American Ninja Warrior

Cafe Society
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Ellis - Look, pal…I think conspiracy theories are at best a colossal ludicrous waste of time, and I’ve seen more than enough credible reports and studies that back this up. But bass-ackward yahoos in positions of power making terrible decisions is absolutely a thing, and there are countless examples of this in the world of reality TV. As always, I call 'em as I see 'em. I don’t remember Mady Howard, but I very clearly recall an 8 months pregnant Rose Wetzel running in a race (nice side view, too!) followed by a present-day shot of her rock-hard abs, the implication having all the subtlety of Bodge in a Metal Gear.

Anyway, if a hostility toward strong, confident, childfree, Acceptable Story-free women…not overt, but definitely there…by someone at NBC who could act on it isn’t the reason for shafting Jessie Graff again and again…what is? You mean to tell me that a network that knows exactly what all the obstacles are before the season begins and has complete free rein to put the contestants wherever they want just accidentally stuck Graff with the Ninja Pulverizer four years in a row? Or consider just how much of a huge deal NBC made of Rose Wetzel and Sandy Zimmerman’s runs before the episode even began. And it wasn’t like Zimmerman had three little babies who needed constant attention. Trust me, it’s okay to leave the kids with a relative for a few hours while you’re at the gym. It takes a village, you know.

Of course, I’m always perfectly willing to change my mind based on new evidence…say, a profile of Meagan Martin that tackles the subject of race or at reveals something about her more interesting than “girly” or “sleeps in airports”. Not holding my breath, obviously.

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Mady Howard is a super cute blonde nurse (formerly a gymnast) who finished in the top 10 (8th overall) at a city finals course in her rookie season. I can’t find video of her unprecedented run – Has any rookie woman ever finished in the top 10 before? – and that in itself is kind of weird.

Here’s an article discussing her run that includes pictures of her. The one of her in her nurse scrubs is adorable.

How is she not being hyped beyond all reason?

EDIT: For context, Flex Labreck made it to city finals (but not top 10) as a rookie. How much hype did she get?

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I assumed incorrectly; she did indeed finish in the top 10.

Flex Labreck finished 10th in the 2016 Philly city finals as a rookie. This was before there was a separate women’s bracket, so Labreck was the only woman from Philly to advance to Vegas that year.

So the last time we saw a rookie woman finish in the top 10 at city finals it was Flex Labreck. Compare the hype she got to the (lack of) hype for Howard.

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Could most of the difference come down to what the athlete herself wants?

I mean, look at the men. Some of them are, well, attention SEEKERS. They give themselves what they hope will be memorable nicknames. They come up with stunts, like dancing or eating hotdogs on the course or acting out entire skits with casts, ferchristsakes. They plaster that nickname/logo all over their outfits. They print it up on signs and t-shirts for their fans. They travel with relatively huge clunches of their families and friends. They make videos for you tube. Some enter competitions all over the world.

Basically, Ninja-ing is their profession, how they support themselves. They want the news attention. They need it to keep people signing up at their personally owned gyms, etc. etc.

And there are others…who seem to see it as a (gasp) sport/hobby. They mostly go by their real names. Maybe their mate comes with them, maybe just a close friend, or even no one. They show up, run their best race, and don’t put on dog and pony shows or make a point about how they’re doing it to in the name of their dead grandpa or to raise awareness of Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva or whatever.

Which group do you think the PR arm of the AJW network concentrate on? The ones that make their task of creating ‘news’ easier, that’s who.

So maybe Howard is naturally one of the second type. Quieter, more modest, less extroverted, heck, call it less obsessed?

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First night of national finals spoilers…

I felt so bad for Travis Rosen, the Tower of Power guy, and Flex Labreck for all going out on the cargo net. That has to be so frustrating, especially for Flex who has now done it three years in a row. Ouch.

Barkley Stockett has upped her game to the next level. She looked crazy confident out there. I worry if the wall will be surmountable, though, with the shorter run-up. If she could get up on the first try I put her at like 80% chance to finish based on how she looked up to that point.

