ESPN's 30 For 30 Takes a Frank Look at Competitive Hot Dog Eating

Of all the major American holidays, the 4th of July is easily the one with the fewest attendant TV specials. Certainly, some movie channel will air Independence Day for those who want to relive the heyday of the Jeff Goldblum/Bill Pullman cinematic universe. But it doesn't hold a candle to Christmas and Halloween (the mother and father of all TV-branded holidays), or even Thanksgiving (which always attracts a ton of TV specials) or even New Year's Eve. The 4th of July probably could stand to more aggressively claim a movie like, say, Jaws or certainly Grey Gardens, but it's mostly an outdoors holiday. Usually the most holiday-specific TV programming involves airing live fireworks displays, which … are better enjoyed outside.

Kudos, then, to ESPN for doing its own small part for the genre with their latest 30 for 30 documentary, titled The Good, the Bad, the Hungry, which focuses on the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, held every 4th of July in Coney Island. Looking at the rivalry between the competitions' two biggest names -- Japan's Takeyru Kobayashi and California's Joey Chestnut -- the film takes a deep dive into the world of competitive eating.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: Director Nicole Lucas Haimes preceded 30 for 30: The Good, the Bad, the Hungry with a documentary called Chicken People, which focused on the unusual universe of show chickens. Which has us feeling like the pageantry and strategy of competitive eating won't be that big of a leap for her. 8:00 PM ET on ESPN

NEW EPISODE: NBC's songwriting competition series, Songland, crosses over with one of the hottest movie franchises in America this week, as the contestants compete for an opportunity to write a song for the upcoming Hobbes & Shaw, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham. 10:00 PM ET on NBC

SEASON PREMIERE: The second half of the third season of Young Justice is back. Titled "Outsiders," it features The Team (teenage superheroes acting as a kind of shadow organization to the Justice League) encountering Nightwing and his Outsiders. The first half of Season 3 aired in January and ended with Tara/Terra perhaps infiltrating The Team. 9:00 AM ET on DC Universe

SEASON PREMIERE: Casey Webb is back for another season of Man vs Food, in which Webb traverses the country, taking on the boldest, hottest, most oversized food challenges available. The new season kicks off in Sacramento, California. 10:00 PM ET on Cooking Channel

ALSO TONIGHT

• America's Got Talent is almost through with the auditions stage, but before that's finished, judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Julianne Hough, and Gabrielle Union will revisit some of this season's best auditions. 8:00 PM ET on NBC
• Big Brother continues its summer-camp-themed season, and while the alliances are still in their nascent stages, can we say how weird it is that Tommy (the Broadway dancer) and Christie (the Jersey girl) are connected through her ex-girlfriend, yet none of the rest of the cast appear to be connected? 8:00 PM ET on CBS
• Tales kicks off its second season of dramatizing hip-hop songs into narrative form. The two-part saeson premiere is also a launch for a previously unreleased Kanye West song. 9:00 PM ET on BET

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.