I seem to remember the intro always being, from the first season that was televised, something to the effect of "make it through all the stages, and up to the top of stage 4 and win a million dollars". No mention of fastest or first. The assumption was that only one person could possibly do it.

Just watched this and couldn't believe not one but TWO people finished!

That said, it is heartbreaking that Geoff becomes the first one to ever complete the course only to minutes later have the title AND money taken from him.

I think we'd all feel differently if Isaac had opted to go first. (They said that since he finished faster it was up to him who went first.) Had he gone first and won the title, then Geoff went and didn't do it as fast, there'd be no issue.

All in all, a lot of the problem is that they've promoted this as a show where everyone's competing against the course, not each other. I think most of us assumed that if you reached the top of Stage 4, you'd get $1 million even if multiple people did it, even though that doesn't really make sense. :P

I don't believe there was a cash prize for the Japanese version, so this problem never came up.

A team spin-off with the top ninjas is coming to Esquire in 2016:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/09...-spin-off-team

This hasn't started airing yet but I've already seen the premiere episode. Its official debut doesn't begin until January 19th on Esquire.

American Ninja Warrior fans should really enjoy the format, I found it far more exciting and compelling in this Team Ninja Warrior competition. Teams of three compete directly head to head in a race to finish the obstacles first, two guys and one woman per team. You'll recognize most of the male ninjas from the last season of ANW. Team captains got to pick their own teams. The captains are star players like Travis Rosen and the Weather Man.

Off the main NBC network, the human interest angles have been trimmed down significantly. Racing the obstacles head to head adds a whole new dimension to the athletic potential of Ninja Warrior. This one episode I saw had more surprises than I expected. One thing I'll mention is that Jessie Graf has completely separated herself from the rest of the female competition. She is the Serena Williams now of ANW.

Her height is a huge advantage. I believe she's 5'8 and is at least half a foot taller than Kacie and Meaghan Martin.

This Team Ninja Warrior show officially premiered tonight.

American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. the World airs on January 31, 8E/7C.

Are the team episodes going to be on a real channel, or only Esquire?

Only Esquire. Amazon Instant Video is offering the first episode for free.

I liked the first episode of Team Ninja Warrior, but I didn't quite understand how the matchup/elimination system worked. In round 1, Team A beat Team B, and Team C beat Team D. But then in the next round each winning team faces the OTHER losing team... Team A faces Team D, and Team C faces Team B. THEN the winners of *those* matchups face off at the end. So what is the point of the first round matchups if the points don't accumulate/carry over?

As for positives, I really liked that it was shot in daylight. Earlier seasons of ANW used to have some preliminary rounds in the daytime, but at some point they decided to do the whole thing at night. I also thought the direct competition aspect added a lot of intensity. This did seem to be a speed-based course as opposed to a completion-based course as you see in ANW, meaning they removed some of the super difficult obstacles to ensure we'd get more thrilling showdowns and fewer outcomes decided by contestants failing an obstacle.

One thing I was wondering about with the relay showdown at the end... so if someone screws up and falls at the beginning of that relay, is the whole thing just over? That seems like it would be rather anticlimactic given the format.

Yeah, the relay would be anticlimactic if someone fell early.

I enjoyed this competitive format a great deal. Since speed is a factor, competitors that normally take it easy were pushing themselves to go through obstacles much, much faster. It makes the contest much more thrilling than the main ANW format.

Well that sucks. Hopefully it will be available somewhere at some point in the future.

I just watched the first episode. I really enjoyed it. It was really fun and fast paced. I'm glad there wasn't 15 mins of competitor profiles to sit through like there is a usually Ninja Warrior episode. I was really rooting for Jessie's team to win, but she had the guy who eats garbage on her team and I don't think you can get the proper nutrition for these events when you eat out of a dumpster. I am glad that Travis Rosen's team made it to the finals though. He lives in my area. He and Jessie are two of my favorite competitors.

I definitely found this more entertaining than ANW, though I agree the structure is a little confusing. Sorry to see Graff out already, though it illustrates that your team is only as strong as its weakest link, and that adds to the suspense.

When will they put the shows on Directv on Demand so you can watch them in HD?

It has been over a week and the first episode is still not available on demand.

I hope everyone remembered that tonight was America Vs. the World on NBC. It was a thrilling contest once again, almost as good as last year when Europe won the contest by a hair in the rope climb.

NBC couldn't have hoped for a better turn of events in the America Vs. The World contest. Super ninja Geoff, one of America's best hopes, is shockingly sidelined before he even gets to attempt one event due to a high fever. The finale came to a brutal showdown on Stage 3. Europe remains competitive due to Sean McColl, the world's #1 ranked climber. He doesn't seem European because he's not, he grew up in Canada.

Tried to watch this the other night, but 3 hours, ouch.

I watched it in under an hour by fast forwarding through all the competitor profiles. I thought it was a pretty good competition. The Japanese might as well drop out... I don't know if it's jet lag or what, but they have not done well in these matches...

We watched it for an hour. The Japanese were getting hammered. Are their courses greatly different from Las Vegas? They had competent guys falling right away.

Awesome finish for !

I was out, but i caught last nights show inadvertently. I hate the bullshit of this show that focuses on the lifes. They really drag this show out. Also that Kacy Catanzaro seems to be in almost every friggin audience shot. She annoys the shit out of me. I may watch next week just to see her fail badly.

Japanese people are generally shorter than Americans. Our courses are designed for bigger, faster athletes. They even made a point of it on the broadcast that the Japanese team this time selected a couple of taller competitors after the failures of the past two years, thinking they might compete better on our courses. The show really needs to line up the teams head to head in a shot to show the large size differences.

The Japanese still excel at the pure climbing obstacles like Stage 3, which favors a high strength-to-bodyweight ratio and endurance.

I was Fast forwarding and still feel asleep NBC needs to cut it out with all the player profiles.