Australian Ninja Warrior is a sports entertainment competition spin-off of the Japanese television series Sasuke which premiered on 9 July 2017 on the Nine Network.
[1] It features hundreds of competitors attempting to complete series of obstacle courses of increasing difficulty, in hopes of advancing to the finals and becoming the season's "Australian Ninja Warrior."
[2][3] The series was announced in 2016 with applications open until 9 September 2016, with filming between November & December 2016 on Cockatoo Island.
[17][18][19] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nine has introduced Audience Lock-out meaning members of the public can not attend as audience, only family members of contestants will be allowed to attend,[20] as well as co-host Rebecca Maddern, who was put in self-isolation, was temporarily replaced by Shane Crawford for two heats, she has since been cleared and returned to filming.
[21][22] Crawford returned to the season as sideline commentator for the Semis and Grand Final after Freddie Flintoff had to fly back to the UK before coronavirus pandemic measures came into effect.
[28] In June 2021, Nine announced Nick Kyrgios would be joining the series as a sideline commentator alongside Shane Crawford; Freddie Flintoff will not be returning due to travel challenges and a busy schedule.
[33] In November 2021, Nine announced Madderns contract was not renewed and she would be leaving the network effective immediately, in which she will be resigning as the show's host.
[34][35] In January 2022, Jim Courier and Leila McKinnon were announced as the new hosts of the series, with Will & Woody as sideline commentators.
[2][3] Potential contestants go through a rigorous series of obstacles before the possibility of becoming the next Australian Ninja Warrior and win a cash prize, starting at $100,000.
If there is no winner in a season the prize will jackpot and rise by $100,000 until someone eventually conquers Mount Midoriyama.
This season was the first time on Australian Ninja Warrior that any contestant had qualified for the third stage of the course.
Ben Polson was the fastest of the remaining three and was able to climb Mount Midoriyama in 25.56, earning him the title as the first legitimate winner of Australian Ninja Warrior and received $400,000.
The season was filmed at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales.
On Australia Day, UK game show based channel, Challenge, announced that beginning from 18 February 2018, it would start airing episodes of Australian Ninja Warrior.
Western Australia had Sam Goodall running the course twice, but in different order because Zed Colback is medically eliminated due to migrane.
[64] It is so called as Australian National and Guinness World Records (previously held in the American series) for each obstacle would be attempted, and AU$15,000 for each obstacle conquered, including the World Record for the highest warped wall (5.8m), the highest salmon ladder (where the final 35m Mt.