Daniel Gil won’t keep his 1st place position come next week, but still, great run. He has a speed pass, right? Speaking of speed passes, hopefully Flip is just sore and not injured.

Did that promo at the end of the show strongly imply that……there is a $1 million winner, and she’s a woman? If so, gotta be Graff, and how insane would that be? If so, total dick move spoiling it.

586

Well, that was a pretty exciting episode…
(1) You gotta feel for Flex. One obstacle away from proving herself one of the absolute elite female ninjas, and she fails… THREE YEARS RUNNING. Brutal. But if it was easy it wouldn’t be ninjas as we know it
(2) Insane save on the diving boards by the olympic guy, even if he couldn’t hit the buzzer
(3) Shame that Flip needed to use his safety pass… but gutsy of him to power through a sore leg. Usually stages 2 and 3 aren’t all that leg-centric, so…
(4) Najee just didn’t have it this year. I wonder if he was just training less?
(5) The class of this group of ninjas was clearly Daniel Gil and Adam Rayl. But I don’t think either one of them has ever beaten stage 2. Is this the year?
(6) End of the road for Travis Rosen? The announcers seemed to imply that he’s made it to stage two 6 times, and 7 would be a record. I wish stats like that were available somewhere.

587

Not one, but two*, finishers were "while we were away"ed. I can see that for the city qualifiers/finals, but for the final finals? Theye better not do that for Stage 2.

Brian

  • at least – could have been more
588

Is it shorter this year than in previous years? Because she got up it the past two years (last year was during that USA vs. the world special, but still counts for purposes of illustrating that she could get up it).

589

I will be doing a recap of the real contest, but I got some stuff to take care of at home so there’s no way I’ll get night one finished by today. Since it’s running really long, I’m going to get some explanatory stuff out of the way tonight and put up the recap proper tomorrow.

So here we are. The National Finals. Which, given how much Eyes has run it into the ground, I may actually have to start calling “naffies”. Four weeks of excitement, thrills, chills, and splashes…which at this point is about all that I can take. Funny thing is, I know that the show’s overall quality has improved; I’ve said as much multiple times. Mainly…how do I put this…I feel that ANW has reached the, for lack of a better term, homogeneity that every long-running reality show does. Remember when American Idol actually produced decent second-tier pop stars, or at least one-hit wonders? Remember when America’s Got Talent showcased a plethora of artforms, including some that have never had a show in Vegas? Remember when there were occasional moments on So You Think You Can Dance that didn’t feel like a power drill directly to your eardrums? All of it, everything that was ever fresh and unique and fun about these shows, chipped, cut, battered away until there was nothing left, and now it’s the same thing episode after episode, season after season. To put it another way, they became what they are, and from now on what they are is what they are. Now ANW has gone down the same route. “BEAT THAT WALL!” is here to stay. So are the Acceptable Stories. And hiding the truth about the results. And the blood fetish. And the dumb nicknames. And the endless chants. ANW can’t afford surprises. Surprises wreck narratives. Surprises elevate unworthy wretches and lay low shining heroes. We’ve seen that amputee defy the odds; once is enough, dammit.

And because of this, I’m rapidly reaching the point where I can’t talk about the reguylar contest, not because I hate it, but because I don’t have anything to talk about. See, it might not look like it sometimes, but I don’t like grumbling. I want to be happy, and satisfied, and inspired, same as any of you. I also hate repeating myself, so when I do grumble about something, I prefer to consider my point made and move on to other gripes. So if I’m not willing to talk about beard bets or forced insect ingestion or screaming into the camera or asinine “crazy” antics or wildly unbalanced siffies courses or pointless cutaways in the middle of the run…what else is there? That’s what the show has evolved into, and progress, even ugly progress, never goes backward.

So yeah. I’m going to recap all four weeks of the festivities, and you may consider this the Recap For The Ages, because what you read about here is almost certain what ANW is for all time, so there’s no point in me doing this again even if I have the energy (which I can almost guarantee you that I will not).

