With American Ninja Warrior 3 starting in just one week, I’m still waiting on pins and needles for my official invitation.  The semi-finalists from last year, the top 30 times from the opening round, were given automatic invitations to ANW3, but everybody else is still waiting for official word with the competition just one short week away.  A few weeks ago I heard from casting asking me to fill out a 10 page questionnaire and release form that seemed to be a good indication of their interest…last year they only sent the same form AFTER we had been accepted.  But it seems like the bar has been raised for acceptance into ANW3, perhaps because of an increase in applicants, perhaps because they are thinking about ANW’s future as a major network show.

I did get a call last week on Thursday from casting which I had foolishly interpreted as my invitation call.  Earlier that week several of my friends in the competitor community had gotten calls with their official invite, so when they called me I assumed the same.  We had a 10 minute conversation during which the very nice lady from casting asked me more profile questions.  I was happy and chatty during the call, thinking I had my invitation wrapped up.  It was only at the end of the call that I realized I hadn’t.

Her:  “OK, we’ll let you know next week.”

Me:  “Let me know what?  My run time?”

Her:  “Noooo….I’m sorry….whether you will be invited or not.”

Me:  “Doh!”

She felt badly that I had misinterpreted the purpose of the call as an invitation as opposed to just a chat to get more information from me, and perhaps hear whether I was charismatic or not in a conversation.  She assured me that the call “was a good thing” and they’d only be talking to me further at this point if they were interested, but I still left the call with a lot of trepidation about whether I’d be invited or not.

I’ve subsequently learned that a lot of other competitors have been getting this “additional profiling” chat, more than those that have received an actual invite, so I have a lot of company in this awkward situation of not knowing whether I’m going to get a chance to compete in American Ninja Warrior 3 that starts in just one short week.  I’m sitting here by my phone with my fingers crossed hoping I hear from them…the suspense is killing me!  I feel very prepared for this competition and have all my travel arrangements, hopefully it won’t all be for naught.