American Ninja Warrior

Years ago, I walked in on someone watching Ninja Warrior. I quickly became intrigued. We could watch a Japanese show where athletes tried to complete obstacle courses that seemed insane. What really stood out is that athletes competed with the course rather than each other.

Ninja Warrior became popular enough that contests were being held to find Americans to send to Japan. I watched these competitions even though they were lacking compared to Ninja Warrior. Eventually, they scrapped that competition in favor of creating an American version of the course. This was the start of American Ninja Warrior.

The American version seemed interested in treating these obstacle courses as a mix between a live sporting event and a pseudo-reality game show. I'm not a fan of pseudo-reality game shows, and I actually felt insulted by their portrayal of an obviously edited event as though it was live. Although I still like the concept, I never liked the presentation of the American version of the show.

The editing of American Ninja Warrior is most obvious when looking at the order of runs. They generally move the top runs towards the end and try not to show success too early. If Jessi Graff runs near the middle of an episode, you automatically know that she failed.

In the Japanese version, they would "Fast Forward" over some runs. In the American version, they would say, "While we were away..." It has always been clear that they decided after the fact which runs were shortened. It was insulting that they claimed these runs occurred during commercial breaks.

A variant was eventually added, "On the course now..." These runs omitted the beginning but were otherwise shown in their entirety. Again, you can tell that they made a decision to edit these runs rather than actually missing anything. This usually occurs late in episodes when they feel that we have seen enough of the early obstacles.

Actually, I shouldn’t say in their entirety. Sometimes they look for ways to shave time off of runs they are showing. In some cases, they have hidden the clock for a run and brought it back with a sudden change in the time. By cutting back the use of the clock, this isn't quite as obvious in recent seasons.

One season, they gave us the Pom Wonderful run of the night. It was clear that the run awarded came after everyone had run. If there hadn't been a run of the night going into the final run, which was a common occurrence, you knew that run had to be successful. In some cases, giving out the award early tipped off an unsuccessful run. This created serious spoilers, and I'm glad it didn't last.

Another frustration of mine is in the corny sob stories. Far too many athletes are introduced with a blatant attempt to manipulate us into supporting them. Some of these stories are quite weak. Oh, no. Daniel Gil’s family had to deal with flooding even at the main house. Personally, I would love to sacrifice those stories in exchange for seeing more complete runs.

Although there has always been a degree of competition between athletes, this has usually been indirect. Doing better than other athletes can help you get invited back, but the competition is primarily against the course. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that Comcast understands this appeal.

The first time anyone ever achieved total victory on American Ninja Warrior, there were actually two people who completed all four stages. This was when I first heard about a concerning rule. If there are multiple winners, the prize goes to the athlete with the fastest time.

I don't know how the Japanese would handle this. It's never come up. That said, this seems to completely undermine the idea behind Ninja Warrior. It's supposed to be athletes against the course, not each other. The logical approach to handling multiple winners is to split the be prize.

Of course, I can't watch that season anymore. I can't find the first 11 seasons anywhere. Interestingly enough, the 11th season was when Drew Dreschel achieved total victory. I know Comcast has tried to erase Dreschel from the history of the show, but I'm personally not a fan of erasing the experiences of hundreds of athletes because of one person. In all fairness, there could be other reasons for the disappearance of earlier seasons, but I've never heard any.

Over the years, Comcast has shown more of a willingness to shift the competition away from the obstacles and more towards a more common race format. This became especially obvious when they introduced the Power Tower. Participants started racing each other for a safety pass. I never really liked the Power Tower, but at least they kept it separate enough from the main competition.

Season 15 was a big disappointment. This was the first time they actually used races to determine who advances past a stage. The semifinal was nothing but races. In the final, they decided to run a series of races for the second stage. A set number of people were required, allowing athletes who failed stage one to advance. This also guaranteed a set number to advance to the third stage, including athletes who failed to complete stage two.

We all knew someone would win the million this year. They completely spoiled that during the promos... again. They probably didn't need to. The inflated number of participants in stage three made it feel as though they were trying to stack the odds in favor of total victory. You know they screwed up when a contestant completes stage three "while we were away." A record eight athletes qualified for the fourth and final stage. Two were successful. Once again, they screwed up the prize by giving it to the faster time when they should have learned to split the prize.

Season 15 was best defined by a gimmick that harmed the appeal of the sport. They pushed athletes against each other like other sports rather than embrace the idea that they were competing against the course. This was what made the sport attractive. Then they manipulated odds and pushed spoilers. They once again failed to properly celebrate an athlete who achieved total victory. This is why I view season 15 as the worst yet.