Watching terrible television shows is a nasty habit that I have and I’ll probably be at it again Friday.

Friday is Independence Day and while millions will revel in the fireworks across the country, millions will also take in the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York.

As much as I like terrible television, it’s hard for me to find the stomach to watch people stuff themselves with hot dogs for 10 grand and a belt that resembles a WWE championship belt. But I have and so did 40,000 people last year who showed up at the actual event while millions watched it live on ESPN.

The hot dog eating contest has everything I like about bad programs, the over-the-top personalities, the hyped-up anticipation of what we’re supposed to think is great, but actually isn’t, and an insane premise.

Take last year’s event, yeah I watched it beginning to end, the reigning champ Takeru Kobayashi revealed that he suffered an injury during training and his status was questionable heading into the biggest event of his professional eating career.

Kobayashi said he was unable to fully open his jaw two weeks before the competition started and his participation in the event was in doubt until the actual day of the contest. What a pro?

At that point Kobayashi had no real competition and he was really only trying to beat his own records, but his plan of toying with the field backfired and a young upstart, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut upset Kobayashi and set a new American record by eating 66 hot dogs.

The people that appear at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest are the entertainment for me. If you ever have the time, take a look at the profile pages of the eaters on the Major League Eating Web site, it’s easily worth a chuckle or two.

Tim Janus, better known as “Eater X” because of his erratic behavior, paints his face like the Ultimate Warrior of pro wrestling. According to his “bib sheet” he once showed up to a competition wearing a bikini.

Bob Shoudt, another eater, is apparently a vegetarian and his only chance to eat meat comes in competition.

As absurd as it sounds, some consider competitive eating a sport and it’s not limited to hot dogs either. Chestnut also holds a record for eating 8.6 pounds of asparagus. 8.6 pounds!

I just hope this year each eater has their own theme song when they enter and they begin trash talking. Maybe some pushing and shoving before the contest begins, that would make it even more exciting.

The methods to consuming as many hot dogs as possible is equally entertaining. For instance, Kobayashi has the “Solomon Method” called that because he splits the hot dog in half and eats both at the same time, then he dunks the bun in water and eats that.

Even the announcers get in the bit, sounding like Mean Gene Okerlund when they repeatedly mention the phrase “reversal of fortune” near the end of the competition.

The spectacle grabs my attention, but then I start thinking about actually eating 60 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Have you ever had a Nathan’ s Hot Dog? I’ve eaten my share of hot dogs and I don’t think I could eat more than a couple of those.

This thing is far from a sport and more along the lines of rasslin’ and if it stays that way it could be pretty successful. Let some of the personalities shine through, they are only going to help Major League Eating grow, plus people love an over-the-top character. Heck, a Major League Eater may become governor some day.

Now I don’t know if what I do at Godfather’s Pizza lunch buffet qualifies as a sporting event but I can assure it is a spectacle to say the least.