot dog eating contest, won't be competing this year. This news has sent ripples through the competitive eating community. This was a lot of drama for me. I was in New York City.

Why was I in New York City? Of course, to make a speech in front of the hot dog in Times Square that ejaculates confetti that you can listen to the episode about. But this was just a very dramatic time in the hot dog community. We didn't see it coming. We knew he was going to retire at some point, but this wasn't a retirement. This was walking away from the MLE. And right away, I noticed that there were a lot of media narratives that were competing with the real truth.

It's very possible that there is some bad blood between Joey Chestnut and Major League eating, but none of that has been formally confirmed. What we know is that Joey was offered a contract with Impossible Foods that Major League eating felt violated their long-standing relationship with Nathan's famous hot dogs, which would be a rival brand. And for whatever reason, legal, I'm assuming, the MLE forces Joey to choose between staying in the contest he became famous for

or this new deal with Impossible. And Joey, honestly, like I said in the last episode, Joey is more famous than the hot dog eating contest at this point, so he goes with impossible. And this prompts a number of silly media narratives, including the idea that Joey went woke and went broke by taking money from vegan hot dogs, which isn't even true. He still eats meat. The other narrative I saw a lot was that Joey had been banned permanently from the Nathan's contest, which is also not technically true.

Major League eating has said he's welcome back if he stops working. with competing brands. And a quick side note here, Joey does have other ongoing business partnerships, I guess just not ones that compete with a hot dog brand. I say this because I wanted to shout out my favorite Joey Chestnut collab. His ongoing partnership with dude wipes, horn. 76 hot dogs. 10 minutes to make a legend.

It's Joey Chestnut. But what happens? after that's kind of explosive behind the eating with joey chestnut presented by dude wipes dude dude wipes are a gendered musky butt wipe for men i mean if you're going to make aggressively gendered man wipes i guess joey chestnut kind of he is your guy he's a dirty boy he needs his boy And here's Heather with the weather. Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now, let's get a read on the inside of your car.

It is hot. You've only been parked a short time, and it's already 99 degrees in there. Let's not leave children in the back seat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise, and that could be fatal. Cars get hot, fast, and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car. A message from NHTSA and the ad council. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free.

I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all. childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more, and found the shrimp to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer. Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on the street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal.

He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into, lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case

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shame to carry, and that we have big, bold, and beautiful lives to live. after what happened to us. I'm your host and co-president of this organization, Dr. Leitra Tate. On my new podcast, The Unwanted Sorority, we weighed through transformation to peel back healing and reveal what it actually looks like, and sounds like in real time. Each week, I sit down with people who've lived through harm, carried silence, and are now reshaping the systems that failed us. We're going to talk about the adultification of black girls, mothering as resistance,

and the tools we use for healing. The unwanted sorority is a safe space. not a quiet space. So let's walk in. We're moving towards liberation together. Listen to the unwanted sorority, new episodes every Thursday on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Adams, Ed Sheeran, Fade,

Chlorilla, Jelly Roll, Chon Fogarty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCray, the Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. foods partnership that severs the relationship between Joey and Major League eating. And Joey makes a formal statement on what happened from his perspective on June 11th. He says, I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years, I'm banned from the Nathan's July 4th hot dog eating contest. I love competing in that event. I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th, and I have been training to defend my title. To set the record

straight, I do not have a contract with MLE or Nathens, and they are looking to change the rules from past years as it relates to other partners I can work with. This is apparently the basis on which I'm being banned, and it doesn't impact the July 4th event. Sadly, this is the decision Nathan's and Major League eating are making, and it will deprive the great fans of the holiday's usual joy and entertainment. To my fans, I love you and appreciate you. Rest assured that you'll see me eat again soon. All caps. Stay hungry. And if you're a hot dog head, this is just like unbelievably juicy. Now, the really tricky thing here is that Joey says he does not currently have a formalized contract with the MLE.

