S09.E01: Los Angeles Qualifiers

[Lantern7]

Something for everybody to kick off the season . . . epic splashdowns, dudes risking their faces on the Flywheel, women kicking it into another gear, veterans getting the "While We Were Away" treatment (especially David "The Godfather" Campbell, who advanced after wiping out on Battering Ram in under a minute), elite ninjas excelling . . . and for the true old-school fans? Makoto Nagano, who is perhaps the Ninja of Ninjas, helping a dude out with a back slap. Tomorrow, you can spot the casuals griping that he ripped that off from Ryan Stratis.

[slf]

I laughed when Rocket Man fell, his playing to the crowd annoyed me.

Brass Ninja, the single mom, did really well. I figured she was going to go out on that obstacle because of her height/weight but she did so, so well. I hope she comes back next year.

I don't like the new rule w/r/t the female competitors but I get the motivation: they seem to be a ratings draw. 

Paige, the Little Beast, was awesome. I can't believe how she hung on when she fell on the blocks; she skittered across those things. Like the Brass Ninja I hope she comes back.

The guys who fell on the second obstacle: ouch. It really looks painful (even if it's not) when they slam back first into the mats. Not to mention the guys whacking their heads on the flying wheels.

Daniel Moreno (?), dang, with blood in his eye and everything. Twice he almost made it up the warped wall, poor guy. When they said he waited in the walk-on line for two weeks does that mean he camped out?

When Anthony Trucks transitioned to the second battering ram the momentum knocked it halfway across the bar, lol. Nicely done, dude.

April Steiner, the pole vaulter, had a pretty obnoxious lead-in. She has a lot of potential, tho.

I always get a chuckle out of those kids losing their minds over Kevin Bull; it's sweet but you'd think he's Elvis the way they shriek. Not surprised he made it through and so quickly. Still one of my favorites.

Alan Conneally, dude. What a save. But like Natalie Duran and David Campbell he went out on the battering ram. That thing is harder than I initially assumed. I did figure the second ram would be hard (because of having to transition up and it's bigger size) but I'm still surprised at the big names going out on it.

Riles' kids were cute and he did a fantastic job. I'm happy the stuntwoman splashed down; the whip was obnoxious. 

Zhanique did a fantastic job, I honestly thought she was going to go out on the battering ram. Too bad she couldn't hit the buzzer but she's another great addition. I hope she does well in the city final.

Tiana landing butt first after Cannonball Drop was cute ("that was a hard landing but it counts!" lol). I don't know why but I love when the competitors clap for themselves after they complete an obstacle. I was hoping she'd be able to hit the buzzer this year.

Flip was a very different competitor this year but I enjoyed his run, especially that burst of speed at the end. That's the Flip we know. 

MINIONS. They are Satan's spawns- why, why, why? God. I hate them. 

Eskimo Ninja! I like him, he seems like a nice guy. Grant McCartney has a new bromance and I'll admit I prefer this one. (I, too, would have abandoned Grant in the igloo.)

Edited June 13, 2017 by slf

[srpturtle80]

I was holding my breath throughout the entirety of Flip's run. I just had a feeling something was going to go wrong. Thank goodness that wasn't the case. I kind of adore him!

[Chaos Theory]

First thing.  I don't like this new female rule.  The women don't need it.  Two women  qualified without it.  But hey whatever.  If LA is anything like the rest of the locations the female  compition is going to be fierce.

See what happens when you let someone who watches the show design an obstacle.  You can the battering ram.  

The fly wheel was extremely abusive tonight.  Damn did that thing make people bleed

Cimercual break happened with a bunch of people I would have liked to see ru. Including o e if the kids from the MIT team ion College madness and the Papal Ninja.  Oh well.  They both did well so I guess during finals then?  