Ellis Dee - NBC announced that “THERE WILL BE A WINNER”. And this wasn’t some coy, cute, doubleentendrefied (yeah, I know, even worse than “waiweewuwwaweiland”…just this once, promise) hint, but a big and bold announcement made at the end of no fewer than two episodes. This points out to two distinct possibilities: 1. It’s just another cheap tease, the kind of crap we’ve seen reality TV pull hundreds of times, and the “definite win” will have zippo to do with Total Victory, or 2. NBC really is honest-to-god spoiling the end result before we’ve even made it to Vegas. After giving it some thought, I actually think #2 is more plausible. This is a network that has proven that it has no shame many, many times over, and I could definitely see pressure starting to build the further into history Isaac Caldiero’s triumph regresses.

Will it be Graff? Oh baby, that would rock harder than the last three Woodstocks put together, but I have a hard time envisioning it. Northwest Passage proved that she’s not an upper-body monster, and that absolutely will be required to have any ghost of chance. The smart money is still on the established clutch players, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it came down to Drew Dreschel and Sean Bryan again.

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I keep hoping against hope that the “There will be a winner!” schtick is just misdirection talking about the $100k winner who goes the furthest the fastest overall, but like you I have a sinking feeling that no, that’s not the case, they legit just spoiled the end of the season.

591

This is probably a naive question, but how in the world could they ever keep the end result from being known around the world instantly, especially if it was as surprising as a woman winning?

They have a live audience there during the competition, right? And damn near every single person has a cell phone in their pocket. Pictures of Whoever reaching the top of Mount Midoriani would be all over twitter within seconds.

592

That was also true four years ago when Isaac won, though, right?

593

I suppose… It just seems impossible to me. Okay, they can get the contestants to sign agreements, and their crews. Maybe all the spectators, as a condition of entering, and confiscate all cell phones?

Is that why we see them constantly making a big deal out of various relatives holding up tablets to show other people are watching by skype? To cover up that only the ‘authorized’ few can do that?

Beats me.

I just find it unbelievable that absolutely everyone in the audience has the discipline to not tweet to a friend, Wow! Daniel Gil just won a million dollars!

594

Anyone reading ever been to a taping? Did they confiscate your cell phone and ask you not to say anything?

I would not advise researching this now for fear that you immediately find accurate spoilers about how this season ends.

595

It wouldn’t be the first time NBC has done this; the first Deal or No Deal million dollar winner’s episode had a similar spoiler pretty much throughout the show.

What I want to know is, can any of the women - Graf included - even climb that Stage 4 rope in 30 seconds?

596

0:00 Fast-paced montage of allegedly exciting things that happened in prelims, followed by the usual histrionic megahyping by Eyes. Lessee…a reprise of “The first mother everrrrr!”, and the first two people we hear talk (besides Eyes, who, for the record, is already starting to wear me out) are Jessie Graff and Jesse “Clubhouse” Labreck. Yeah, pretty clear what side this show’s toast is buttered on now. Shot of Isaac Caldiero’s triumphant climb followed by Eyes confidently declaring “Conquer all four, and your life will change forever.” Yeah, you’re going to get narrowly beaten out meaning you win jack squat despite hitting six buzzers, something the announcers went on and on and on and on and on about all season, incidentally, so you’ll eventually have to parlay your fame to make a decent living and eventually ANW will own you and you’ll never get to live the life you want. Why does everyone always forget this part?

Aside…is it just me, or is Bodge seriously in the back seat now? I remember when he spewed out brain-frying irritation like a ruptured sewer line, and now I can’t name a single grossly aggravating thing he’s said all season. Mostly he just blurts out his insipid cliches like “sha na na” and “em oh vee ee move”. I haven’t seen an obnoxious waste of oxygen get deflated this quickly since Andrew Dice Clay.

