Overview The Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest is ten minutes of competitive eating on a stage at the corner of Surf and Stillwell in Coney Island, where Joey Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs and buns in 2026 to win his 18th Mustard Belt. Major League Eating took over sanctioning in 1997, and only eaters under contract to MLE can enter. A field of about twenty qualifies through regional heats, past titles, two wildcards and MLE invitations. The women's contest runs first and the men's follows; in 2026 they went off at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. ESPN's rights deal, signed in 2022, runs through 2029. On site The day before, the eaters step on the scale at a public weigh-in, often with the mayor of New York City. On the morning of the contest they arrive together on the bus of champions and are called to the stage one at a time. Each eater stands at a long table with a scorekeeper behind, flipping a number board as the count climbs in eighths of a dog. Judges show a yellow card for messy eating and a red card for vomiting, which ends that eater's day. A tie goes to a five-dog eat-off, and the winner poses with a plate showing the final count. Above the corner, a three-story Wall of Fame put up in 2004 lists every champion under a clock counting down to the next contest. Talent and Influencers Chestnut set the contest record of 76 in 2021. He missed 2024, when MLE barred him over a deal with Impossible Foods and Patrick Bertoletti won, then came back with 70.5 in 2025. Miki Sudo won her 12th women's title in 2026 with 38 and three-quarters, having taken every Nathan's contest she entered since 2014. Bertoletti and James Webb finished behind Chestnut in 2026, and Michelle Lesco and Domenica Dee behind Sudo. Takeru Kobayashi reset the sport in 2001, eating 50 when the record stood at 25 and a half, and won six straight. Track record The first documented contest ran on Labor Day 1972. The ten-minute format dates from 2008, cash prizes from 2007, and the women got their own contest and a pink belt in 2011. In 2026 ESPN simulcast the contest on ABC for the first time, and the audience across ABC and ESPN2 was the largest the contest had drawn. Nathan's donated 100,000 hot dogs to the Food Bank for New York City around the 2026 edition. Brand presence Nathan's Famous is the name on the contest and the stage. The largest partner banner, about 400 square feet, hangs behind the eaters, and the weigh-in on July 3 carries its own signage. A partner can put its logo on the contest uniforms, appear in MLE's press releases and advisories, post through Joey Chestnut's Instagram and hold a product category exclusively. When the women's belt was introduced in 2011 it carried Pepto-Bismol's name.