Boot Camp – Love it or Hate it?

I must admit that I missed the last few episodes (*shakes fist at DirectTV*), but I understand that the whole Boot Camp concept as the place where the 15 finalists duke it out to make the top 10 spots on Team America to go to Ninja Warrior has been introduced. I see the bulletin boards aflame with people’s opinion of the whole Boot Camp idea. Ninja Warrior purists hate it, other people say it’s a great evolution of the American Ninja Warrior brand for commercial purposes, some say it is great preparation for Team America to go compete in Japan. What is your opinion? Vote below and feel free to post comments.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 1:11 pm and is filed under American Ninja Warrior 2, Ninja Warrior. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Dustinechoz

    Boot Camp: great idea, extremely poor execution. It should be real training, and a time competition at the end. Cover it documentary style, not make them into Survivor contestants. I like Survivor, but not for these guys. I think that limiting access to training in any way is BS! Boot camp is unwatchable, I hope enough people raise their voice so that this doesn’t become the legacy of a once great event.

  • Watching

    On the original Ninja Warrior, the contestants confront the courses but not each other. They root for everyone’s success and are all disappointed when any one of them fails. It’s great to see.

    The American version, however, has gone to perverse extremes to divide the contestants from each other; not just to have them compete but to induce dissent, infighting, and carping. Consider the MCs’ constant reference to every failure and how it affects a team’s prospects. It’s a tribute to the contestants themselves that they are clearly reluctant to be drawn into the nastiness that the program’s structure is designed to inflict. At least they know that they’re not on Jersey Shore.

    Similarly, the introduction of a significant amount of money corrupts what was originally a monumentally silly but entirely self-directed pursuit. Aside from the foolishly-costumed publicity seekers, the contestants prepared and participated because they wanted to confront that particular set of challenges. I wouldn’t argue with giving them some money—training can’t be cheap—but it shouldn’t be the point, and let’s spread it around.

    I agree with Dustinechoz. Let them train, and then compete. This may come as news to the folks who produce reality TV, but not everything is a competition.

  • Ryan S

    I love it because of the progression it has made from 2007 when it was up to videos and extremely watered down, non sasuke related challenges. I have entered every contest and have been close to making it every year so I’m glad to see it continue this far. People don’t need to try and compare it to sasuke because clearly it isn’t taking it’s place anytime soon. I’m sure they will learn their lessons from this and it will be better next year. Every year it gets better. Without G4 then I would have never seen this show so if I have to jump through 15 hoops before I can jump through the real hoops in Japan then so be it.

  • KaiLord

    What we needed was another reality show. Really? Train these athletes (the ones that aren’t “punished”) and then potentially send them home? That does NOTHING except show that G4 is capitalizing on the dedication of 15 guys in order to generate profit.

    Didn’t you guys listen to the bios of the all-stars of Ninja Warrior? How many of them got where they were by dedication, personal training, and competing against one another in reality shows?

    Just let me know when the real Ninja Warrior is on. I’ll watch it…not this drivel.

  • Anonymous

    It’s ok since the whole American Ninja Warrior is just a tryout to get to Japan. I like it in that aspect but I hate the whole survivor concept. As somone else pointed out, instead of everyone rooting for everyone as in Japan, the American show divides everyone and makes the competition man against man instead of man against course.

  • mrph

    It seems to me that Ninja Warrior got popular without reality-tv drama. It created a new niche where one didn’t exist before. Why not amplify that successful aspect of it, rather than mimicking reality tv? I’m surprised Joe Rogan wasn’t hosting it.

  • JBling

    Ridiculous concept. Even going so far as to have “warrior tags” and a flaming cauldron :rolleyes:. The guy on the Red team that finished neither the cliffhanger or the warped should have gone home. Simple. The Team being punished for someone else’s errors does not fit with Ninja Warrior.

  • Anonymous

    It seems like the Boot Camp could be a great idea if it focused more on two things: (1) specifically preparing the athletes to assault the Japan Ninja Warrior course and rock out as Team America, and (2) creating the Boot Camp drama through intense but fair competitions to get to the Final Ten and not through overly produced “Survivor-esque” competitions disinterested in ensuring that the top ten competitors advance. Then the Boot Camp would rock.

    Kudos too to the competitors in the Boot Camp for sticking to a fair ethos about who should advance and who should be eliminated. You kept an admirable sense of sportsmanship throughout a situation designed to get you to surrender it.

  • Bandit

    I love Ninja W. I don’t like that your Mom, Terri Cusic, sleeps with other women’s husbands. She screwed my husband Dec 2010 while I was at work. Ask her. She knows.

  • Tlcforever

    The problem is that boot camp show divides the contestants into groups rather than individuals verse each other. There should be individuals not teams up for elimination.

  • Trevor Vaughn

    Hey, coming from a person who was in the top 30, I would really just like G4 to create a 3 stage long course next year. Make it incredibly difficult, and the 10 people who make it the furthest in the course moves on to JApan. Obviously, this would take far more time and money for G4 to set up their own 3 stage course – but I didn’t completely dislike the boot camp either. Eh, Idk. I just want a more legitimate course in America.

  • Jordan43241

    Do you have a twitter or facebook page?

    Btw, you did really awesome out there.

  • Ninjutsu Training

    Depends on how you take it; obviously, reality TV shows aren’t going to be the epitome of truthfulness, but it can be fun entertainment, though.

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  • j jones

    I think the show needs to be more integrated with the competition in Japan. In typical American style, we have taken over someone else’s idea and made “The American Team.” That is unnecessary, as the spirit of cooperation between the athletes on Sasuke is really a huge draw for the show. I hate the reality show format, making grown men (who are dedicated athletes no less) act like catty drama queens really turns me off from the show. Sasuke has it right, ANW misses the mark. I respect it for the simple fact that it gives Americans a chance to compete in Japan, but really I don’t think the producers could have made a worse show out of such a great concept.

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