S13.E01: Qualifier 1

[Kromm]

Seems like a really tough course this time.  The 4th and 5th obstacles decimated people. Even the 2nd obstacle was tougher than usual for that position. 

Edit - Heck, even the balance obstacle, the 3rd, is brutal, because aside from how tough those always are, you can waste a ton of time just deciding between the two choices they gave. 

Edit 2 - Speaking of choices, I still hate the stupid Mega Wall thing. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Kromm

[jcin617]

I wonder why they didn’t show anyone’s time while they ran the course (except towards the very end for those going for fastest time).

[ams1001]

Not sure how I feel about the new age cutoff. But, damn, some of those kids!

Also, "the youngest person ever to run" is kinda dumb to say when she's like the second person of the night and just happens to be one of the newly-of-age contestants, and there are others coming up who are the same age or younger (then a little later a 16yo guy ran and they said "the youngest male!"...🙄.) 

Barclay made me cry.

[Lantern7]

Good start. I'm thinking we'll be getting the same tournament format at the end of the season, now in Las Vegas. I mean, someone winning $1 million is great, but shouldn't they have to clear all four stages?

Las Vegas is a nice idea . . . until you remember a lot of the under-18 crowd might qualify. How many rookies made the cut tonight? Seeing kids looking that and/or buff is a little disturbing, at least to me.

42 minutes ago, jcin617 said:

I wonder why they didn’t show anyone’s time while they ran the course (except towards the very end for those going for fastest time).

That's been the case for at least the past few seasons.

18 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Barclay made me cry.

I didn't . . . but damn, poor Barclay. First run since losing her mother, and she goes out that quickly. Not nearly as shocking as Daniel Gil taking a early bath. He did qualify . . . I'd hope NBC has replacements ready in case Matt and/or Akbar have heart attacks.

[LadyNebula]

The best part of the night for me was seeing Sam Sann again!  

[jcin617]

13 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

That's been the case for at least the past few seasons.

Thanks!  Shows how observant I've been!

[dmeets]

I guess Jonathan Horton only got an invite for some Olympics synergy? Otherwise I figured NBC was long done with him the way they got over Evan "Rocket" Dollard. Was bummed to see Horton miss out, since I'll be very surprised if this year isn't his last appearance.

Loved seeing Gil fall, too bad he qualified anyways. I'd say "The Kid" bouncing super early had to be the shock of the night. But with the age limit being lowered, it makes no sense for him to keep the nickname, no matter how much Matt and Akbar say it's his for life.

"This is going viral for sure." Shut up, Akbar. At least the "Sha-na-na" count remains at zero so far this year.

Edited June 1, 2021 by dmeets

[ams1001]

20 minutes ago, dmeets said:

Loved seeing Gil fall, too bad he qualified anyways.

I figured he'd qualify but they said at least three times that he's never fallen in a qualifier so I thought, "he's gonna fall." Poor guy got his hair wet. 

Did they shorten the run-up to the Warped Wall again?

I did kinda like that the first to try the mega-wall was one of the kids.

[Kromm]

I know it probably happened a while ago and it blew by me, but when did they change the rule that once you picked the Mega Wall that you had to stay with it?  It was clear last night they no longer had to stick with it. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Kromm

[ams1001]

5 minutes ago, Kromm said:

I know it probably happened a while ago and it blew by me, but when did they change the rule that once you picked the Mega Wall that you had to stay with it?  It was clear last night they no longer had to stick with it. 

I thought it was always you only get one chance at it, but if you fail then you only get one shot at the regular wall. (If you choose the regular wall you get the usual three chances.)

[jcin617]

9 minutes ago, Kromm said:

I know it probably happened a while ago and it blew by me, but when did they change the rule that once you picked the Mega Wall that you had to stay with it?  It was clear last night they no longer had to stick with it. 

The rule the past few seasons I believe has been if you try the Mega Wall and fail, you only get one shot at the standard wall (as opposed to 3 attempts).  
 

ETA: @ams1001 beat me to it!

Edited June 1, 2021 by jcin617

[mlp]

Daniel Gil is one of my favorites and I hated to see him fall but, as often as Matt and Akbar mentioned that he never had before, I knew it was coming.  I'm glad he qualified for the next round.

I am sooooooooo sick of long, long personal stories about people who don't even make it to the buzzer.  

[Lovecat]

Yeah, when they started in on "Daniel Gil has NEVER fallen in a qualifier..." I said (OUT LOUD) "*I* would like to see Daniel Gil fall..."  Ker-splash.  

If only that was a real superpower.  *I* would like five million dollars and a large brick of chocolate brought to me by George Clooney...  ::looks around::  Sigh.  Nope.

[Chaos Theory]

I was  actually kinda glad both Gil and “The Kid” fell.   Is it weird that I was cheering for the youngsters.   Damn tough course. The obstacle  the I liked best was the one you had to chose your path.   