Edited June 13, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[mlp]

I agree with almost everything above except............. I love Minions.  :)  I was relieved when the Eskimo guy made it through.  It must be an expensive proposition for him and his supporters to come all the way from Alaska so it would be a real disappointment for them if he lasted just a couple minutes.  I suppose the situation wouldn't be any different if someone came from, say, Maine but Alaska seems more remote.  I'm assuming they pay their own way because I wouldn't think the show could pay for some and not others.  Could be wrong.

I wonder what, if anything, they do when someone with active bleeding falls into the water.  There's probably no real danger to anyone else but I'll bet there's some health and safety regulation that requires them to change the water.

I am female and I don't like the new rule that lets the top five females through no matter how they do.  If women want to compete with men on an equal playing field, they shouldn't have special considerations.

I wish they'd stop extolling Kacy.  Yes, she is the only woman to complete a city final and that was very impressive but it was three years ago and she hasn't done anything noteworthy since.  I hope Jessie Graf completes hers this year.  She's the best woman out there IMO.

[healthnut]

40 minutes ago, mlp said:

I am female and I don't like the new rule that lets the top five females through no matter how they do.  If women want to compete with men on an equal playing field, they shouldn't have special considerations.

Lame. If this is the case I don't want to see any wild cards given to women this year. If they aren't the top five they definitely don't deserve to be there. 

[Destiny74]

9 hours ago, healthnut said:

Lame. If this is the case I don't want to see any wild cards given to women this year. If they aren't the top five they definitely don't deserve to be there. 

I agree totally.  It bugged me that wildcards we're not necessarily given to those who almost made it, but to a bunch of women who, with all due respect, weren't going to do well on the final course.  Those slots should have been give to whomever lost city finals because of timing.

[Chaos Theory]

I've decided to hold my opinion on the new rule to see how it is applied later in the season.  I agree that the show needs to eliminate wild cards now or at least use less women.  That being said as a woman one of the things I enjoy about the show is that women compete on the same course with the same rules as the men.  There isn't a special (easier) pink course for the women.  I am not sure if this +5 women is a good thing or is a slap in the face for the women who work hard to complete side by side with the men.  

[slf]

1 hour ago, Destiny74 said:

I agree totally.  It bugged me that wildcards we're not necessarily given to those who almost made it, but to a bunch of women who, with all due respect, weren't going to do well on the final course.  Those slots should have been give to whomever lost city finals because of timing.

I'll go on the record as saying I'm not a big fan of farthest fastest and never have been. I know that knocks out pretty much all of the women except Kacy but there it is. The farthest fastest rule basically makes the buzzer pointless; hell, Caldiero won his last season without having hit the buzzer during his city final (whereas Britten hit all the buzzers and lost). The f.f. rule was only instituted to make sure that guys who couldn't hit the buzzer could still advance so while I'm not thrilled with this new rule I'm not losing any sleep over it.

Edited June 13, 2017 by slf

[saber5055]

This was a pretty good first episode, lots of new competitors, although I didn't like relegating some of my favorites to "while we were away" clips. The new women were awesome, but I also don't like giving them all a pass. And the woman in the zebra top needs to get a better sports bra so she doesn't have to "readjust the girls" after every freaking obstacle. I was glad the guy with the bleeding face didn't fall in the water because I, too, was thinking they would have to drain the pool, bleach everything, then refill before the next competitor. So, thanks guy, for staying dry. And Flip is my new favorite to go all the way. That is, if Nick Cooleridge doesn't come back. And yeah, IMO Kevin Bull IS Elvis! If I had a little kid, I'd want him/her to idolize Kevin, Flip, all the Ninjas. I did feel sorry for the very first runner since, of course, we all know the first guy always wipes out.

[Destiny74]

I'll admit that I am a junky for Grant McCartney.  He is super adorable and always seems to be having fun. 

I also like the Eskimo Ninja last year and glad to see him return, and do so well.

So, the piece where Grant went to Alaska.  Probably one of my favorite pieces since I've watched to show.  I giggled, I laughed.  Super cute bromance!