0:01 Bodge calls the real contest “the playoffs”, which is so ridiculous, if not an outright non sequitur, that I don’t even have any reaction. Seriously, this sort of thing all but demands at least a rolleyes smiley, and I just can’t be bothered. Has Bodge truly lost his mojo so completely? Damn, for the first time in my life, I feel a tiny bit sorry for him. (Strong emphasis on “tiny bit”.)

0:02 Woman-on-the-ground Zuri Hall claims that there are “some tricky new obstacles”, one of which is supposedly #2, Spin Your Wheels. It looks exactly like Spin Cycle except there are only two baskets and they’re really big. Then we see a much too hyped Jake Murray (yes, even for him) take it on, clear this one obstacle, and…okay, it wasn’t a super-ostentatious pose by his standards, but still, one obstacle. Perspective.

We then get a look at the rest of the course, #1: Archer Alley, which is exactly like Archer Steps except that they spin, #3: Double Dipper, #4: Jumping Spider, #5: Tire Run, #6: Warped Wall, #7 Diving Boards, a series of four narrow boards of differing lengths on springy platforms, #8 Twist And Fly. So that’s one sorta-newish balance task and two variations of stuff we’ve seen on ANWJ, and literally everything else was here last year. I don’t know what Hall’s criteria for “some” is, but I’m guessing it’s seriously misguided. :dubious:

0:03 Kicking things off is…oh dear. It’s Michelle Warnky. The first one they show NEVER finishes, and for all of the feel-goodness of recovering from getting bloodied and being the most experienced female competitor, for whatever that’s worth, she is absolutely not getting through tonight. Yes, Eyes, it would be pretty incredible if she hit a third buzzer; likewise, it would be equally incredible if she got past Meagan Martin in the team event standings, which is a thing that actually does have chance of happening! :rolleyes: Okay…

Hold the phone…two minutes and thirty seconds?? :eek: For eight obstacles? That’s how much time they get now? Didn’t it used to be like 1:50? I mean, I can see how the really bad time wasters would find that a problem, but they don’t make it to Stage 1! It looks like the clock is going to be a complete non-factor, and the YouTube site not even showing it seems like a dead giveaway. Sigh. I knew that there would be some big departures from Sasuke, but keep SOME of the source material, dangit!

Warnky out on Spin Your Wheels. And that’s it; no exit interview, no atta-girl, she’s just bumrushed outta there. I don’t care what the underlying rationale is, that just blows.

0:06 Profile of Kevin Bull…okay, that’s what I want to see! After he got famous for a bit of resourcefulness on Cannonball Alley which seemingly everyone involved with this show refused to shut up about for like five years, he used his fame to draw attention to a worthy cause and improve the lives of other people with his condition, and now not only continues to do so, he’s become a voice for tolerance and acceptance of differences. That’s… :slight_smile: …that’s just awesome. :D:D:D:D:D:D We even get the only genuinely touching Acceptable Story ANW has ever had, about a girl who lost all her hair (and that sort of thing has to be absolutely devastating for a young girl) and was in an extremely bad way until Bull taught her that she wasn’t a freak and got her back on her feet. That… :smiley: Yeah. :):):):slight_smile:

And now the absolutely unbearable, absolutely endless chanting has begun, and I knew this show would find a way to ruin the mood. :smack: Makes some nice saves but can’t manage the transition on Twist And Fly and splashes.

0:12 Okay, I gotta ask this…what is so freaking complicated about the Safety Pass that Eyes has to explain it over and over and over and over and over?? Seriously, he spells it out something like ten times tonight.