And part of the reason that is is because he learned from watching Kobayashi's experience. So there is a lot of frision between Joey and the organization. Right? It was a huge shakeup. And all of the fans, and by fans I mean me, were waiting to find out if this issue was going to be resolved, or if Joey was going to make the break between himself and the contest permanent. And we didn't need to wait long to find out, because the next day, Netflix announced Hot Dog Eating Champs Joey Chestnut and Takaro Kobayashi will go head to head in a Netflix special. The contest, titled Chestnut v. Kobayashi, unfinished beef, will feature the two chowing

down on all-beef hot dogs, likely in a nod to reports that Chestnut's rival brand deal is with impossible foods, which makes plant-based hot dogs. Major League eating, the organization that oversees the Nathan's contest, announced Tuesday that Chestnut's deal was an exclusivity issue, saying that it was his decision to step back from the competition he has participated in since 2005. Quote, we love him. The fans love him, said George Shea, a major league eating event organizer, adding, he made the choice. Oh, my God. The boys are fighting. I don't know what Scandival is, but whatever it is, this is that for me. And now Netflix is announcing that not only is Joey not returning to the contest,

he is taking a check from Netflix and going up against his greatest former major league eating rival. And on the day, Netflix releases this sorry, very ugly AI-generated poster, which led me to think this must have come together very quickly. Not even enough time to hire someone to make a poster quickly. George Shea of Major League Eating tries to play off the suddenness of this announcement and says that it's going to be a pale imitation of the Nathan's contest, and it's unclear if that'll be true or not. Also, quick sidebar, New York City Mayor Eric Adams bravely weighs in and says,

Stop being such weenies! It would be impossible to have this year's Nathan's famous international hot-tock eating contest without Joey Chestnut. Let's find a way to squash this beef and bring back the champ for another 4th of July at Coney Island. And Eric Adams is doing great, I hear. So when I spoke with Nicole,

I wanted to know, did this Netflix thing come together really fast? And the answer appears to be yes and no. Nicole Lucas Hames tells me that she'd been trying to make this happen for years. And once it started moving, the Netflix production team was amazing. This just happened to be

when the stars aligned. How did this end up coming together? So Jenna Anthony, who is a very bright and somewhat visionary executive, asked me when she was at 30 for 30 to come in with a take on The Good, the Bad, the Hungry. She was part of the process in the making of the film. And when I knew that we could actually go to market, take this to market, that the rules had been agreed upon,

Jenna was the person who I knew I wanted to take it to. And when we brought it to Jenna, she immediately grasped the possibility. The live division at that moment was evolving its own. vision for programming and a few months later she got back to us and said let's keep talking let's try to get this

moving and then there were some bumps along the way with Joey and Kobe and she was absolutely instrumental in really fighting for this to happen she was terrific so that June announcement is made

and then there's just mystery which I can say before because I went to the Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest on the 4th of July on Coney Island this year, thanks to a friends and family pass from wonderful hot dog eater Mary Bowers. And a part of me was sort of like, is Joey Chesnut going to show up as a surprise? Is there any chance that this is a PR stunt? No, it wasn't. In fact, Joey Chesnut kind of pulls from Kobayashi's playbook. In 2023, when I went to the contest, there was this flying overhead plane advertisement from Kobe

endorsing Heinz ketchup, and in 2024, the recently ejected Joey had a Pepsi billboard right on Coney Island next to the contest he was missing for the first time in 20 years. These fellas are petty.

I love them. And so in 2024, for the first time in almost a decade, Joey Chestnut did not win the Nathan's hot dog eating contest because he wasn't there. So it does seem that this relationship is indeed severed, and that at Netflix, Kobe and Joey are going to be acting completely independently of Major League eating. And then things go silent again until August,

when the promotional materials for the broadcast finally start to roll out. On August 23rd, the picture clears up a little bit, when Rob Wrigal and Nikki Bella are announced as the hosts, and not Jamie. Yes, I tried. But these hosts actually make a lot of sense, based on what it seems like Netflix is trying to synergize, right? They're trying to get into live event streaming. They have just made a huge investment into the WWE, and they're also gearing up to stream a lot more sporting events. And so, to my delight, Netflix treated hot dog eating like a sport.