[Chaos Theory]

2 hours ago, slf said:

I'll go on the record as saying I'm not a big fan of farthest fastest and never have been. I know that knocks out pretty much all of the women except Kacy but there it is. The farthest fastest rule basically makes the buzzer pointless; hell, Caldiero won his last season without having hit the buzzer during his city final (whereas Britten hit all the buzzers and lost). The f.f. rule was only instituted to make sure that guys who couldn't hit the buzzer could still advance so while I'm not thrilled with this new rule I'm not losing any sleep over it.

The furthest fastest rule at least makes some sense.  The last thing NBC or for that matter ANW wants is for no one to qualify.  I think last year there was a final that no one hit the buzzer.  And in LA Jessie Graff had the 2nd furthest run and she didn't hit the buzzer.  So yeah I get that rule.  

[saber5055]

Destiny74, I could watch an entire hour of Grant and Alaska Ninja doing ... whatever. That was some fun teevee.

[SophiaD]

From a programming point of view, they need the farthest fastest, or they need to make the courses easier so that they can get at least 30 people through the qualifiers and 15 people through the finals on time.  Since the show has made creating nearly-impossible courses (especially the city finals) part of its core setup, they need to go with the farthest fastest.  Otherwise, they'd have regional finals with maybe five people in them.  They need to be able to plan.

I've always been impressed that the women competed right alongside the men, too, but I think they're doing that to 1) go after a new demographic, and 2) persuade more women to try out for the course.  Kacy's finals course, and, now, Jessie's success, along with Meaghan, Flex, Tiana, and Michelle, pulled in a huge number of new viewers who weren't particularly interested in this niche show.  The execs probably want to capitalize on that and continue it, so are threading the difficult needle between annoying repeat devotees of the show and satisfying and keeping their new viewers.

I'm ridiculously happy that this show has started again.

[slf]

Eh. The show has issues w/r/t the difficulty of the obstacles and the number of slots they need to fill but I don't think farthest fastest was the best way to solve that problem.

I think if this show doesn't produce a second winner soon it could experience problems. Someone wins America's Got Talent every year, someone wins So You Think You Can Dance and The Voice and Survivor every year- this is the only reality show where often no one wins. Which is interesting, definitely mixes things up, but considering the lack of winner is often due to them increasing the difficulty level each year even if no one won the previous year it comes off as the network just trying to prevent someone from winning because they don't want to pay out. 

[Destiny74]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Destiny74, I could watch an entire hour of Grant and Alaska Ninja doing ... whatever. That was some fun teevee.

Like a hundred times.  Give those two a Travel Channel show!

[ClareWalks]

The new "5 women" rule rubs me the wrong way, too. It just feels like the women are having a totally separate competition. And what if 6 women were in the top 30? (Unlikely, but I am curious.) Agree with those who said that women should not get a ton of friggin' wildcards to Vegas after having this special ranking all their own.

[Eliza422]

52 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

The new "5 women" rule rubs me the wrong way, too. It just feels like the women are having a totally separate competition. And what if 6 women were in the top 30? (Unlikely, but I am curious.) Agree with those who said that women should not get a ton of friggin' wildcards to Vegas after having this special ranking all their own.

They counted the two women who made it into the top 30 as 2 of the 5, so I think if 6 made it into the top 30 there would be no additional 5.

[Richness]

I'm ambivalent about the new female final 5 rule. I always thought it was so cool that the women were allowed and expected to perform on the same course as the men. And when they do better than the men, it's even better! Granted, this new rule doesn't change that, but it just seems like a step backwards for equality. This is especially true given how many women regularly make it up the warp wall on Team Ninja Warrior, and how well they performed tonight, especially the rookie.

 

Two bloody faces in one night from the same obstacle. Did they take those wheels from the cars on SyFy's Blood Drive? I really hope that water is highly chlorinated to kill any germs.

