Behold the "Ninja Warrior"

This summer ABC started airing Wipeout, a game show where contestants maneuver through 3 stages filled with crazy obstacles. My wife and I get a lot of laughs out of it and have enjoyed it over the summer. When I mentioned this show at work I was told the show was a cheap copy of a Japanese game show called Ninja Warrior, and if I wanted to see a real show like this I should check it out on the G4 cable channel.

I never heard of G4 before this, so the next weekend I found the channel and after watching only 1 episode of this I was hooked. The challenges on this show are crazy tough! The show is subtitled, and reading the subtitles combined with the Japanese announcers make this a riot! Each "season" of the show starts with 100 contestants trying to make it through the 4 stages of the contest. Typically after the end of the first stage only 4 to 6 of the 100 are left, and after 20 of these "seasons"only 2 people have made it all the way through and finished the final stage. This show is a pretty big deal over in Japan. Some of the more fanatic contestants build replicas of the obstacles so they can practice, and a number of well known Japanese actors, athletes, and celebrities compete as well. With the ego of some of our well known celebrities and athletes over here I don't know if many would set themselves up to possibly look as foolish as they typically do on this show. I'm putting a clip of the show below. More clips can be found on YouTube, but you should really check your listings and check it out on G4.
-MJP