It’s been a year since Mt Midoriyama was conquered, and in 2021 the mountain is seeking revenge when Australian Ninja Warrior returns on Sunday, June 20, at 7.00pm on Channel Nine.
A new course, including 26 obstacles never seen before, will excite fans, and push the Ninjas into uncharted levels of endurance on the show.
This year the Ninjas will be challenged in new and unexpected ways. For the first time ever, Ninjas will be able to choose their own path, taking them through to the gravity-defying Warped Wall, which is now ten centimetres higher. New obstacles include the Underwater Escape and the Dragon Back.
More than 200 aspiring, everyday athletes have been training to prepare for their turn to tame the world’s most difficult obstacle course. Mums and dads, tradies and farmers, students and business owners from all over Australia will put their bodies on the line to see if they have what it takes to conquer Mt Midoriyama and win the title of Australian Ninja Warrior 2021.
Hosts Rebecca Maddern, Ben Fordham and Shane Crawford will be joined on the course by Nick Kyrgios, the man John McEnroe described as the most talented tennis player he has seen in ten years, as he makes his Australian Ninja Warrior debut. Forever unpredictable and always entertaining, Kyrgios will bring his own flair to the commentary.
This year the course moves to a new location of truly Olympic proportions: Sydney Olympic Park, where new competitors will be welcomed as well as seasoned returning veterans. Viewers will watch as a fresh cohort of Ninjas – plus fan favourites like Ashlin Herbert, Sam Goodall, Olivia Vivian and Ben Polson – test their skills, scrambling through the course to become the furthest fastest.
The competitor who does go furthest on the Grand Final course in the fastest time will be the Season 5 winner and will take home $100,000. However, the competitor who conquers Mt Midoriyama in the fastest time will win an additional $100,000 and claim the title of Australia’s Ninja Warrior.
Nine’s head of content production and development, Adrian Swift, said: “Last year we witnessed history as Ben Polson defied the odds and became the first conqueror of Mount Midoriyama. So this year we had to take the series up a notch, and we have done just that with a gruelling new course, an electrifying new crop of Ninjas, and a new superstar commentator.
“And in an Olympic year, it only made sense to bring the course to the home of many of Australia’s greatest sporting moments, Sydney Olympic Park, as our Ninjas push the limits and strive for glory.”