The Unfinished Beef between Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi is part of the streamer’s strategy to drive meaningful discussion moving forward.
Everyone has an opinion on the weird and wacky world of competitive eating; you find it either riveting, repulsing, or perhaps a combination of the two. Combine that with reuniting the sport’s two GOATs — bitter rivals who haven’t competed against each other in 15 years — for a one-off contest to determine ultimate bragging rights supremacy, and you have a recipe for an event that gets people talking.
That’s what Netflix banked on Monday in Las Vegas for Unfinished Beef, a live hot dog eating contest between Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi streamed worldwide. There were well-known hosts and broadcasters, an undercard that broke a Guinness world record for watermelon consumption, and a legendary eater outperforming three Olympians — including Ryan Lochte for some reason — a $100,000 prize, a golden hot dog trophy, a WWE championship belt (synergy), and a live audience well trained to cheer, chant, ooh and aah at every turn.
While there were slightly different rules than a traditional Nathan’s contest, Chestnut broke the all-time record by engulfing 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes, leaving Kobayashi’s 67 in the scorching desert dust.
“Competitive eating? It’s a weird sport, but it’s easily relatable,” Chestnut told Boardroom the day before the event. “Any man, woman, and child relate to eating.”
Competitive eating couldn’t be more different than the other live events Netflix’s produced since it began with a live Chris Rock comedy special 18 months ago. It doesn’t seem logical to compare guzzling glizzies to a roast of Tom Brady, a golf tournament featuring tour champions and Formula 1 racers, a tennis match between Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, or upcoming live events including a Mike Tyson–Jake Paul boxing match in November, two NFL games on Christmas Day, or WWE‘s flagship weekly series Raw coming to the platform in January.
For Netflix, however, there’s one simple common denominator.
“It’s about events that create conversations that are fun for the family, that are going to get people to tune in, and just bring more value to Netflix members,” Gabe Spitzer, Netflix’s Vice President of Sports, told Boardroom inside the Luxor’s HyperX Arena, where the event took place.
It took close to two years of back and forth to bring the nemeses together for one final culinary clash. Netflix then tapped production company Den Of Thieves, which produced the streamer’s Dinner Time Live series with David Chang and the 2018 concert film of Taylor Swift’s Redemption Tour, to find the right set and venue to infuse the show with the aesthetic of a major boxing or UFC match. If Netflix’s 270 million global subscribers respond well to the show and there’s great conversation around Unfinished Beef, Spitzer said, the company would be open to more live competitive eating shows in the future.
While Chestnut said he’d definitely compete again on Netflix if given the opportunity, suggesting live food specials for every national holiday, Kobayashi made it clear that this is a one-and-done for him as an eater, going as far as announcing his retirement. However, Kobayashi introduced the idea of expanding Netflix’s live competitive eating franchise as a judge or analyst. The concept he suggested is simple: Bring the top eaters from around the world and launch a tournament with different food types to determine the best eater on earth.
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“It would be so interesting to have some kind of platform where everyone from around the world, the top eaters, will congregate,” Kobayashi told Boardroom through a translator. “It’s such a simple concept.”
At this early stage of Netflix’s live programming, Spitzer said, it’s still trying a variety of specials to understand how its subscribers respond, what generates excitement, and what generates robust conversation and elicits a positive response rather than what just draws the most viewers. Being opportunistic in finding events and moments that provide members with these elements will determine how many live events are streamed each year rather than some predetermined benchmark.
While it’s unfair to say Netflix is determining what performed well based on vibes, Spitzer wants live programming to feel different. Suffice it to say that Brady’s roast in May and Unfinished Beef certainly checked the “different” box.
As Spitzer noted, Netflix is still very much in the early stages of live programming, much earlier than fellow tech giants like Apple and Amazon. So, just like when the streaming giant struggled with the bandwidth of putting together its Love Is Blind Live Reunion live special in April 2023, it’s still learning every day when it comes to putting together a live product.
It’s also still learning to pick its spots in sports, music, comedy, and entertainment rather than fixating on some rights package it must have. Some deals, however, like obtaining three years’ worth of global rights to NFL Christmas games, are no-brainers.
While Netflix will use CBS‘ production staff that day, the next nearly four months for Netflix will be about building its muscles in engineering, tech, and product to ensure a top-quality broadcast NFL fans expect for an audience Spitzer hoped would be more than 30 million in line with previous Christmas games.
“We want to give it its own unique Netflix look and feel, but we don’t want to try to do something that’s not going to look like a normal NFL game,” Spitzer said, adding that while broadcast talent hasn’t been chosen yet, fans will see familiar faces in the broadcast booth.
Through hit series Quarterback and Receiver and now the Christmas games, Netflix and the NFL are developing a relationship that’s heading toward expanding over time. Conversations will continue over time to see if anything else makes sense for the streamer’s global distribution model, which it’ll implement on Christmas for football.
The landmark WWE deal, which was reported 10 years ago and cost $5 billion, is also global in scale, granting Netflix the rights not just to Raw in the US but all WWE shows and premium live events outside America. The worldwide model Apple obtained with its Major League Soccer deal is one Netflix clearly coveted here.
“We want to be seen as the home of WWE around the world,” Spitzer said.
While WWE Smackdown will be on USA Network until 2029 stateside, Peacock‘s streaming rights contract for all domestic premium live events reportedly expires in 2026. Like the NFL, all Spitzer would say was to point out Netflix’s strengthening bond with the wrestling behemoth.
“I can’t comment on the future negotiations,” he said, “but what I’d point to what we’re seeing outside of the US. We’re excited to see how it all takes shape in January and go from there.”
The NFL and WWE deals represent multi-year agreements that diverge from the one-off model we witnessed Monday in Las Vegas that we’ve previously seen on Netflix across sports, music, comedy, and entertainment. The streamer, Spitzer said, will continue to see what opportunities are out there around the world, not just in the US, that provide that big-event feel driving the conversation for millions tuning in to witness greatness in all forms, including Chestnut’s record-breaking, stomach-churning afternoon of gluttonous glory.
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