0:13 Here comes Flip “David” Rodriguez, and right off the bat there are troubling signs. He’s wearing his freaking siffies patches and his Safety Pass patch. On his pants. You know, there’s a reason nobody advertises siffies achievements anymore, mainly because they’re COMPLETELY GODDAM MEANINGLESS. You’re infamous for your mental hiccups; why handicap yourself like this now? Run begins, and what a surprise, he gets crooked on Diving Boards and splashes down. And of course he immediately brandishes his Safety Pass to the camera…literally rubs it in all our faces. I have enough people to hate here, David! Don’t do this to me! :mad:

0:17 Former Olympian Danell Leyva steps up and promptly introduces use to Guili Pino and Emily Abrams, the designated camera-direct-scream-intoers for his run. :smack: God dammit, I don’t think it’s asking too much to… :mad: Anyway, since I’m watching on mute, all I can tell you is that he does a bunch of gymnastics-esque stuff en route to a close-but-no-cigar on Twist And Fly, which we see something like ten replays of during the run and good Kanako, are they TRYING to cram as much stuff that irritates me in one run as inhumanly possible?? :mad::mad:

0:25 Oh yeah, colorful circus performers with fake weapons, real scary. Are you just looking for new ways to be utter morons now? :rolleyes: We get our first 3WA of the night, Karter Ohlson (Double Dipper) and Ronald Washington (Tire Run).

Ladies and gentlemen, now stepping into the…uh, open-air space…weighing in at…well, I have no idea, we don’t get stats on ANW…it’s Sem Garay! Along with his manager Primo Pulpo! There is lots of bell ringing and Eyes saying stuff about “dropping the elbow”, which was Randy Savage’s thing, and you can add “literally decades behind the times” to his myriad other faults! Man, this is really awkward for someone who hasn’t given a crap about wrestling since TVs had knobs and Al Gore was contemplating whether he should get behind this newfangled Internet thing! Anyway, out on Double Dipper, jobber squash didn’t even break a sweat blah blah etc. Kinda disappointed there wasn’t a “boring” chant. Given how chant-crazy ANW crowds are nowadays, that was a real missed opportunity.

0:28 Nate Burkhalter, whose t-shirt…oh, hell no. Needless to say, I am not calling him that. In fact, I am so done with this crap that I’ve already come up with a replacement idiotic nickname: Dimbulb! Yeah! You can take that stupid light bulb and shove it up your…uh…incorrectly-shaped light fixture!

All right, enough frivolity, let’s get to the profile…hold on, haven’t we seen this story before? Oh, wait, the first time it was about him moving to Norway, whereas this time it’s about him moving Norway two years ago! :rolleyes: Sheesh, and you thought Austin Gray had it bad…

Run begins. Wastes time everywhere yet finishes with more than 10 seconds to go. God, we’re a quarter of the way in and I’m already freaking depressed.

0:37 3WA: Anna Shumaker (Double Dipper), Lucio Battista (Jumping Spider), and Brandon Mears (Diving Boards). It seems like the order of the day is that if your entire identity is focused on one thing or you’re known solely as a member of a group and have no individual identity whatsoever, you’ll get lavished with lots and lots and lots of attention in prelims and then get a throwaway blowoff in Stage 1. Harsh, but an unfortunate necessity, mainly because two hours doesn’t last forever despite Eyes’ constant efforts to make it so.

0:38 I-DON’T-CARE! I-DON’T-CARE! I-DON’T-CARE! I-DON’T-CARE! I-DON’T-CARE! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

0:40 Adam Rayl, who finishes with 37.76 to spare. During which the chanting was at a minimum and the camera only cut to his mother Vicki two or three times, and she was actually pretty quiet most of the time. If there was a “Pom Wonderful Crazy Watchable Run of the Night”, this would win it hands down. :slight_smile:

0:48 Goddammit, it’s bad enough that this asinine design contest exists at all in the first place, but why is the winner always some snotnose boy? I’ve seen less punchable faces in the River City Girls demo.

