S13.E03: Qualifier 3

[Lantern7]

Watching on DVR now. Just saw Brandon Mears wipe out yet again on a balance obstacle. In his defense, both options looked like a bitch. I would’ve asked if I could run down the middle and take my chances long-jumping to the other side.

ETA: Weather reports interrupting are a pain. I know this is just a qualifying round, but it’s still disruptive.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Lantern7

[SophiaD]

Hard to see Michelle Warnky and Nick Hansen go out so early.  Grant McCartney, too, although he can be somewhat annoying.

I liked Brett Hernandez Strong making it up the Mega Wall.  Great run!  It was nice to see RJ Roman and Amir Malik tear it up again.  Also, I thought it was hilarious that Alyssa Varsalona's husband thought he could train for a month or something and then all of a sudden be better than she was.  

I don't quite get why former Olympians are showing up to cheer for people they've never met before.  It's distracting.  I thought Shannon did a very nice job cheering Alyssa on and seems like a very nice person, but someone needed to work on her lighting - she really looked as if she was advertising for a toothpaste commercial.  

Austin Hair seems like a sweet guy and his wife is impressive.  I'm impressed by anyone who can remain active while experiencing Ankylosing Spondylitis, let alone do ninja training.  It is weird how much ninja seems to attract these guys with ill wives, though.  Also great to see Tyler Gillett finish the course.  It's nice to see familiar faces doing well.

The mermaid ninja does nothing for me.  I'm not sure why a grown woman gets a huge number of followers for cavorting around in a mermaid costume, but I'm probably not in her demographic.  I was impressed by her athleticism, though - she put a good run together.

I was relieved for Matt and Akbar that they didn't have to kiss the frog.  Matt seems a bit more up for that sort of thing than Akbar is.  

GREAT to see KC Boutiette again and wonderful that he had Bonnie Blair cheering for him!  That was one time when including an Olympian made sense, especially since she and KC were on the same team.  I can't believe he's 50. 

Zuri is really finding her stride as an interviewer. She was very kind to Brandon when he wiped out on his balance obstacle again.  I'm not a huge fan of the bro-tastic Towers of Power, but even I felt bad for him.  

Overall, a better balance with the teens tonight.  I did like the guy whose mother has breast cancer, especially when Akbar asked him if he was a "mama's boy," and he fired back "100%!"  Oh, and Akbar?  I'm pretty sure that at least one of those Marine Corps captain's "boys" was a woman.  Unless men in the Marine Corps wear their hair in a bun.  Oh, well.

[ams1001]

I can't decide if I like the beard on Grant or not...I'm not a beard lover but I almost didn't recognize him at first. (I always thought he looked best when he had the short hair.)

That 16yo who was first up the wall looked like he was 12. He was pretty impressive and I wanna see him go up against his little bro in a few years.

I wish they'd stop bringing animals to the sidelines. A well-trained dog is probably okay (especially a service dog), but that poor rabbit did not look happy. 

9 minutes ago, SophiaD said:

Oh, and Akbar?  I'm pretty sure that at least one of those Marine Corps captain's "boys" was a woman.  Unless men in the Marine Corps wear their hair in a bun.  Oh, well.

lol, I noticed that, too.

[Taeolas]

10 hours ago, SophiaD said:

I don't quite get why former Olympians are showing up to cheer for people they've never met before.  It's distracting.  I thought Shannon did a very nice job cheering Alyssa on and seems like a very nice person, but someone needed to work on her lighting - she really looked as if she was advertising for a toothpaste commercial.  

 

Two words: "Tokyo Olympics". 

NBC is airing the Tokyo Olympics, so they're going to synergize their shows (and brand in general) with "Olympic anything" to get the most bang out of their buck. Thus for ANW, it means getting a few Olympians to compete and as many more to show up to "cheer" on the Ninjas as they can get. 

 

For NBC's advertising suits, if they could've had the entire ANW season being Olympians competing with Olympians cheering on and Olympian themed obstacles, it might JUST have been enough in their ideal world. But they're working with what they have instead. 

[Good Queen Jane]

I thought it was really nice that Cheap Trick showed up to wish luck to the ninja who went to their concerts with his recently deceased Dad, but all I could think is that that would completely destroy the guy's concentration and up his emotions when he was probably already at high levels.Good thought, but I think it probably hurt his run. I can't remember his name; did he make it through?

[TimothyQ]

Well, now I understand why they dropped the age limit: They wanted to get that phenom kid Vance Walker in the competition. The teenagers are all doing great but I’m still not thrilled with the age being so young. It is interesting that Walker finished with a run of over 3 minutes but RJ Roman finished in 1:39. So there’s still a lot of room for improvement for the youngsters, even though they’re hailed as wunderkinds. Experience still matters. I wonder how long they’ll last.

I don’t like the Towers of Power; never have. But I do feel sorry for that guy. Probably is time for him to hang up his New Balance. And Grant and Nick - oof. 

[AZChristian]

Did anyone else experience descriptive narration during parts of the show?  It's sometimes an option with the SAP setting turned on for some shows, but I don't have it on, and it happened on TWO of our TVs.  

Example:  When no one is speaking (like Matt or Akbar), a voiceover says things like "He makes it almost to the end of the dominos, but trips on the last one and falls into the water."

 

[mlp]

49 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Did anyone else experience descriptive narration during parts of the show?

This happens to me all the time on this show and only this show.  I've checked my settings and have that feature turned off so I don't get it.

[AZChristian]

35 minutes ago, mlp said:

This happens to me all the time on this show and only this show.  I've checked my settings and have that feature turned off so I don't get it.

I'd never had it happen before that I'm aware of.  I'm glad to know that it wasn't just us old people not knowing how to use our settings.  Thanks for responding!

[Lantern7]

On 6/23/2021 at 10:23 AM, TimothyQ said:

Well, now I understand why they dropped the age limit: They wanted to get that phenom kid Vance Walker in the competition.

I don’t think he was the biggest reason, but I’m thinking the show needed to up their squeegee budget because Matt and Akbar LOVE this kid.

Edited June 24, 2021 by Lantern7

[realdancemom]

On 6/23/2021 at 8:23 AM, TimothyQ said:

Well, now I understand why they dropped the age limit: They wanted to get that phenom kid Vance Walker in the competition. The teenagers are all doing great but I’m still not thrilled with the age being so young. It is interesting that Walker finished with a run of over 3 minutes but RJ Roman finished in 1:39. So there’s still a lot of room for improvement for the youngsters, even though they’re hailed as wunderkinds. Experience still matters. I wonder how long they’ll last.

I don’t like the Towers of Power; never have. But I do feel sorry for that guy. Probably is time for him to hang up his New Balance. And Grant and Nick - oof. 

I don't know why they lowered the age limit but they did get really good ones to compete.

I always thought the Towers of Power were smug.  However, I did feel bad for the one guy that always has a difficult time with balance obstacles.  To hear him say that it might be time to hang up and pass the torch to the younger generation was sad.  Same for Grant and Nick.