American Ninja Warrior has a new season Wednesday!
5Just wanted to let everyone know that one of the best competition shows is back tomorrow on NBC at 8 PM EST.
If you haven’t seen American Ninja Warrior before, here’s the blurb from NBC:
The action-packed series follows competitors as they tackle a series of challenging obstacle courses in both city qualifying and city finals rounds across the country. Those that successfully complete the finals course in their designated region move on to the national finals round in Las Vegas, where they face a stunning four-stage course modeled after the famed Mt. Midoriyama course in Japan. The winner takes home a grand prize of $1 million.
Based on the global hit “Sasuke,” from the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, the original series is now in its 31st season in Japan. To date, only three contestants have completed the Japanese course.
Last year, for the first time ever, someone finally finished Stage 4 and won after 7 seasons.
Unlike other shows, you’re not competing against anyone else- it’s you against the course. The better you do, the farther you go. If you don’t manage to finish the course, you might still advance if you were one of the people to get the furthest the fastest.
It’s amazing to see the physical strength, endurance, grit and determination of the competitors- these are some of the most fit people around.
Here’s the link to the show page: http://www.nbc.com/american-ninja-warrior
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Yes… and no. In the Japanese series, that’s true. Finish stage 4, you’re a champion. You win.
In the American version, TWO people actually finished the full course last season, but because they only wanted to have one winner, the first guy to finish stage 4 didn’t actually get to win.
Shame that they made it against the fellow athletes rather than just against the course, but… ah well.
@Maymne me and my 3 guys (hubby, 2 teens) love watching this. We love how they cheer for each other. Last year’s double winner but one (who by the way also completed all stages but the other had missed one but got far enough fast enough to “place” into the next round) got nothing was a real bummer. The rules were clear: it’s timed for a reason (break ties), but still you felt so bad for him after a whole season of us being impressed with everyone’s athletisism AND sportsmanship. Not a fan of “participation trophies” but hope he got something out of it (from network or show producers considering the $1M prize was a drop in bucket to profits i bet they made) besides a good story to tell his friends.
I love watching this show. It’s amazing watching these men and women work through the tough courses. More amazing to see the women make it through because most are short and the course is built more toward the American male.
I also like seeing that all contestants are cheering each other on. It’s one competition show that I find myself cheering for everyone and not saying “I don’t like that person and I hope they don’t make it.”
If anyone hasn’t watched this show, do. You will enjoy it.
@benji7roeth I too like the spirit of how the athletes support each other (it eliminates the major part I don’t like about “conventional” sports). But as @Maymne pointed out above, to throw this out at the end (and yes I know the two that made it all the way through last season were very gracious) is a little off-putting for me.
I’ve actually got a buddy from back in high school that will on it tonight. If you see someone labeled as Ninja Dentist, I know that guy. So that basically makes me a ninja too.
Caught it last night, I can’t believe they made the opening steps harder AND raised the warp wall, so mean.