Up next is Barclay Stockett. You’ll recall during ANWJ how the camera cut to her again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again while you were trying to watch the freaking kids who were having their freaking match, and you may have wondered what exactly happened for her to receive such attention. Well, we have the answer…sick mother. Yep, she’s part of the Acceptable Story club now. Eh…I dunno, seems like a big no-win situation to me. If she hits the buzzer, it’s completely 100% because of her mother and she gets zero recognition; if she falls, she let her mother down and she’s a horrible daughter and a miserable failure. It’s the latter case, as she doesn’t have the form for the more difficult Warped Wall and times out. (Aside: I didn’t hear “Sparkly Ninja” all night. From anyone. Has she given it up? Has good sense prevailed for once? This…this isn’t the good thing I thought possible for a reality show that’s reached the entropy stage! Fingers most definitely crossed on this one! :))

0:58 Shots of the four competitors who have competed in every season, Brian Kretsch, David Campbell, Lorin Ball, and…geez. Okay, I was about to say something about “wasting more of their lives than anyone else” or “And they made just as much money as someone who never competed at all!” but guess who the fourth man is. Yep, none other than <redacted> himself. Allow me to say it again: Not. Another. Word. Until. He. Does. Something. Else. Plus, he got up Mega Wall twice, so I can’t exactly ridicule his complete lack of winnings. If you have anything profound to say about these four guys being around for a really long time, go right ahead.

3WA: Campbell (timed out…that was unexpected) and Kretsch (Spin Your Wheels).

1:00 <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> MOVING ON!!

1:08 3WA: Conor Galvin (Tire Run), Jessica Clayton (Spin Your Wheels), and Lucas Reale (finished, 28.97 left). A WW2 grandfather and a lady goldbricker getting nearly as much time as someone who finished the goddam course is ludicrous, of course, but there’s so much nonsense in this show nowadays that I don’t feel like wasting my energy here.

1:09 Ehhhhhh…not quite buying Philip Scott. Somehow “Aspergers” doesn’t sound the great handicap being almost blind or having only one real leg is, at least as regarding obstacle course racing. He’s just so calm and soft-spoken that I can’t imagine NBC ever getting behind him. Out on Jumping Spider.

1:17 One of these days I’m going to compile my “X Worst Things To Happen In American Ninja Warrior Ever” list (I have a feeling it’s going to be a lot more than 10), and you can bet the goddam farm that the neverending hellish torture that is the Beard Bet is going to be a powerful contender for #1. <redacted> frigging gloating is just the icing on the cake.

All right, enough unpleasantness; it’s time for Najee “Albatross” Richardson. As I mentioned before, he has some real accomplishments but just can never seem to break through. Will it happen here? Ah…no. On Tire Run, he makes a bad leap to the second suspended ring and falls straight in. Fun fact: Competitors who do needlessly flashy jumps on Double Dipper that draw instant replay in the middle of the freaking run have a 0% success rate in Stage 1! :rolleyes:

1:20 When did “Chicago” become a thing? I remember when all the hype was about the Wolfpack; is NBC just jumping from bandwagon to bandwagon now? Anyway, Chris DiGangi is on deck. He has a bit of a chip on his shoulder due to being overshadowed by fiancee Jesse “Clubhouse” Labreck, first in NvN, then in siffies. Despite numerous shots of Clubhouse…okay, it’s not quite screaming into the camera, but it’s pretty annoying nonetheless…he keeps it together and hits the buzzer with 8.10 left. Yeah, I’m thinking 2:30 was way, way, WAY too generous.

1:29 3WA: Karson Voiles (finished, 5.59 left), R.J. Roman (finished, 7.95 left), and Dan Polizzi (finished, 7.85 left). Yeah, uh, what the freak exactly is the extra week going to be for, anyway? :mad:

1:30 Clubhouse is in the house (club)! She’s carrying the burden of failing on Twist And Fly two years in a row, which would mark her as a colossal failure and one of the event’s biggest chokers ever were it not for having some of the biggest clutch performances in NvN and taking the trophy, you goddam goldfish-memoried cretins. :smack: Seriously, what is it with constantly blowing off all the side events? “Typically we do the same.” Folks, there’s a reason you don’t bet on trends to continue indefinitely in sports, and given that reality TV is like ten million times as ridiculous, it makes even less sense. Sadly, she screws up the exact same obstacle, she’s not in the same echelon as Jesse Graff and Alyssa Beird, Chris DiGangi rules, and it feels weird writing that.