 

However, I am so tired of hearing about Kacy. She was awesome for being the first woman to ever beat the warp wall and complete a city final, but she has performed sub-par since then. It's tolerable when the camera focuses on her during the runs, but it infuriates me when they waste time interviewing her when she isn't even competing. Show more of the other runs instead. Her 15 minutes of fame have long since passed. Give it a rest, NBC.

 

Speaking on the runs that aren't shown, have they always did a few of those just before cutting to commercials? I admit to skipping most of the ninja back stories, so I may have missed them before. I know they'll usually mention a few runs right after coming back from commercial. However, they seemed to mention a few runs tonight after the post-run ninja interview just before going to commercial break. I'd mention specific times and runs, but I've done deleted the episode off the DVR.

 

I'm also surprised how some of the stalwart veterans were regulated to this while we were away category.  I don't necessarily mind it given how poorly some of them have done lately, but it just struck me as odd. While I remain unmoved by Flip (the mask still irritates), I laughed when he nearly steamrolled the cameraman.

 

Admittedly, I did catch two back stories: The older guy with returning cancer and the hair stylist. Both made me teary, especially when the hair stylist hit the buzzer. His autistic brother's tears of joy brought my own. I was also tickled by the little kid doing back-flips supporting his parent. Talk about a future Ninja Warrior.

[Destiny74]

19 minutes ago, Richness said:

I'm ambivalent about the new female final 5 rule. I always thought it was so cool that the women were allowed and expected to perform on the same course as the men. And when they do better than the men, it's even better! Granted, this new rule doesn't change that, but it just seems like a step backwards for equality. This is especially true given how many women regularly make it up the warp wall on Team Ninja Warrior, and how well they performed tonight, especially the rookie.

 

Two bloody faces in one night from the same obstacle. Did they take those wheels from the cars on SyFy's Blood Drive? I really hope that water is highly chlorinated to kill any germs.

 

However, I am so tired of hearing about Kacy. She was awesome for being the first woman to ever beat the warp wall and complete a city final, but she has performed sub-par since then. It's tolerable when the camera focuses on her during the runs, but it infuriates me when they waste time interviewing her when she isn't even competing. Show more of the other runs instead. Her 15 minutes of fame have long since passed. Give it a rest, NBC.

 

Speaking on the runs that aren't shown, have they always did a few of those just before cutting to commercials? I admit to skipping most of the ninja back stories, so I may have missed them before. I know they'll usually mention a few runs right after coming back from commercial. However, they seemed to mention a few runs tonight after the post-run ninja interview just before going to commercial break. I'd mention specific times and runs, but I've done deleted the episode off the DVR.

 

I'm also surprised how some of the stalwart veterans were regulated to this while we were away category.  I don't necessarily mind it given how poorly some of them have done lately, but it just struck me as odd. While I remain unmoved by Flip (the mask still irritates), I laughed when he nearly steamrolled the cameraman.

 

Admittedly, I did catch two back stories: The older guy with returning cancer and the hair stylist. Both made me teary, especially when the hair stylist hit the buzzer. His autistic brother's tears of joy brought my own. I was also tickled by the little kid doing back-flips supporting his parent. Talk about a future Ninja Warrior.

Yes to all this except the flipping kid.  He is obviously high energy and I kept saying that he's gonna miss one of those and his mom is going to have to go straight from the course to the ER.  One of those adults should have reigned him in a bit.

I'll tell you who was adorable.  Those two little Trucks boys.  Telling Kristine their dad couldn't fall because he is scared of water...too hilarious...too cute.

[JenMD]

Agree with everybody that it was a good ep, but as someone who used to watch all the backstories, I think I'm kind of over them.  Or at least so many of them.  Not sure if they've increased how many they're now doing or it just feel like more, but it just felt endless.  Meanwhile, color me shocked that at some of the people they stuck in "while we were away" territory.  I mean, Josh Levin was the top rookie last year and everything.  I can speculate that since they already know how he did in the city finals they may be waiting to highlight him later, but still.  I think at the point they showed his clip we'd only had 2 finishers.  Not used to seeing so many familiar names whoosh by.

