Australian Ninja Warrior

Television Nine Network
653

Zak Stolz wins Australian Ninja Warrior – Again!

image
image1024×576 94.4 KB

Last year’s champion and fan favourite, Zak Stolz, has once again walked away with $100,000 after being the furthest fastest competitor in the Australian Ninja Warrior Season 6 Grand Final tonight on Channel 9.

And the pulsating Ninja action doesn’t end there, because tomorrow night on Channel 9 at 7.30pm the best of the best competitors including Zak return in a brand new special, Australian Ninja Warrior: Record Breakers.

Stolz, 23, who made history as Australia’s first back-to-back winner, said: “I’m delighted. The entire field this year was incredibly strong, with ninja legends and the addition of the teens. So to be able to hold up another season title would have to be the crowning achievement of my Ninja Warrior career.”

This season of Australian Ninja Warrior pushed a new crop of fearless ninjas and returning warrior legends to the outer limits of their endurance on the fastest course ever constructed. And for the first time, athletes aged 16 and 17 were allowed to enter the competition as we welcomed the Attack of the Teens. Plus, in a world first, ninjas raced side by side in a sudden-death showdown.

After starting the competition with 150 ninjas only eleven survived to make it through to Stage 2 of the Grand Final, including three impressive teens: Daniel Waterman, Saxon Johnstone and Ash Campbell.

Five ninjas then advanced to Stage 3: Ashlin Herbert, Jake Baker, Matthew Bowles, Zak Stolz and teen Saxon.

In a gripping finish, Zak held his strong form, falling short of conquering the daunting Mt Midoriyama but going one obstacle better than Ashlin, his best mate, to claim the Season 6 title of furthest fastest competitor onAustralian Ninja Warrior.

Zak added: “Anyone who goes that deep into the course could have won the entire series. It really goes to show how cutthroat Ninja Warrior truly is, with years of training culminating in a single two to three-minute performance. Maybe some season down the track I’ll be able to live out the dream of climbing the mountain again.”

Tomorrow night the ninja action goes up another gear when the best crop ever assembled – including Zak, Ashlin Herbert, Ben Polson, Olivia Vivian, Judith Carroll and teens Daniel Waterman and Saxon Johnstone – return in a brand new special, Australian Ninja Warrior: Record Breakers.

The biggest names in Australian Ninja Warrior history will go head to head on five supersized obstacles as they attempt to smash Australian and world records, win cash prizes, and claim the bragging rights everyone wants. Ben and Ashlin will be even more determined as they attempt to break the world records they set last year.

With a total prize pool of $75,000 and $15,000 up for grabs for each obstacle win, they’ll be striving to go further, faster and higher than ever as they take on the Rising Mega Warped Wall, Super Salmon Ladder,Soaring Sonic Shelf Grab, the new Spring Forward Face-Off, and the Australian-first Big Dipper Freestyle Challenge.

1 Like
654

I’m massive fans of what both Leila and Jim do in their other respective roles at Nine (AO commentating, ACA, Today, etc.), but I really didn’t enjoy them on ANW. They’re just sounded so fake and their excitement was so forced - Jim’s especially! I hope they don’t return next year - or if they do return, I hope they improve.

Every time they had a flashback to years past and played Ben’s voice - it made me miss him even more! He was made for this show.

1 Like
655

Looks like Ninja Warrior has been axed by Nine after six seasons.

Ninja Warrior was a huge hit when it launched in 2017, even outrating the grand finals of House Rules and MasterChef Australia in the same period. Ninja Warrior suffered a big drop in audience for the second season in 2018 and, although it regained some lost ground in the next two seasons (Ben Polson conquered Mount Midoriyama in season four), ratings fell away again in seasons five and six.

I am not sure if the constant venue changes (four different venues in six years) or obstacle changes played a part in the ratings decline.

4 Likes
656

Expecting Seven to snap this up soon

1 Like
657

Also, too many returning contestants. Should have been a new group each year.

8 Likes
658

It got boring because every season was too similar

2 Likes
659

And for some reason they keep stretching each episode out to 2 hours. No one’s able to stomach the show for that long.

A shame that they haven’t taken the time to work that out and refresh the show and instead they chopped it.

6 Likes
660

Yep. The original hit from Japan, was 30mins, it was all action and no back stories.

If it was compacted like that, it would have still rated well.

In our household, we recorded it and fast forwarded past all the rubbish. The show actually lasted 15mins of action from a 2 hour show. No wonder people stopped watching.

4 Likes
661

This is the problem with all the tentpole shows on the 3 commercial networks.

3 Likes
662

I wonder if that’s because there aren’t enough capable new applicants every year to do this

3 Likes
663

Probably to keep costs down so they don’t have to fork out $$$ for other shows?

1 Like
664

Rebecca Maddern can host with Sonia :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
665

They are the home of recycled TV, makes sense that they would also pick this up.

4 Likes
666

Not quite - it’s packaged into half hour chunks for international broadcast but actually broadcast as a one-off or two-part event over multiple hours when it airs in Japan.

Agree though as with so many Aussie shows it suffers from being an hour long show stretched out to nearly twice as long.

I don’t think the venue changes matter as the course is the course. It’s generally the lack of variation in the course design rather than making changes which hurts it, but some of the format tweaks like the Power Tower aren’t for the better.

Returning contestants can be a problem though - in early years it’s a real asset to have familar faces return but as time goes on seeing the same people year in, year out, can become more of a liability.

Gut feeling is Nine will probably give it another chance and avoided announcing anything as they’re likely to change the talent again.

3 Likes
667

The Australian series, meanwhile, has been acquired by Discovery for New Zealand and UK multichannel broadcaster UKTV.

2 Likes