Interesting rules for Joey Chestnut-Takeru Kobayashi hot dog showdown revealed

Jul 3, 2022; New York, New York, USA; American competitive eater Joey Chestnut ignited the smoke stacks before the game between New York City FC and Atlanta United at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The upcoming matchup between Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will be looking a good bit different than their last one.

In a post to their X page on Thursday, Netflix revealed the interesting rules for the Sept. 2 hot dog contest between the two competitive eating legends Chestnut and Kobayashi. The promo post featured actor Rob Riggle laying out the rules for the competition, which will be streamed live on Netflix.

Chestnut and Kobayashi will have 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs as they can. But most notably, they will not be able to separate the hot dogs from the buns, nor will they be able to dunk the dogs or buns in liquid.

Additionally, Chestnut and Kobayashi will have 30 seconds following the expiration of the 10-minute timer to finish swallowing what is their mouths (with leftover crumbs potentially being weighed to determine a winner). In the event of a tie, the two competitors will get a three-minute “overtime” to eat as many hot dogs as they can. Should the two still be tied after that, it will go to a dog-off (the first one to finish five hot dogs wins).

Here is the full video.

NO DUNKING
DOGS IN BUNS
10 MINUTES

Rob Riggle presents the official rules of the Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef hot dog eating competition LIVE on Netflix, September 2 at 12pm PT/3pm ET! pic.twitter.com/8B2ddz5blN

— Netflix (@netflix) August 29, 2024

Chestnut, a 16-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion, last faced Kobayashi, a six-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion himself, all the way back in 2009. Though that was also a 10-minute competition, the strategy of separating the dogs from the buns and then dunking them each in liquid (so as to increase speed and efficiency of consumption) is a staple of the Nathan’s contest. The two competitors won’t have that same luxury this time around.

Kobayashi, 46, hasn’t competed in the Nathan’s contest ever since his last matchup against Chestnut, 40, in 2009. But Chestnut also didn’t participate in this year’s Nathan’s event after being banned due to sponsorship reasons. In just a matter of days though, the two icons of their sport will finally be giving us the rematch that has been a decade-and-a-half in the making.