Regarding the Spinning Wheels, what was with all the face smashes?  We've seen that before and I don't remember ever seeing anybody hit themselves in the face, yikes. 

One thing I was curious to see was the difference between this course and the version of it they used when they filmed Celebrity Ninja Warrior.  One less drop on Cannonball Drop, even wheels on the Spinning Wheels (and they might've been lower) and 2 even bars on the Battering Ram (instead of 3 at different levels) were thing things I picked out (not meant to take away anything from the celebrities, even "easier" it was still a challenge).

Also, not thrilled with the new 5 final female rule.  The women just keep getting better and better, this seems unnecessary.

Edited June 14, 2017 by JenMD

[sweetandsour]

Like everyone else I'm reserving judgment on the 5 women rule.  I'm just glad that it doesn't cut into the top 30, like "now the top 25 go through + the next 5 fastest women" because that would be tremendously unfair to the people who would have made the top 30 otherwise.  If there are any wild cards, they should be given to people who were just outside the top 30, perhaps by the smallest margins.  No preferential treatment for the women or allowing them to come back in when they made an early mistake and went down fast.

Farthest, fastest makes sense in terms of guaranteeing a certain level of advancement until finals stage 1.  That said, sometimes I get annoyed when someone moves through just because he/she zoomed through the first x obstacles, but fell early in a very difficult obstacle that is taking a lot of people down.  Compared to someone who, granted, didn't reach the very difficult obstacle as fast, but made it much farther or nearly finished - it just seems like they showed the better performance.  Were they as fast?  No.  Did going slower or taking longer breaks between obstacles allow them to go farther than a speedier competitor?  Maybe.  But I just feel like the person who went the farthest on the difficult obstacle should go through.  Would this require some interpretation?  (Oh person A fell with 2 feet to go vs person B fell with 2.2 feet to go, or person A hit the landing pad at x spot and fell vs person B hit the landing pad at y spot and fell.)  In some cases, sure.  So I'm not sure how fairly that could even be applied.  

[kitticup]

I don't have a problem with top 5 woman moving through so long as no more wildcards to women.  The last couple of years the wildcards all seemed to go to women.  I probably would cap at 3, but not a big deal.  I think the women did well overall.

 

 I liked the episode.  I love Flip.  Hated him before.  Love Kevin bull, esikmoo ninja, the single mom.

[QuePasa]

I suspect the 5 women rule is so "Mighty Kasy" can get through without a wild card.  I am over her, but she is the show's darling and they have given her wild cards she didn't deserve the last couple of years.  I can live with it if it only applies to this first round.  I think it is wonderful to see women successfully compete against men on equal footing.  It is really compelling and inspirational.  That won't be the case if women are given an easier road forward.

[jhlipton]

Same here on the Top Five Women.  I don't think I like it, but I do like seeing the women advance, so I'll see how it plays out.

The Battering Ram was tough!  Compared with the "real" upper-body grip-strength challenges, it doesn't look like it would be that hard, but that third transition is killer.

On 6/12/2017 at 10:19 PM, slf said:

April Steiner, the pole vaulter, had a pretty obnoxious lead-in. She has a lot of potential, tho.

Zhanique did a fantastic job, I honestly thought she was going to go out on the battering ram. Too bad she couldn't hit the buzzer but she's another great addition. I hope she does well in the city final.

Flip was a very different competitor this year but I enjoyed his run, especially that burst of speed at the end. That's the Flip we know.

I don't watch the "Contestant Profile", so I only judged her on her performance, which was pretty good.  I don't care what "adversity" they overcome, just how they do on the course.

If I was going to try out (OK, stop laughing), the first thing I'd do is get the Wall down.  It's the one constant in every city.  

