Adventure-packed game show “American Ninja Warrior” has yet to find an American contestant who can complete what many call the world’s most difficult obstacle course, but this season, they are hoping to try.
The NBC show follows a nationwide search to find the “ultimate athlete who will be crowned the first, true American Ninja Warrior.” Hosted by comedian Matt Iseman and Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley, the show is an adaptation from the Tokyo program called “Sasuke,” which boasted 2,700 competitors looking to complete the challenge, with just three finding success.
Iseman stopped by the “FoxNews.com Live” studios to talk about what viewers can expect this season.
“We did Venice, Miami and Dallas and we’d do two regions in each [city],” he said of the audition process. “We’d have about 125-150 people come through. We’d narrow it down to the top 30 and then those 30 would be narrowed down to the 15 who would travel to Vegas.”
“We had thousands of submissions,” Iseman said. “Then at each of these regionals, we would have hundreds of people lining up hoping to get a shot to just walk on the course and usually we would take about ten of those people as well.”
Now in its fourth season, the show's contestants came from every walk of life like fireman, PhD candidates, used car dealers and pizza delivery people.
“They’re not professional athletes,” he said. “They build these courses in their backyards, they find ways to train, but these people dedicate their lives to this and that’s what’s amazing.”
The course is so tough that professional athletes have trouble competing. And with three people only completing the four-part competition in history, many go in knowing they likely won’t win.
Iseman joked that the designers of the course are “sick, sadistic people.”
“American Ninja Warriors” airs on Monday nights on NBC.
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