22 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I thought it was always you only get one chance at it, but if you fail then you only get one shot at the regular wall. (If you choose the regular wall you get the usual three chances.)

You usually have three shots at the small wall.  Since most of the “big stars” didn’t need three tries anymore they built the mega wall.   You get one shot at the mega wall if you miss you only have one try at the regular wall which usually isn’t an issue unless you are a rookie.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Kromm]

My point is that there was a period, I don't know for how long, where if you tried the Mega Wall, you couldn't go back to the other one (and so risked your finish).  Mostly only people so fast they'd get through even without a buzzer did it during that period. 

Heck, it may have only been one season. I just remember it sharply, because it was so lame. 

[SophiaD]

I'm not sure how I feel about this new format.  There's definitely a "changing of the guard" feeling about the new season.  I did like the younger folks, especially Ethan and Isaiah, but the cynical part of me is now wondering if ANW Junior is now going to turn into a giant feeder program for ANW, especially since now it's only on Peacock.

The exaltation of moms gets a bit tedious, even if Lindsay Eskildsen is amazing.

I felt terribly for Barclay Stockett, who is one of my favorites.

I really like Jonathan Horton and am sad he went out so early.  I was a huge admirer of his, back in the day, when he went from being one of the US's premier male gymnasts, and was surpassed in the technical skills department, but kept competing, and cheering on the rest of his team.  

It seems though this is the third major shift - first, it was their weird, quirky show that featured athletes having fun, and bringing their A game, while being quirky.  Then, it shifted more into a sports atmosphere (which I preferred).  Now, it seems to be much more about families and young people.  I wonder if this isn't an adjustment due to what happened to Drew, or if they just wanted to do something to change interest.

I'm glad they're not limiting the finishers going on to the finals.  That was one thing I did NOT like last year.

[sweetandsour]

I'm pretty sure that Jonathan Horton did make the cutoff?  I'm a gymnastics fan so I looked for him specifically - I even paused on every screen of the top 30 list.  I thought he came in around #26, ahead of the NASCAR guy who also made the cut (just barely).  Wikipedia hasn't been updated with the results yet and I already erased the episode, so maybe I'm wrong?

Tiny quasi-surprise for me is that Jody Avila did not make it up the regular Warped Wall the first time.

I love watching Barclay compete and I'm bummed she didn't move on.  I was happy to see her on the sidelines, cheering for others.  When I saw Maggie Thorne on the sidelines, too, I assumed she was competing in Tacoma, but she didn't.  I know she always shows up at multiple cities, but I'm surprised they are allowing people who aren't assigned to that city to be there in person.  I guess she's isolating for as long as necessary and taking COVID tests before every qualifier she goes to, but I'm still surprised TPTB didn't say no.

[ams1001]

35 minutes ago, sweetandsour said:

I'm pretty sure that Jonathan Horton did make the cutoff?  I'm a gymnastics fan so I looked for him specifically - I even paused on every screen of the top 30 list.  I thought he came in around #26, ahead of the NASCAR guy who also made the cut (just barely).  Wikipedia hasn't been updated with the results yet and I already erased the episode, so maybe I'm wrong?

It's updated here: https://sasukepedia.fandom.com/wiki/American_Ninja_Warrior_13

Horton is #28.

And three of the top 5 women were also part of the top 30 (#15, #25 and #27).

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, sweetandsour said:

When I saw Maggie Thorne on the sidelines, too, I assumed she was competing in Tacoma, but she didn't.  I know she always shows up at multiple cities, but I'm surprised they are allowing people who aren't assigned to that city to be there in person. 

All the qualifiers were filmed in Tacoma. She wasn't shown competing last night, but she still competed there.

That makes me wonder how the qualifiers really worked. Did they draw straws for which night they ran, so it was random who they were competing against? Did everyone compete against the whole cast then they did some creative editing to come up with the top qualifiers for each night it will be broadcast?

[SophiaD]

I actually thought Maggie Thorne had retired, as she got a concussion two or three years ago.  It was great to see her again.  I still remember how impressive she was in a "Spartans" spinoff, that had a team of ninjas on it.  Not only did she do a great job, she really rallied the troops.  

I'm delighted Jonathan Horton is going on - thanks, @ams1001 and @sweetandsour for the update!

Given that they're doing all of the qualifiers in one city and all of the "second round" in another, I wonder if they'll change up the course, week after week, or leave it the same?  I imagine it's going to be pretty boring if it's the same, but talk about the luck of the draw, if you end up with the one obstacle you don't like. 

Edited June 2, 2021 by SophiaD

[eel21788]

3 minutes ago, SophiaD said:

 

Given that they're doing all of the qualifiers in one city and all of the "second round" in another, I wonder if they'll change up the course, week after week, or leave it the same?  

The qualifiers were filmed over 5 successive days. Somehow, I doubt that would give them any time to change up the coarse for each filming.