1:40 3WA: David Wright (Tire Run), Kevin “Wingman” Carbone (finished, time not given), and Lorin Ball (finished, 4.73 left).

1:41 Travis Rosen. Both Hall and Eyes very strongly hint that this is his last rodeo, and I’m desperately hoping that this is the case. I fear a tragedy every time he steps on the course. I honestly don’t even understand what he’s getting out of this anymore. He looks like a beaten dog every step of the way and splashes down at the end of Diving Boards.

1:46 David takes his second-chance run and finishes with 13.63 left, which allows him to keep pretending that he won’t get obliterated in Stage 2 like he does every damn year.

1:54 Preview of the rest of the Stage 1 field, which includes everyone who actually has a prayer of getting the $100,000. Hey, don’t lead with the haymaker, y’know.

Rounding out tonight is Daniel “Dag” Gil, who is wearing a tank top with “KINGDOM” emblazoned on it with absolutely zero explanation from anyone, anywhere, ever, least of all Gil himself, so you bet your Monkey Pegs “Dag” is where it’s at from now on. :wink: All right, what Acceptable Story has NBC cooked up for him? Okay…blind boy. Teaching a blind boy how to exercise. Teaching a blind boy how to climb stuff. “Handicaps do not have to control your life!” Ummmm…how do I put this…BOHHHHHHH-REEEEEENG. Hey fans, here’s a chance to make up for not properly chanting at the end of Sem Garay’s run!

As for the run itself…it’s Daniel flipping Gil with flipping two-flipping-and-a-flipping-half-flipping minutes, what precisely were you expecting? Maybe if he was blind…

Well, it looks like I’m going to have to start using “naffies” seriously, as Stage 1 has completely ceased to deserve the designation “real contest”. I remember a time when this was the point where the contest got scary. Jumping Spider was nerve-wracking, Warped Wall was a heart- and occasionally knee-breaker, and the clock was a constant threat. Now it seems like anyone who was at least a second-stringer made it through with no trouble. Up and down night for the most part, though the absolute worst is over, so I’m looking forward to a more positive conclusion.

Oh, I saw the commercial with “THERE WILL BE A WINNER” and the women, and based on this…I’m rethinking my stance. A bit. It looks like NBC really put themselves between a rock and hard place publicity wise: Either somebody’s winning the million and they’re giving away gigantic spoilers weeks in advance, or there isn’t a winner and they’re disgusting teases who can’t ever be trusted. I’m perfectly willing to wait and see which, but somehow I doubt it’s going to be one of the women (remember the rule about inflammatory headlines posed as questions).

597

Hey guys. I’ve noticed a couple people wanting to know if anyone’s been to a taping, and having questions if someone has.

My training partner has been to a taping; his sister was on the show this year. If anyone has a question they want me to ask him, I’m sure he’d be happy to answer them, so if anyone has a question then please respond to this post with your question(s). I know some of you guys already posed your question earlier, but I don’t feel like scrolling through this thread to see who has a question so please kindly just ask your question again.

598

Short and sweet: Does production take any measures to prevent spoilers? Confiscate phones? Politely ask people not to post spoilers to social media?

We ask because the promos are strongly implying that someone wins the million this year, and the latest promo lightly implied the winner is a woman.

If that’s true, the question is how do we not already know this from leaked photos on Twitter or whatever?

599

I wanted to know how much time between each run. I noticed that there was time to not only reset the course but for everyone to put on different t-shirts or to shuffle in a new set of people to support the particular racer wearing their branded shirts or carrying branded paraphernalia. Does each racer or representative go around handing out a bunch of stuff in between races?

also there appears to only be about a hundred or so people unless there are bigger stands on the other side that we can’t see. tickets must be really hard to get.

600

I don’t remember from last year will the runners next week have the exact same course or will they change up some of the obstacles?

I am annoyed at the hype of “only three women have completed a city final” Jessie Graff (as well as others) had a city final that no one was able to complete and she went further than ANYONE else on hers. I think if she had the same course as Michelle Warnky, Jessie would have annihilated the course. :frowning: