American Ninja Warrior

I have been a huge Sasuke and ANW fan but the last couple of seasons of ANW have gone way overboard on fluff pieces.

I think it is very disrespectful to the other competitors to have their runs skipped over to make room for all of this uninteresting backstory. Let everyone tell their story on the course, not in a lame bio which runs longer than their actual obstacle course run.

Everyone has a story and issues in life to deal with... the ones who hardly get to be seen are not being treated fairly. Maybe show some of the fluff in a little window while they are running, but these overproduced segments are just terrible TV and are hogging up the whole episode ...just NO...STOP IT!!!!

Between commercials, fluff pieces and fluff after interviews on the sideline, there really is only about 10 minutes of actual competition. If this trend continues, I will be skipping ANW alltogether as the skip button is getting worn out on the remote as it stands now.

Since Casey's run and climbing of the wall, women have been included more and more on the show and I think it is good to have women included, but the courses are getting too nerfed to cater to lesser athletes and this is also taking away from the sport. Additionally, it is disrespectful to women to have a female announcer relegated to the sidelines and only get to ask fluff questions instead of being able to announce the runs as they are happening. I think if you want to be inclusive to women , that needs to be changed as well.

TLDR, cut out the fluff which runs longer than the contestants actual runs and toughen the course up to make it a legitimate competition again.

AJW has started down the path of America's Got Talent by adding a sob story to most every contestant. Please NBC don't ruin another show for me. Let the contestants compete.

Why has the show gotten filled with so many background narratives. We record and fast forward past all the useless filler fluff. We want to see more athletes on the course. Please just get back to showing the athletes running the course! If the stories get cut out, we'll increase our star rating.

When this show started, it was great!!! I enjoy quite a bit the episodes circa 2012 (and thereabouts) with hosts Jonny Moseley, Angela Sun, and Iseman. That's lean meat, no fat.

The producers and et al wanted this show to gain popularity. This show has gotten obnoxious as a result of their efforts.

I tune in to watch athletes do crazy stunts and wow me with their athleticism. THAT'S WHY I WATCH. Nowadays, half the show is sappy backstories. There are 4 minute long back stories of each athlete. It's about the athlete working with mentally disabled people, losing family members by death, doing the ninja course for cancer, et cetera.

If these lame stories were 20 seconds long, it'd be tolerable. But no, they are literally at least four minutes each. Then on top of that, lots of commercials.

This show was a 9 out of 10, before it got ruined. I give it 4 out of 10.

Here's a thought: 1) Cut the lengthy video montages for a special few and dedicate that time to the sport itself.

2) Post a leaderboard online showing all the competitors, their stats, their background and any videos (emotional and/or competitive), if applicable.

3) Once the playing field is down to a handful, THEN run the video montage of what they had to conquer (physically, emotionally, whatever) to get this far. At this point viewers should recognize the competitors and have picked favorites. This is the appropriate time to dedicate a minute to each player's backstory.

Again, it's just a slap in the face to those who have trained so hard just to get on the course only to be granted a 2 second recap after commercial because the producers chose to air long background videos on competitors who ended up disqualifying themselves on the first challenge.

I wish I could get access to the original Sasuke competitions.