Advice to NBC for next year - American Ninja Warrior (2009) Discussion

[–] keziadwts 8 years ago

1. Since the entire season is filmed before the show airs, spend more time focusing on the people who actually make it to Vegas and through Stage 1. Ratings at the end of the season won't slide as much if people know and care about the finalists.

2. Spend less air time on people who fail to get past the first round in city qualifiers.

3. Once the show gets to the finals, show all the runs and cut some of the back stories.
- Definitely cut the montage of other competitors talking about a person who then falls on the first or second obstacle.
- It's annoying to see, "while you were away"... when 5 minutes were spent talking about someone's family life/ dreams / etc. Show the backstories in the earlier rounds.
- For the athletes that make it to Vegas, respect them and their supporters enough to show their entire run.

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[–] wildcat2000 8 years ago

Get rid of the very first qualifiers. The really short courses at the beginning. They're far too easy to waste time airing them. Start the season in the City Finals.

Make each city finals even with each other. Like I mentioned in the other topic certain obstacles are harder than others and arnt part of Vegas.

Get rid of the backstories or reduce them to 5-10 seconds. Ive counted and they're 30 seconds. Doesnt seem like much in the long run its too much especially since they know (being recorded) who falls where.

Your right to an opinion does not equal an opinion that is right

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[–] windquake 8 years ago

Agree with all of that.

4. Get rid of Akbar or teach the guy to quit trying to be funny or always trying to link a comment with the runner's "job".

To add to #2.
Show a bunch of runners for city qualifiers, with just a brief "here is Joe, a plumber from Chicago". Maybe spend a bit more on the known crew. But yes, cut out the video backstory from everyone and show those at the finals. No one cares about Joe, when he fails on obstacle 2. But if he has an amazing run, then show his backstory at the finals.

Once they make it to Vegas, go back to a shorter intro.

I hate IMDB's Signature policy...

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[–] darkavenger77 8 years ago

Give out wildcard spots to more deserving competitors- ones that based upon their performance have a decent chance at completing a course regardless of their gender. At a minimum those that finished the qualifier round.

Another member suggested a viewer voting method for this similar to Dancing with the Stars (2005).

Either would be better than what they have done the past 2 seasons.

Also agree with cutting down on backstories to where we could see everyone compete.

Ignoring politics doesn't mean politics will ignore you.
-Pericles paraphrased in <100 characters

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[–] moviemom26 8 years ago

I agree with #1

Stop pandering to women and let those who are more deserving get the wildcards. They played up Katy way, way too much. Stop it. It's annoying. Yes, she's the first female whatever.... blah, blah, blah. Yes, good for her. But how many years do we have to hear that?

The fact that she and her X had to make "an announcement" during qualifiers that they broke up. WTF? Who cares. That kind of stuff is really annoying and will cause people to walk away from the show.

Cut out the backstories, esp. in the qualifiers. I'd rather see a good run by an unknown that listen, yet again, to a returning runner's story.

I like the idea of letting viewers vote for the wildcard.

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[–] jquick99 8 years ago

They'll never get rid of backstories. Gotta have the emotional tales.

How about designing a course that benefits someone who is 5' 2"...and makes it more difficult for taller people? Unsure what that could possibly be, but tired of seeing shorter people [male or female] struggle more just becuz they have shorter limbs.

And what about leg strength? Seems like most activities involve arm strength, while these people could have chicken legs.

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[–] italianpride17 8 years ago

Tall contestants have a lot of obstacles they struggle on (salmon ladder, body prop and even spider jump because they have to position themselves oddly)

You want stuff catered to women is what it sounds like. If you made things easier for them then tons of guys will beat it.

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[–] Huge_Ack_Man 8 years ago

Find a way to rank the contestants (if no one is a clear winner) and on top of awarding the winner give cash prizes for 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers.