[Vermicious Knid]

Matt didn't look half bad in the Evel Knievel outfit. Still not thrilled at 15-18 year olds competing.

Clark County lifted all restrictions today so if they haven't filmed the finale yet they could have friends and family in attendance.

[eel21788]

17 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Clark County lifted all restrictions today so if they haven't filmed the finale yet they could have friends and family in attendance.

It was filmed over Memorial Day weekend. I missed it by just a couple of days, but they were saying no live audience. By the last week of May restrictions in Vegas were pretty lax, so it is possible that they let some people watch the filming. However, there was no ticket sign up for the finals the way there usually is.

Edited June 2, 2021 by eel21788

[Ilovepie]

On 6/1/2021 at 6:43 PM, eel21788 said:

The qualifiers were filmed over 5 successive days. Somehow, I doubt that would give them any time to change up the coarse for each filming.

This right here has kind of dimmed my excitement for this show. I am glad they were able to do some abbreviated season last season, but now I am totally bummed that they filmed the qualifiers all in one city with the same obstacles. I was already losing interest last night and there are four more episodes with everyone running the exact same course???? I am also missing the energy of the live audience and I don't love all the youngsters. I just am not drawn to them. It reminds me of when American Idol lowered the age limit. All of this bums me out, but sadly I am just not excited for this show now like I usually am when it starts.

Barclay broke my heart. I lost my own mom too young to cancer. It made my heart hurt for her. I don't love Maggie, but God bless her for the sideline encouragement in that moment.

[mlp]

21 minutes ago, Ilovepie said:

I am totally bummed that they filmed the qualifiers all in one city with the same obstacles. I was already losing interest last night and there are four more episodes with everyone running the exact same course???? I am also missing the energy of the live audience and I don't love all the youngsters. I just am not drawn to them.

I don't mind that the course will remain the same.  It seems more fair to me to have everyone qualify on the same obstacles.  I do miss the live audience and I also don't like the focus on the young teenagers.  I wish they had kept the cutoff at 18 or 19.  The show seemed to fall flat with so many unknowns.   I was more excited to see Sam Sann again than I was about any of the kids.

[VartanFan]

I’m very ‘get off my lawn’ right now.  I hated when they announced the younger age limit and I hated it in reality.  “High school junior” as the occupation.  I can’t.  I get that these kids are great athletes, but they do nothing for me from a competitive standpoint.  

I cried in fast forwarding Barclay’s package.  I was so very sad to see her run end so early.  

Very happy for the return of Sam Sann and absolutely gleeful over Gil’s fall.  Just wish it would have knocked him out of the competition this year totally.  

Maggi Thorne got a TBI, if I remember correctly.  I think it’s crazy for her to be back competing.  Seems like a really bad idea to me.  

[eel21788]

2 hours ago, VartanFan said:

 Maggi Thorne got a TBI, if I remember correctly.  I think it’s crazy for her to be back competing.  Seems like a really bad idea to me.  

I think Maggi Thorne was born with a TBI. What other way is there to explain her insistence at dressings like a four-year-old when she is in her mid-forties?

[Rosenrot]

Am I a horrible person for hoping that the Boss Ninja Child Whatever would fall? He's clearly very talented, but the moment he opened his mouth I was like okay, I already don't like you. 

I'm still on the fence about the youngsters. On the other hand I think it's nice to see some fresh faces, but then again... you damn kids, get off my lawn! [shaking my cane] I'm gonna have to give it a few weeks and then see how I feel about it. I don't miss the live audience at all, so the lack of that is a huge plus. 

Still not a fan of Gil. Reigning champion MY ASS. It was a special season, he's a champion of NOTHING. At least he fell. (Sorry folks, clearly I have feelings about this. 😄)

Meanwhile, SAM SANN! ❤️

[Vermicious Knid]

Well, they did have the 69 year old contestant actually yell at the teenagers to get off his lawn. That may have been my favorite part of the episode.

[realdancemom]

Watching the first two qualifiers, I don't mind that they lowered the age limit.  The ones that were invited are really good and competitive.  I would rather have that over the adult contestants that don't even make it passed the first two obstacles.  It's even worse when they do a story on them.

[RedbirdNelly]

I don't mind the teenagers at all, because this show is not a popularity contest. It's the same course for everyone. If you can run it, you get to compete; if not, you go home. Since there is sliding scale for them, I'm fine. Judging by how well many have done, it looks like a good idea to me. Why should they wait 4 years more? if they were all crashing and burning, they would be taking off space--then I'd say "get off my lawn." 

I'm just always amazed by what people can do on this show. 

I also don't mind the background stories. I'm glad we don't only see them for finishers--or it would be obvious what the outcome would be.

What I don't like is when we get the background story more than once throughout the competition. Once is fine--from there on you get nothing or very short "this is the guy battling X" reminder for the viewers at home.