I start by saying I LOVE American Ninja Warrior. The positivity the show exudes and the sportsmanship between the competitors make it a very unique sporting competition between truly elite athletes. It pains me to bring any kind of negativity into the equation. But there was something about the other night’s show, the Cincinnati City Finals, that made me uneasy. Flat out, the course was too easy. And I was left to wonder if the course was made easy on purpose. It’s the first time since I began watching ANW that I questioned the integrity of the show. Absolutely no disrespect to the competitors, they ran the course that was put in front of them and many have already established themselves as great ninjas.
Although there have been the usual adrenaline-filled and inspirational moments that we all have come to love, this season has been a little tough – lots of shocking eliminations and courses going unfinished. The blind grab obstacles are eliminating the best and it does kind of seem to be more a matter of luck than skill to overcome them. The damp Mega Wall in Baltimore was also a bummer. But these things speak to the difficulty of the obstacles, the conditions and the courses as a whole. Impossible looking obstacles and challenges to the athletes are something Ninja fans have come to embrace. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward fans (and I assume athletes) feel when the challenge is overcome.
Let’s examine some statistics from Cincinnati:
- Seven finishers - this is very high for a city finals course, especially when the only legit superstar competing was Flex Labreck.
- Two women finishers in one night - only one woman had finished a city finals course in ten seasons, so two in one night is a major red flag.
- Of the seven finishers only Ethan Swanson and Chris DiGangi had ever completed a city finals course before, Digangi doing so way back in season four.
Is it possible that all of these ninjas just happened to have the best runs of their careers all in the same night?
My fear is that some television executive at NBC, after seeing how few finishers there have been this year, decided it would be a good idea to make the Cincinnati course easier so there would be more. This would kind of be like the commissioner of baseball getting frustrated at the lack of home runs during a season and deciding to move the outfield fences in 100 feet. Sure, it would be exciting to see all those home runs but should fans really consider them to be legitimate homers?
The only reason I bring this up in a public forum is because I never want to see this type of thing happen again. The courses are supposed to be near impossible, but the athletes keep improving and figuring them out. These courses should always be one step ahead of the competitors, that is the way it has always been, all the way back to the Japan days.
Please NBC, do not start making the courses easier because you think this will give you higher ratings. Just the opposite will happen when people no longer feel the competition is legitimate.