Flip was going so slow on his run... who are you and what have you done with Flip Rodriguez?  LOL

[slf]

3 hours ago, jhlipton said:

I don't watch the "Contestant Profile", so I only judged her on her performance, which was pretty good.  I don't care what "adversity" they overcome, just how they do on the course.

Oh her's wasn't about adversity, it was some bombastic thing about the female competitors and how she was the new big thing.

[Guest]

I like the 5 women rule.  The course design favors men, the show is for entertainment alone really, and I find the women entertaining.  If it was more a sport and less a TV spectacle I might feel differently.  Or if there were more balance obstacles so it was more of a level playing field, gender-wise.  

What I think is less fair is I'm sure a lot of men who could do rings around men like the stage 4 cancer dad or the amputee du jour didn't get a chance because they had no sob story.   But I'm no fan of the sob stories.

I didn't like that they montaged Adam Rayl, who had the best time of the night until Grant.  It kind of made it obvious Grant was going to beat it.

Great show!  

Edited June 14, 2017 by Guest

[majormama]

5 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

[T]he show is for entertainment alone really, and I find the women entertaining.  If it was more a sport and less a TV spectacle I might feel differently.  

I agree. I wonder, though, if the women couldn't finish the battering ram or get up the wall in the qualifier, will they do any better in the final? Or any of the farthest-fastest finishers. Some of them will, of course. The ones who can do something 9 times out of 10, and their one shot at glory turns out to be the 10th time. There's also the learning curve factor, since many of the battering ram victims banged their hands into the bar but will know to move them farther apart the second time. But the ones that truly aren't capable won't do any better. That's a problem of making the course so hard you get hardly any finishers. How boring will it be if only like 3 people even get to the back half of the course? 

[Chaos Theory]

12 minutes ago, majormama said:

I agree. I wonder, though, if the women couldn't finish the battering ram or get up the wall in the qualifier, will they do any better in the final? Or any of the farthest-fastest finishers. Some of them will, of course. The ones who can do something 9 times out of 10, and their one shot at glory turns out to be the 10th time. There's also the learning curve factor, since many of the battering ram victims banged their hands into the bar but will know to move them farther apart the second time. But the ones that truly aren't capable won't do any better. That's a problem of making the course so hard you get hardly any finishers. How boring will it be if only like 3 people even get to the back half of the course? 

I said in previous posts that what makes this so much fun to watch is that the good ones have excellent learning curve.  I am guessing half of the ones that flamed out at the battering ram with get past it and if Zhanique is more then just a flash in the pan she will at least get up the warped wall.  

[VartanFan]

Quote

I'm ambivalent about the new female final 5 rule. I always thought it was so cool that the women were allowed and expected to perform on the same course as the men. And when they do better than the men, it's even better! Granted, this new rule doesn't change that, but it just seems like a step backwards for equality. This is especially true given how many women regularly make it up the warp wall on Team Ninja Warrior, and how well they performed tonight, especially the rookie.

...

However, I am so tired of hearing about Kacy. She was awesome for being the first woman to ever beat the warp wall and complete a city final, but she has performed sub-par since then. It's tolerable when the camera focuses on her during the runs, but it infuriates me when they waste time interviewing her when she isn't even competing. Show more of the other runs instead. Her 15 minutes of fame have long since passed. Give it a rest, NBC.

 

As soon as they mentioned the rule, i thought it was a step back.  It would have made sense to me in the early days when few women were getting to even the balance obstacle, but it seems unnecessary now.  I also think it takes away from the women who are getting in on their own merit.

I have, for many years, been over Kacy.  I was pretty well skewered on my feelings about her and am glad others are seeing how ridiculous NBC still is with it!  

Interesting to see the ushering of the new guard.  The first crop of 'sure thing's' from the early days are going out before the final buzzer.  I mean - Connneally and the other guy did make it in through farthest/fastest, but still...Speaking of - I hope we see Travis Rosen.  He's always been one of my favorite humble guys (and still with a regular job, even!).

