When I watched G4, the only show I watched was Happy Tree Friends and when the show was on, I only watched the Happy Tree Friends cartoon and nothing else. The injuries inflicted on those kids made the troubles I was going through seem like a small cut on my hand!
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I really dig Ninja Warrior. I like how they don't talk trash about each other and their only goal is to beat the course, not each other. It's somehow more noble than the garbage "competitions" like, say, Fear Factor.
I absolutely love Ninja Warrior. I really like how noble it is. Even the "stars" of the show are pretty humble. I like how difficult it is too (I believe only one man has completed all four stages...and on some of the newer tournaments he goes out in the first 3 stages). But, I really do miss how G4 used to be a video game channel. I remember just a couple of years ago it was strictly video games and maybe a few computer/technology shows...now they have Cops, Arrested Dev., Cheaters, Icons (which used to be about video game icons, now just icons in general), Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and a few others that have nothing to do with what they advertise as a video game channel...anyway I digress...Ninja Warrior is by far my favorite non-video game show on G4.
Out son got both my wife and me hooked on Ninja Warrior. We DVRed the G4 marathon and we're still working our way through the episodes, including the Women of Ninja Warrior.
Ninja Warrior has been around for maybe 16 seasons so far and I've read somebody say that only two have successfully completed all four stages. x2
Apparently, they also run it family-style, with parent and child going through at the same time. I'm not having luck finding any clips, though.
Found another one called Viking something-or-other that's not as cheesy as MXC but not quite as physically draining as Ninja Warrior/Sasuke. It may have also been on ESPN, but I must've missed it.
New stage designs! Well, at least as far as I knew -- I just saw a two-hour program of the 18th competition, but the Wikipedia page lists a 19th version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Warrior
Some of the "All Star" vets got smoked in the first stage. Remember the Spider Walk? Now they have to jump into it off a trampoline -- and it's in the first stage.
I think 6 made it through the first stage, and just two past the second stage (also new). Reigning champ Makato Nagano was one of the two, and he came the closest to passing the third stage's new Cliff Hang (which is quite a bit harder than the old one).