Original Desmond

I could personally tell you over 5 more tragic stories i have a personal connection to over the last few years

They don't get to be told on a TV show

Yes things like this are tragic, just fuck all to do with the show

Original Desmond

getting sick of 'mighty' kacy, still she's cute and has a cute blonde friend, would definitely go twos up on them both

DWilson

This is primarily to appeal to the female audience, -which it seems to be successful at, -to give people something to identify with, to give them a rooting interest. That's also why they bend over backwards to get the female competitor's a helping hand and extra publicity.

PhantomStranger

They announced Kacy is "retiring" from Ninja Warrior, she has signed a contract with the WWE. This week is apparently her last appearance on the show...until her WWE contract runs out I imagine.

DWilson

Seriously. I hadn't heard that*, but as it happens I'm currently watching
Glow", and it feels a lot like that.

*https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/...wwe/614951001/

PhantomStranger

Kacy's farewell wreaked last night's entire episode. They butchered most of the runs to include the most mawkish tributes I've ever seen. What's sad is that I've really enjoyed Kacy's runs on Ninja Warrior but NBC once again showed little restraint in dropping any pretense this is less a competitive athletic event than manufactured reality tv.

buckeyes8604

I've enjoyed both Vegas episodes a lot. Was shocked when Jessie fell on the net.

It looks like next week is 2 hours instead of 3, so guessing Stage 2 is a big jump up in difficulty.

d2cheer

Yea that sucked. Brought my girlfriend to tears. She had the staged owned really disappointing.

Original Desmond

Kacy is the most overrated 'athlete' in history

I hope they show most Stage 2 runs

Drew was awesome, all the big names are through

d2cheer

Well... In case no one has seen it yet.

PhantomStranger

I didn't enjoy at all how they edited the last two episodes of the season. What was the point of reiterating the human interest stories once again? Or going into a three-minute tribute to Kacy's dead dog? They spent a lot of time building Beard up as the second woman to make Stage 2, only for her to fail fairly quickly.

The National Finals in Las Vegas used to be my favorite part of the season.

It looked like Drew was actually too athletic for that obstacle and overshot the leap, hurting his arm in the process. They didn't even bother showing several strong contenders' Stage 2 runs.

stingermck

Yup another year and NBC doesnt have to pay any money. Good luck next year competitors!

Bill Needle

Bill Needle

FYI, Drew Drechsel has been competing on the Japanese original Sasuke. While not achieving Total Victory, he has gone the furthest of all particiants the past two competitions. Brent Steffenson has also been doing very well over there. It would be great to see a couple other of the best guys head over there.

Drechsel and Jessie Graff both competed at Sasuke 34 this summer, to be broadcast some time this fall.

PhantomStranger

Drew has basically become a professional ninja, traveling the world and entering the various Ninja Warrior competitions. There are variations of the show in Brazil and Europe as well. He's most probably the best ninja in the world today. A whole host of imitators have started up, even here in the States that don't get televised.

I remember when he first appeared on Ninja Warrior at 21 and it was immediately obvious he was a cut above the rest of the athletes in talent and potential. I'm glad he got out of being a car salesman.

As for the show itself, the team ninja warrior show is ten times more entertaining now than the regular show on NBC. Having the top ninjas race each other on pure speed creates much more drama and excitement.

Original Desmond

They need to give a prize of 50K to whoever gets furthest each year so there is always a winner of sorts even if it isn't the million

PhantomStranger

That makes way too much sense for NBC to consider it.

The dirty secret of Ninja Warrior is that they already have more applications to run the courses than they know what to do with. You have to wait in the walk-on line for weeks to run the course if you aren't handpicked by NBC's producers. Literally the easiest way to get on the show is finding one of the current popular ninjas and start dating them.

Six women have made it up a Warped Wall on Ninja Warrior. Five of them are dating top male ninjas.

Original Desmond

Yeah it isn't a fair playground for sure

Ink masters and shows like that give away 100K per season, so ANW could definitely give away the same as there are making more money

I would say 60K for best performing male and 30K for best performing female

It's not huge money compared to the million but for a lot of these guys it will really help, many of them have put potential careeers on hold to train as much as possible and several have opened gyms in an effort to do both

PhantomStranger

I think that is what happened to Brian Arnold a couple of years ago, when he made it farther than anyone else on the course. He took off an entire year to train for Ninja Warrior as a stay-at-home dad. It was pretty clear he was gunning for the million dollars. It must have been crushing when he failed.

DWilson

You do wonder what the numbers are on this show. You have production costs, but you don't pay talent fees.

Original Desmond

Personally i think they make a killing. They wouldn't have spin offs like Team Ninja Warrior and College team and USA v the world

Plus i think they would share in the royalties from the world wide versions, as most use Ninja warrior in the title and the obstacles are much more closely aligned with ANW than Sasuke

PhantomStranger

The show is hugely profitable for NBC but the biggest ninja stars get talent contracts of varying expense. I'm sure that Jessie is also getting paid for her appearances on the show.

Kacy supposedly signed a deal well over one million dollars with NBC, after her viral fame exploded from beating that city finals course. Kacy was getting offers left and right from other places and NBC was afraid she would walk to start her own show.

That is the backstory the show never brings up when they mentioned Kacy's exit to the WWE. Her contract with NBC was up and she was looking for her next pay day. NBC clearly didn't match the WWE's offer. I'm guessing that NBC thought Jessie is a suitable replacement for Kacy and didn't need her as much anymore.

Original Desmond

If that is the case (top talents have contracts), you can kinda tell who does and doesn't have one

Travis Rosen gets almost no exposure, he definitely aint getting paid

I thought Flip was hard done by with airtime this year

Drew Dreschel seemed to be one of the heavily pushed names this year and he is the best so that's cool

PhantomStranger

Yeah, you can tell which stars have contracts by how much attention and full appearances they receive on TV. Drew, the cowboy ninja, Jessie, the other Jessie, Joe the weather man, Daniel Gil, possibly Brent Steffenson from a few years ago, Megan Martin, Kevin Bull - they are all logical candidates.

Guys like Travis Rosen and David Campbell, older ninjas that practically built the sport, get nothing from NBC except a shot at the course each year.

Original Desmond

Yeah David Campbell especially, without him, the sport wouldn't have grown as quickly

I'd like to see Brian Orosco and Levi Meuwinberg make a return, they dominated in the early seasons