Aaaaaand...I had almost [blissfully] forgotten about Brett Steffensen until they gave us the 'next week' clip. 

[Chaos Theory]

It's always interesting to see the ones that come back for a second year and make a thing of it.   There was that kid from the MIT team on College Madness,  the Papal Nimja guy (who brought his priest friends with him which I enjoy). The guy who shapes rocks (or something).

. 

[Ciarrai]

4 hours ago, VartanFan said:

Aaaaaand...I had almost [blissfully] forgotten about Brett Steffensen until they gave us the 'next week' clip. 

My prediction is that he will fail as he has several times over the past few years. He's good but he's nowhere near as good as they make him out to be.

Granted I only started watching a few years ago so maybe he's just out of his prime now, so to speak.

[holly4755]

I figure NBC has a contract of so many years with Kacy, I think I have seen her on other shows.  Now that they have Jesse maybe they will eat the rest of the contract and get one with Jesse, if they don't have one already. Kacy is too short to succeed all the time and it seems like the make the field harder each year.  Short people making it through is harder when they raise the warped wall.  I hope this is not fixed, but a matter of switching runs around for drama. 

[saber5055]

Kacy did a lot of guest appearances on shows after she topped The Wall and "became famous." But NBC having a contract with her is an interesting theory. I wondered why she was in the crowd for this new episode, then got an interview, then it was announced she would be competing at X city. I've always wondered if ANW pays ninjas to travel to other cities to be in the crowd scenes. Or if certain ninjas are paid to compete. Some ninjas (Brian Arnold) have quit work to train for ANW full time. Since the show has only had to pay one person the prize $$ in all its years, it has to have a big bank account just sitting there gathering interest. Then the special ninja shows, like US vs. The World ... are those ninjas paid or compensated in any way? Anyone know?

[JenMD]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

I wondered why she was in the crowd for this new episode

In additional to whatever publicity related reason there may have been, she was also there to take part in the Celebrity Ninja Warrior taping which happened immediately following the taping of the LA qualifiers and city finals. 

[Chaos Theory]

There are a lot of the "old guard" that are still thought of highly among the athletes themselves but haven't done especially well over the last few years.  

[Fukui San]

It was only 2011 when David Campbell and Brent Steffensen were the last men standing in Sasuke 26, meaning that at that point they had to be considered two of the most likely to win it all Since ANW wasn't rolling then. Now Campbell is barely a footnote after a number of dumb mistakes and aging, and Steffensen is more the guy who brought in Casey by now. 

[Lantern7]

1. In case anybody missed the episode, NBC is rerunning it tonight at 8 p.m.

2. I don't know about David Campbell being irrelevant. On Team Ninja Warrior, his NorCal Ninjas just got a wild card for the semifinals.

[Destiny74]

7 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

1. In case anybody missed the episode, NBC is rerunning it tonight at 8 p.m.

2. I don't know about David Campbell being irrelevant. On Team Ninja Warrior, his NorCal Ninjas just got a wild card for the semifinals.

That gymnast he has on his team is awesome.

[Guest]

On 6/17/2017 at 10:17 AM, saber5055 said:

I've always wondered if ANW pays ninjas to travel to other cities to be in the crowd scenes.

I assume the show pays them to appear.  I've read that they don't get paid much to compete, so I really can't imagine so many of them just take off on their own dime to stand around and watch qualifiers in other cities.  

