Uproar over Australian Ninja Warrior grand final
Australian Ninja Warrior fans have been left disappointed after the much-hyped grand final aired last night.
After three weeks of watching everyday Australians tackle complicated obstacle courses on Channel Nine’s extreme reality series, Australia was eager to find out which “ninja” would take home the title. But unfortunately, no one did.
The exhausting series finales, where the 21 remaining contestants battled a brutal three-stage course, ultimately had no winner.
No one even made it to the third and final stage. Eight contestants made it through to the nine obstacle stage one but all fell victim to the time limit pressures of stage two. Stage three was Mt Midoriyama: a 22m rope climb to be completed in 30 secs. It was left unscaled.
TONIGHT 7.30pm: It's a race against the clock as our Ninjas have 3 mins and 45 secs to complete Stage One of the course! #NinjaWarriorAU pic.twitter.com/Gcqhw32dtw
— Ninja Warrior (@NinjaWarriorAU) July 25, 2017
Fans were quick to express their disappointment. Even Today Show host Lisa Wilkinson admitted her disappointment this morning, telling her co-anchors she can understand the viewer backlash.
“The problem with everyone who got so involved and loved the show... you invested all of that passion and energy and you have made sure that you are sitting in front of the couch every night to see every single jaw-dropping moment and when you get to the end you at least want one person, who was better than everybody else, to have their moment of victory - and we didn’t have that,” she said.
“I think that’s where people are feeling a bit like: I wanted to celebrate something at the end.”
Just Fred, our green and gold Ninja, doing his thing on the #NinjaWarriorAU course. 🔰 pic.twitter.com/gkABHgAvAi
— Ninja Warrior (@NinjaWarriorAU) July 25, 2017
The outcome wasn’t that surprising though to anchor Freddy Flintoff, who minutes before the finale commented: “It’s no wonder our expert said he wouldn’t be surprised if no one gets to the end of stage two — nevermind Mt Midoriyama.”
After all, in America, where the show originated, it’s taken seven seasons for a contestant to scale the final stage and be crowned champion.
Australia, I guess we’ll just have to wait until next season for someone – anyone – to be crowned Australian Ninja Warrior.