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do...you are misinformed---Mark Twain

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[–] tiger01 8 years ago

- For the athletes that make it to Vegas, respect them and their supporters enough to show their entire run.

THIS is the single most important thing I think they could do. It is just so disrespectful to anyone who makes it to Vegas to brush their run under the rug, especially if they actually finish a course! That just happened to one guy that I can recall off the top of my head this year in the "While we were away..." horsecrap.

Other tips that NBC will not heed:

- Massively shorten the season and just do it for a few weeks, a month max. As said earlier, I would eliminate everything before the city finals for television anyway. This would also cut down on the television "fame whores" as well who have absolutely zero seriousness about ANW. The preemption by the Olympics really hurt this year. I only watched like half of the city courses because it is all old hat, boring and 4 hrs per city for qualifier and finals... it is just too much without a DVR.

- I would get rid of the backstories, at least the repetitiveness of it, but I seriously doubt this will ever go away.

- I would be down for more money incentives and increased competition among the athletes. However, I understand this could not be popular as it goes against the way the show currently is: athletes vs the course up until the final stage in Vegas. All the ninjas are buddy-buddy and love one another. That's one reason I do enjoy the USA vs the World competitions.

- Send Akbar on a one-way trip to Mars
Me: " I SEE YOU THERE, AKBAR!!! LEAVING THE PLANET LIKE A BOSS!"
Akbar: " WHAT??! JUST CALL ME THE ROCKETMAN! I'M OUTTA THIS WORLD!"

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[–] BellT 8 years ago

That last one 

M is fearless, she's the original honey badger, she doesn't give a sh!t! - Nekojita

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[–] the_a_buser 8 years ago

If they don't show the city qualifiers then 75% of the women going to Vegas are complete unknowns. And they wouldn't get a chance to highlight Kacy an extra time each season.

I'd love for it to be more about the competition: keep contestants sequestered during runs so they don't get the unfair advantage of learning from others' mistakes before they run, eliminate wild cards, require you hit all buzzers, show all runs at Vegas, add some type of "pace" tracker while running a course (like they use in Olympic swimming) to see if contestants are going faster or slower than the leader. There should also be more benefits for completing it faster. I'm not sure about the "ranking system" someone else suggested because I feel like NBC would abuse it to promote the people they like (Kacy, Brent, Meghan, Flip, etc) rather than the best athletes. Oh yeah, eliminate the blatant favoritism.

Unfortunately, NBC thinks this is a soap opera, so if anything they'll go in the opposite direction.

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[–] BellT 8 years ago

May I ask what's wrong with Meagan and Flip?

M is fearless, she's the original honey badger, she doesn't give a sh!t! - Nekojita

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[–] the_a_buser 8 years ago

Nothing is "wrong" with them. They are just two examples of people NBC focuses on. I could add the flight attendant guy, the Wolfpack, that cowboy guy. I was just saying NBC could present more balanced coverage of all its contestants (at least the ones that consistently get to Vegas). But this is NBC and they'll never do that.

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[–] davy12349 8 years ago

(1)If you don't hit the buzzer, you don't move on

(2)Shouldn't be wild cards

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[–] doktorf 8 years ago

Treat it like sports programming rather than reality TV. Broadcast live. Limit time on back stories of competitors.
Perhaps make the course less "one size fits all" for instance be able to adjust the wall spacing of the Jumping Spider for the competitor's height *according to a strict formula*.

You *must* complete the course to move on unless selected as a wild card. Wild cards should be determined by viewer votes. After all they should be people the audience wants to see more of.

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[–] BellT 8 years ago

A better question is if you guys think they'll take ANY of this advice. 

I don't see them changing the production schedule. Especially now that they've had to pay someone. They need time for editing and promos which will never go away. I see them wanting to keep the production as short as possible. It's currently a month of filming, but making it live stretches it to 3 months and time is money.

M is fearless, she's the original honey badger, she doesn't give a sh!t! - Nekojita

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