They brought in pro sports commentators, Carrie Champion, and Chris Rose, something that was never formally done on the Nathan's contest, even though it was broadcast on ESPN. Then in late August, Netflix announces that this contest will have new rules. Previously, at the Nathan's contest, the eater with the most hot dogs with buns eaten and 10 minutes wins. Water dunking is allowed, as are condiments, but most people will pass on that. You can separate the hot dog from the bun, and partial hot dogs eaten will be counted as long as they are swallowed. Here are the rules that Rob Riggle presented in a video,

Netflix posted to YouTube. Rule number one, each contestant will have 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs and buns as they can. Rule number two, there will be no dunking or soaking of the hot dogs and or buns. Rule number three, there will be no separation of hot dogs from buns. Okay, if you're a fake fan of professional eating, these rule changes are significant, particularly no water and no bun and hot dog separation. These are, are big changes in terms of how Joey and Kobe approach eating, particularly Joey, who famously separates the buns from the hot dogs in his technique. But before you get conspiratorial, Nicole tells me that these were mutually agreed upon rules between the two, and both were

aiming to push themselves by trying different rules in the contest. And so I asked her more about what it was like to produce this event. What was it like having this be a live production? like it seems it seemed very intense totally intense you know as a documentarian makes you know a long long time to make a film and every frame of a project you sweat over and wanted to be perfect and live is is like playing jazz and it's wild and it's kind of amazing though to say that belies the amount of prep that goes into it. And that's what I learned, which I found extraordinary. There was an extraordinary challenge in food teams overseen by an executive producer by the name of Daniel Kalin. And the care and time that went into making sure that the competition worked according to the rules, the writing of the rules. how they did all these practices, the questions that came up in between.

Like, who would know that vomiting, you're going to deduct some hot dogs? But what happens if you vomit after the competition is done and before, and it's a tie? And before start. How long do you have to keep it down kind of thing? If there's a tie, you puke, are you deduct? if the first competition has started, but the second tiebreaker hasn't begun. Like, all of these things that one would never think about, these guys thought about. Don't let biased algorithms or degree screens or exclusive professional networks or stereotypes.

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Childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more. And found the shrimp to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer. Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on a street corner. wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house unarmed. Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app,

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Your beloved brother goes missing without. a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness, the way it has echoed and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets. With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you, stories of tangled up identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost always need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets.

Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth. Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock a prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six

months. The first night was so overwhelming and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, let's return to Vegas. The moment I got into the event, it was clear that this was very much trying to be its own thing. It didn't resemble the outdoor jingoistic Nathan's event I was used to. In fact, I would say it has a lot more in common with the aesthetic of the pro-eating televised events that Kobayashi first became famous for in Japan in the 2000s.

It was very chromatic. It was intense. It completely lacked the folksy vibe that the Nathan's contest puts on, as well as the joky tone that that broadcast often has. They were straight up treating this like a sport. It is getting personal around here. Welcome to Chestnut versus Kobayashi unfinished beef. Hello, everybody.

I'm Rob Riggle. And I thought this was really cool. And Riggle and Bella hosted the event well, but it was clear that they weren't the main attraction in the way that George Shea often was. The main event was Chestnut versus Kobayashi, and they were introduced as gods, but not in the way I was used to. Here are some clips from the pre-taped packages that aired ahead of the contest. If I could talk to my nine-year-old self and tell him that she was going to be the world champion competitive eater, and say, oh my God. My life is awesome.

In Japanese, he's saying, in Japanese, he's saying, well, the thing that people most want to see is who's the best, and personally, I believe it in the world one in the world. In Japanese, he's saying, Well, this is true of any sport, but the thing that people most want to see is who's the best. And personally, I believe I became number one in the world. This is a pretty significant difference from the way that we're used to hearing these guys introduced, where the guys are introducing themselves instead of the institution doing it for them.

Nicole Lucas Hames actually filmed and conducted these interviews, and it's really interesting noticing that since this rivalry began, the framing of it has changed. In the early days at the MLE, Joey and Kobe were talked about in this almost Olympic-style rhetoric. It's not Joey versus Kobe, it's America versus Japan. And by the time they get to Netflix in 2024, Joey and Kobe's history is framed as a pretty straightforward sports rivalry, devoid of the politics and contractual issues that we're now aware of. In the days leading up to the contest, they both did a fair amount of press to promote the event. Dude, Netflix put it together.

And because Kobe-I, we really don't communicate, me and Kobayashi, which is all right. It's kind of been a bummer that we haven't been able to compete. But thankfully, Netflix, they reached out, and they really, Let's get this done. Kobeashi, this might be your final event, this final face-off with Joey. What does that mean to you? It means a lot, actually. So I haven't competed for five years, and so literally I'm back for one day.

One day only. Yes. This also establishes their new dynamic, not as characters or national representatives, but as athletic rival. And according to my sources, the animosity between these guys is still very genuine. By the time the guys come out on stage, the audience has been sorted to one side of the crowd or the other, wearing a team Joey or a team Kobe shirt. And of course, the competitors, friends, and families are put front and center with a camera on them. And to fill out the hour, Netflix trotted out a couple other professional eaters

who were not contractually barred by Major League eating to participate. There was Matt Stoney, the only other guy who's beaten Joey at the Nathan's contest, who did a brief segment where he beat three Olympians in a poolside wings eating contest. Great, no notes. There was a section with Australian eater Leah Shutkever, who broke the world record for watermelon eating live. Cool, I was glad to see a woman eater prominently featured. And while it's really dynamic, there's never a sense that anyone's making fun of anything. Really, the closest we get to levity or sketch comedy in this broadcast is a covert ad for the WWE,

where two wrestlers, Ray Mysterio, and Olmos, came out to declare their allegiance to Joey and Kobe, whatever. And finally, it's time. Joey and Kobe come out, and I am barely holding it together. I happen to be standing on Kobayashi's side of the crowd, along with some TikTok food influencers, And I was very happy to be sorted here. Joey has won contest after contest for years. But for Kobe, after all this time, and after all he'd been put through by Major League eating

and being displaced by Joey, I wanted Kobe to win. And sure enough, as the guys start gobbling. And holy shit, if you haven't seen how efficient professional eaters are in the way they do this, I don't even know if I would recommend looking at it. But I think it's incredible. It's athleticism.

And Joey and Kobe are neck and neck hot dog for hot dog at the top of the contest. But as time goes on... Kobayashi is down about three dogs, two plus minutes into this. Bad sign or can he make it up? Well, it's not a great sign, but he's not losing more ground. So at least he's holding steady now. Kobe starts falling behind in numbers,

and you can see the anxiety on his family's face, particularly his wife and creative collaborator, As things began to turn, she was openly crying, something that would really resonate with people who had seen her appearance in the 30 for 30. And so as Kobe starts to fall behind, the feeling in the room is nuts. I was screaming. Because while there's this anxiety on one side of the stage, Joey was relentless. It was wild.

So any concern that these new rules would set either competitor behind was a mistake. they were both performing better than ever. But by the last few minutes, who was going to win? The writing seemed to be on the wall. That's true. Six dogs ahead of his world record paces. Joey just on, as he just climbed past 70 with under two and a half minutes to go. And in pretty short order, after a 10-minute contest,

both Joey and Kobe broke their personal best hot dog records, but Joey wins the contest. beating Kobayashi in an absolutely terrifying 83 hot dogs to Kobe 66. And Kobe fans, myself included, are pretty devastated. I mean, this loss is significant, particularly after he'd spent such a long time out of the mainstream spotlight in the U.S. and considering that Kobayashi was the inspiration for Joey Chestnut to even try this career in the first place. It was a moment where the mentee had surpassed the mentor.

But that was it. The rivalry was settled. The event was over. After the Netflix broadcast wrapped, the reporters and influencers and other people kind of just dispersed. It was one in the afternoon. It was a holiday weekend. And a lot of them had flown out to Vegas for the event

and wanted to enjoy the rest of their time. But I'm standing there like, gutted. Not even because Kobayashi had lost, but because it was over. And while most people understandably leave the auditorium and continue their day, it was comforting seeing that there were a few other people there who had sunk hours and days and weeks into being a fan of professional eating and really never thinking this day would happen, standing in shock at what they'd just seen. It sucked watching Kobayashi lose. And I say that as someone who is in love with Joey Chestnut. I saw him break his record back in 2021 with 76 hot dogs and I couldn't

eat for days. It was incredible. But of course, Kobe winning is the better story. But maybe that's the ultimate validation that this really is a sport. No one knew what was going to happen. And the results were indisputable. So, no, it didn't have the electric energy of a George Shea introduction. You don't have Joey Chestnut coming out to Baba O'Reilly. You don't have Kobayashi being called poetry in motion. But to Netflix's credit, they did take this seriously. This was the most legitimized I'd ever seen hot dog eating. And for my money, that's a win for both of the rivals.

Because in many ways, being taken seriously is much of what they've been asking for. So Joey and Kobe, my boys, your 16th minute will never end in my heart. Thank you again to Nicole Lucas Hames for her time. You can watch her 30 for 30 and Unfinished Beef on Netflix Now and keep your eyes peeled for her latest work, which is a documentary about policing in America sometime next year. And what do you know, folks? If you want to hear more about my time at the Netflix event

and about the history of hot dogs overall, you can buy my book, Raw Dog, The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, which will be available in paperback next year. year and is available in hardcover at this very moment. We'll see you again next week with an episode about, yes, you win, you have been heard. We're talking about Moodang.

Bye. 16th Minute is a production of Cool Zone Media and I Hard Radio. It is written, hosted, and produced by me, Jamie Laughness. Our executive producers are Sophie Lichten and Robert Evans. The Amazing Ian Johnson is our supervising producer and our editor. Our theme song is by Sad 13. Voice acting is from Grant Crater. And pet shoutouts to our dog producer Anderson,

my cats flea and Casper, and my pet rock bird who will outlive us all. Bye. Don't let biased algorithms or degree screens or exclusive professional networks or stereotypes. Don't let anything keep you from discovering the half of the work course who are stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time to tear the paper ceiling and see the stars beyond it. Find out how you can make stars

part of your talent strategy at tear the paper sealing.org brought to you by opportunity at work in the ad council. Tune in to All the Smoke podcast where Matt and Stack sit down with former first lady Michelle Obama. Folks find it hard to hate up close. And when you get to know people and you're sitting in their kitchen tables and they're talking like we're talking. You know, you hear our story, how we grew up, how Barack grew up. And you get a chance for people to unpack

and get beyond race. All the Smoke featuring Michelle Obama. To hear this podcast and more, open your free IHeart Radio app. Search all the smoke and listen now. The U.S. Open is here and on my podcast, Good Game with Sarah Spain. I'm breaking down the players,

the predictions, the pressure. And, of course, the honey deuses, the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open has gotten to be a very wonderfully experiential sporting event. To hear this and more, listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain, an IHeart Women's Sports Production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Novartis, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports Network.

Hey, I'm Kurt Brown-Oller. And I am Scotty Landis, and we host Bananas, the podcast where we share the weirdest, funniest, real news stories from all around the world. and sometimes from our guest personal lives, too. Like when Whitney Cummings recently revealed her origin story on the show. There's no way I don't already have rabies. This is probably just why my personalities like this. I've been surviving rabies for the past 20 years.

New episodes of bananas drop every Tuesday in the exactly right network. Listen to bananas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where Salinas is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

This is an IHeart podcast.