‘American Ninja Warrior’ Fate Revealed at NBC

American Ninja Warrior’s future on NBC is secure for now. Produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions, the competition show returns in June for season 15 and has already been renewed for season 16, Deadline reported. Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila have returned to host the finals with co-host Zuri Hall as the ninjas progress through the qualifiers and semifinals. New additions to the show this season include a Mega Wall, along with ninjas racing for the first time side-by-side and head-to-head for the first time, making this one of the most significant changes in the show’s history. Both seasons are currently in production, with A. Smith & Co. filming both back-to-back, featuring select ninjas. Season 15 premieres June 5 and season 16 will return in 2024. This initiative was led by NBCU unscripted chief Corie Henson, who joined the company last summer.

At the national finals in Las Vegas, $1 million will be awarded to the winner who conquers all four stages. “The Ninja movement continues,” executive producer Arthur Smith told Deadline. “We’re now at the point where the show has been on long enough that some of our younger athletes, Ninja has been around their whole life. This year, we have fathers and sons and mothers and daughters competing.” He continued, “This is a unique competition that it is about the people and the stories and it has a lot of unique characteristics. Where else you have athletes rooting for each other? Where else you have women and men competing on the same course? We have a community and there’s so many positive values.” Furthermore, he highlighted the inspirational stories of some of the competitors, such as Christopher Harding Jones, a Georgia teen whose motto was “Living Wide,” after his father passed away from lung cancer, and Taylor Greene, a child who competed on American Ninja Warrior Junior, who is now 15 and appears on the main show. “It’s kind of like watching LeBron James in high school,” he added. “Those moments happen on Ninja and we always have these really great backstories.”

As part of this season, contestants will compete head-to-head, take on the course simultaneously, and conquer a Mega Wall that’s taller than ever. Season 15 features the obstacle “Pole Vault,” where competitors jump off trampolines to fly high into the air and catch poles, as well as “Greased Lightning,” which involves hanging on to both ends of a rope as it slides down a tube to reach the finish line, “The Getaway,” where competitors rotate a wheel that unlocks, drops, and reveals a ring they take and land on a hook then lache and catch a money bag that slides and carries them to the finish line, “Ring the Bells, which involves swings and bells, “Lasso Launch,” which uses a rope, “Kite Surfer,” a game in which participants use their hands to navigate a kite, transfer to a bungee, then to another kite, and “Cubes,” according to Deadline.

Season 16 will feature a number of new obstacles, including “Heavy Metal,” where competitors transfer a bar across cradles, “Reel to Reel,” where competitors hold onto wheels as they slide down tracks, “Danger Waters,” featuring free spinning beams, “Duck Duck Goose,” where competitors lache across ledges that swing and shut, to reach the finish platform, and “Jaw Breakers,” where competitors lache across traps that are angled at different angles to increase difficulty. Smith explained to Deadline that they change the course because so many people train to compete. “We keep making the course harder, and they keep getting better. They keep training and it’s like the never ending quest for us to push the limit. They started with building courses in the backyard, that was reasonably early in the run. Now there’s Ninja gyms everywhere and then to coaches and then to trainers. Now we have kids, who say, ‘I’m not going to play soccer. I’m doing Ninja.”