AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR to Return Next Month with 2-Hour Premiere

Season 12 of NBC's four-time Emmy Award-nominated athletic competition series "American Ninja Warrior" will premiere Monday, Sept. 7 with a two-hour episode beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The top 50 athletes will bring along two people from their communities to compete with them for a total of 150 competitors.

The series will feature an abridged format with multiple rounds: Qualifiers (6 obstacle course), Semi-Finals (10 obstacle course) and Finals (10 obstacle course + Power Tower playoff bracket).

To determine the winner during the Finals, the top eight ninjas will compete in a playoff bracket where they will race head-to-head on the Power Tower. The winner will earn $100,000.

Production for the eight-episode series took place in St. Louis at the Dome at America's Center. "American Ninja Warrior" is the first NBC series to have completed a full season of episodes during the current pandemic.

The most recent cycle of "American Ninja Warrior" last summer averaged a 1.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 5.4 million viewers overall in "live plus seven day" Nielsens and grew after 35 days of digital and linear delayed viewing to a 2.0 in 18-49 and 9.2 million viewers.

The year-ago cycle of "Ninja" scored as Monday's most-watched program on the Big 4 networks with each of its last five telecasts ("live plus same day").

The series is executive produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions' founders Arthur Smith and Kent Weed along with Brian Richardson, Anthony Storm and Kristen Stabile.

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