How to watch Joey Chestnut on July 4th: Hot dog eating champ takes on Texas soldiers

EL PASO, Texas — Hot dog eating champion Joey "Jaws" Chestnut is breaking tradition and celebrating Fourth of July in El Paso his way: Challenging four soldiers at an army base to a hot dog eating competition.

Instead of his usual contest in Brooklyn, Chestnut will showcase his talents at the Pop Goes the Fort celebration. There, he'll have five minutes to out-eat his competitors at Fort Bliss to help raise money for military families.

While this may be Chestnut's first time in nearly two decades spending his Independence Day in the Lone Star State, this isn't his first rodeo. Chestnut competed in his first Nathan's Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest in 2005 and has not lost it since 2015. At last year's contest, Chestnut won first place and ate 62 hot dogs, beating the runner-up by 13 hot dogs. 

The record of most hot dogs eaten was set by Chestnut with 76 franks eaten in 10 minutes at the 2021 competition.

Chestnut was initially being disinvited from the annual competition due to a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat substitute company that is a rival brand of Nathan's Famous.

While Major League Eating, which organizes the contest, said Chestnut is not permanently banned, he said he would return to their competition without an apology.

Chestnut will be livestreaming the competition on his YouTube channel compared to the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest which is broadcasted live on ESPN. Impossible Foods is promoting Chestnut's YouTube livestream by flying banners over Los Angeles and Miami. 

The competition in El Paso starts at 4 p.m. with a Q&A for the hot-dog-eating star afterward. Fans can submit questions for Chestnut here.