Beat the wall, beat the wall…

As if one warped wall wasn’t enough to stretch the fittest of athletes, this year’s Australian Ninja Warrior forces contestants to make a choice: the ‘standard’ warped wall, or a mega warped wall.

“If you get up it you get $5000,” explains Nine’s Head of Production, Adrian Swift.

“So the question is ‘Do I go up the normal warped wall and finish the course, or do I try the mega warped wall, get $5000 -or not- and maybe not finish the course?

“Is it worth taking the risk for $5000?’

“It’s not original idea but it was used in the US edition.”

That risk vs reward dilemma is not the only change for Nine’s third season, having relocated from Cockatoo Island, Sydney, to Spotswood in western Melbourne.

“We would have gone back to the island in the blink of an eye. But all those nice people in Birchgrove were complaining about the noise we were making and, look, I get that. So for all sorts of reasons we had to go,” he continues.

“We looked all around Australia: Melbourne Showgrounds, Olympic Park in Sydney, and some places in Brissy, Adelaide and Perth. We looked everywhere.

“So with the kind help of Visit Victoria we decided to come down here. Yes, they’re chipping in a bit,” he confirms.

“You see the Melbourne skyline and Westgate Bridge with drone shots. It’s not a huge part of it, but it looks really good.”

The new course sits adjacent to the mouth of the Yarra River, in an industrial area beside Scienceworks Museum. The course has been reconfigured into a horseshoe course with hosts Rebecca Maddern & Ben Fordham overlooking from the middle.

“We’ve compressed the course so it looks a lot busier. Sydney had a much bigger area so the course was more open. But by compressing it with the same amount of obstacles, we’ve found it looks much better.”

The series is expected to last around 4 weeks with heats, semi-finals and 2 x grand finals. Nine is also guaranteeing the “furthest, fastest” will walk away with $100,000.

“There is very clearly a winner this year. It’s not really true to the format but we felt Australian audiences really wanted a winner,” Swift claims.

Should anyone scale Mt. Midoriyama -yet to be conquered- they win an additional $200,000.

 

Around 30% of Ninjas are returning this year, with diverse and colourful contenders including Pa Rambo, Flashlin’ Ashlin Herbert, Olivia Vivian and Barefoot Ninja Dan Mason.

“I think it’s a harder course, with the mega warped wall.

“All the greats are there and a whole lot of amazing new people,” Swift smiles.

“But I would say that wouldn’t I?”

Australian Ninja Warrior returns 7:30pm Monday on Nine.