[Hanahope]

So I guess I'm one of the new (female) viewers to ANW.  I was first made aware of this show because of Jesse Graff (she used to stunt double to Parker on Leverage, one of my all time favorite shows, and her finals run showed up in my face book feed).  I watched the rest of the finals last summer, and then the two specials this summer (world and celebrity) so for this summer, I decided to watch the whole thing.  I was annoyed because I set my DVR to record "new" episodes of this show, and before I got to watch last Monday's show, my DVR had suddenly recorded a whole bunch of prior season shows that for whatever reason, the TV/DVR had designated as "new" and since my DVR was only programed to keep 5 episodes of the show, last Monday's show got deleted before I was able to watch with my daughter.  Fortunately, it replayed last night, so we watched live (and I'll be double checking my DVR for "faux new" shows to stop them before they start).

So first off, that flywheel sure claimed a lot of points off of competitors.  Wham!

In viewing the celebrity show, I noticed that just about all of them, I believe, hung onto the poles of the battering ram, and pushed the ram ahead of them, then moved along the poles.  I was glad that they disallowed that modification for the real competition.

I have no experience with how the show treated women before, but I did hear something about wildcards before.  I appreciate that women have to compete on the same course, especially since it relies more heavily on upper body strength, which women, in general, have a tougher time with building up.  I can see why pole vaulters have an advantage in that respect.  So I don't know if it was always women who made 'wildcards' before, but if at most it adds 5 women to the city finals, I think its nice to see them there, and give more motivation to other women to work on competing.  I guess we'll see how the city finals and moving on to the national finals treats the women.

And I know the background stories help add some 'human' element to the show, but some I thought were a bit too long, and we could have seen more competitors.  

So I know the competitors don't actually get to run the course ahead of time for practice, but I presume they do get to walk along it and see it before their run, so they can make some plans as to how to tackle each obtacle.

How long after the qualifiers do they run the finals, the following day?

I thought it interesting how some people I would have thought would be in the LA run, were shown as being in other cities (like Jessie, for instance, who I presume works mostly in Hollywood, but is doing the Daytona Beach city run).

[Lovecat]

On 6/19/2017 at 10:14 AM, Hanahope said:

I thought it interesting how some people I would have thought would be in the LA run, were shown as being in other cities (like Jessie, for instance, who I presume works mostly in Hollywood, but is doing the Daytona Beach city run).

I'm sure the Show provides incentives for the "names" to be sprinkled around in the various city runs, so each week we viewers have some favorites to look forward to. 

[Chaos Theory]

I know from reading posts the walk on and first timers pay on their own dime but I can see a lot of the big names being paid to run a course not in their home town.  The last thing the show wants is too many big names running one course and then having none for another.  

[JenMD]

On 6/19/2017 at 10:14 AM, Hanahope said:

So I know the competitors don't actually get to run the course ahead of time for practice, but I presume they do get to walk along it and see it before their run, so they can make some plans as to how to tackle each obtacle.

I'm pretty sure I read that they get instructions on how the obstacle works and what they can/can't do.  Any tips and tricks they kind of learn as other competitors go through them. 

On 6/19/2017 at 10:14 AM, Hanahope said:

How long after the qualifiers do they run the finals, the following day?

IIRC, the LA runs were taped over 3 nights.

On 6/19/2017 at 10:14 AM, Hanahope said:

I thought it interesting how some people I would have thought would be in the LA run, were shown as being in other cities (like Jessie, for instance, who I presume works mostly in Hollywood, but is doing the Daytona Beach city run).

Yes, Jessie usually competes in the LA area competitions.  I think she said she was tied up working.

[majormama]

Generally, they tape qualifiers one night and finals the next night. LA had a bonus night this year due to the Celebrity edition being filmed on the same course. Filming starts around 8:00pm and ends around 5:00am. 

Edited June 21, 2017 by majormama

[Guest]

I was watching ep. 2 when my 17 y/o daughter came and watched a little.  She said, "I had a sub last semester who said she'd be on it this year.  April Steiner Bennett."   So we went back to ep. 1 and watched her segment again.  Part of the stuff was filmed at her high school field.  April went to school there, too, and subs there now.  She said she was on Fear Factor, too.  She gave the class her Twitter.  Heh.