PhantomStranger

http://www.nbc.com/american-ninja-warrior

http://tv.esquire.com/shows/american-ninja-warrior

NBC and Esquire Network have teamed again to bring the heart-racing competition series, American Ninja Warrior, with hosts Matt Iseman, former NFL player Akbar Gbaja Biamila, and co-host Jenn Brown. The action-packed series follows competitors as they tackle the world’s most difficult obstacle courses in qualifying and finals rounds in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver and Miami, with the national finals round in Las Vegas, on a four-stage course modeled after the famed Mt. Midoriyama.

The new season premiered Monday night on NBC. I do recommend muting most of the inane color commentary. It was only tolerable when they had Ninja veteran Brent Steffensen make a cameo as a commentator.

DRG

I'm glad this is back but the one thing that drives me nuts about this show is how they edit the episodes together. Every qualifier episode starts: someone failing early in the course, someone getting a little further, someone else getting a bit further than that, and so on until someone gets all the way through. Then in the second hour you know the majority of the competitors are going to succeed, save for a screw-up by a favorite.

After a few seasons the pattern is getting a bit predictable. I know they're trying to build a false 'story arc' but I think it would be much more entertaining to have it feel more random where you can't as easily predict who's going to succeed or fail.

PhantomStranger

When Ninja Warrior first hit the air before it landed on NBC, it was a pure athletic competition albeit with colorful characters. NBC obviously doesn't care much about Ninja Warrior as a competition, for them it's about showcasing each advertising demo they want to hit. NBC's continued obsession with getting female Olympians to embarrass themselves is a joke.

I did notice they've engineered the course away from taller athletes this year. As the show has gotten more attention since making it to NBC, a bigger class of athletes was threatening to overwhelm the obstacles. They made the spinning wheel this year very difficult for athletes over 5'10" or thereabouts.

JeffTheAlpaca

I wish Jenn Brown would replace that fat cow Amber Theoharris on NFL Total Access

PhantomStranger

It only took six seasons...

magiccmom

Supporting a local kid here with his second attempt as a walk on in Miami. Last year he was a walk on, made it through, made it to the second rounds by time. Failed at warped wall. Exciting to see how far he makes it this time. Kid is a real adventurer. Built a whole obstacle course in his back yard. He is pretty bad ass. Jonathan Brown...look for him. Fingers crossed!

PhantomStranger

They've made the first stage more difficult this year at the two venues they've already broadcast. We are getting less people flying through the course and they've increased the required upper body strength needed to pass the hanging challenges.

Derrich

Kacy did something no other woman (and most of the men including Brent) couldn't do, and still she's first described as 'Brent Steffensen's girlfriend'.

Just sayin'

D

stingermck

Watched it last night and Kacy was a beast through the whole run. Very impressive.

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PhantomStranger

Gymnasts with their excellent strength-to-weight ratios make for the best athletes to attempt Ninja Warrior. Rock climbers also do very well.

Steffensen looked like he was carrying more weight than he ever has in this contest.

SuperJim88

Yeah, she should be described as 'World's prettiest camel toe's body'.

PhantomStranger

Some probably missed Monday's new episode, it was marked as a repeat in my DVR guide. I think one of Comcast's many cable channels runs repeats.

DRG

Odd course design this episode when it seemed like the most treacherous element of the course is dipping something into the water below the cargo net. Curious if that was lower than usual this time because even vets had issues with it.

I've always been puzzled by some of the wardrobe choices... I understand wanting to be a showman, but some of these guys take this competition very seriously yet they show up in goofy outfits that aren't always ideal for the run. You would think that if you're training all year for something, you would wear something that limits distractions and maximizes your mobility over all else... and not gladiator costumes or fireman pants or face masks or whatever else.

TomOpus

The course was also pretty fast. One guy did it in 44 seconds with several sub-1 minute times. Also all qualifiers completed the course which means it was easier.

magiccmom

Yeah, Jonathan Sharpe Brown competed in Miami and we watched last night. He blazed through in 51 seconds and was behind the leader with the second fasted time. Thing was it that he barely was mentioned, even with that unreal time, but they did show a portion of his run.

Seeing what happened to Flip was heartbreaking. I felt for that guy.

Kal-El

What happened to Flip? I didn't get to see his or Drew's run. Only watched the first hour.

DRG

Coming off the cargo net, he misjudged where the landing was and put his foot went in the water. I personally think he was rushing because of the 'rivalry' with Drew and the way the show hypes it up.

PhantomStranger

NBC is cutting this show like a typical Olympics package, where the actual athletic competition is secondary. It was greatly disappointing they skipped over a 51-second run of the course, to focus on their prepackaged videos of some person's family.

The last two courses have been watered down, by the way. People were blowing through Miami's course and had 42! finishers. After Kacy legitimately beat the season's toughest course, I get the feeling they've minimized the difficulty in the following courses to give more women a shot at reaching the warped wall. The St. Louis course was also very easy.

Flip will almost certainly be given a wild card like they did last year for Brent. He only touched the water because he was attempting to beat Drew's monster time.

magiccmom

Agreed. Even though it was Jonathan's second time on the show, he still had to be a walk-on. The fact that he blew through the course in roughly the same time as Drew should have been acknowledged.

DRG

The funny thing is, up until last season no woman had even made it to the wall and two finally did. Now this season since we've finally had two females actually conquer the wall, we've already reached the point where a woman made it to the wall but they just glossed over it in the "While we were away..." summary.

JCWBobC

Last night they aired a 7 or 8 hour marathon of the second or third season of American Ninja Warrior. First time seeing Flip run plus a lot of the main guys now where still rookies back then: Drew Dreschel, Paul Cashmere, David Campbell, etc...

PhantomStranger

Before he tore his knee up in that accident, Drew was an incredible athlete. He was on a freerunning show before that happened with a lot of the others from Ninja Warrior and was easily the most explosive athlete.

JCWBobC

Their were a couple shows around that time that were pretty cool. I think the one last night was for a chance to go to the Ninja Warrior boot camp. Then their was another show where they picked teams and competed in different Ninja Warrior events.

philo

Anyone watch this week's Denver finals? I thought it was way more entertaining and challenging than last weeks. It had some great falls and face plants on the angled steps which always cracks me up. It also had the third woman to complete a course. Lots of colorful characters. And Brian Arnold was of course the last guy featured.

NBC really should cough up more dough and make it an even million dollars given how difficult it is to win.

JCWBobC

Denver was great but how do people keep making the same mistakes as people who ran before them? Most people can't run the angled steps using one foot per step but a bunch of people tried to do it even after seeing others before them mess up.

The women with the black eye taking the face plant was pretty funny but I would have liked to have seen a Wipeout style replay.