First season of Australian Ninja Warrior kept short after networks feared it would tank

THE first season of Australia Ninja Warrior barely lasted a month but there’s a reason why the show was over and done with so quickly.

WHEN Australian Ninja Warrior premiered last month, the obstacle show was a verifiable hit.

Its Tuesday night grand finale cracked the elusive three million viewers and averaged over 1.5 million viewers each night.

But then, nine episodes and less than a month after the first episode aired, the smash show was over and done with.

While the first season of the show left almost all of its viewers yearning for more, there was a reason why the debut season was so short — no one thought it would work.

Fred Dorrington starts the second stage in the Ninja Warrior Grand Final. Picture: Supplied / Nine

According to Private Sydney, the show was eventually bought by Channel Nine after competing networks Channel Seven and Network Ten both turned their noses up at the extreme reality series, which originated in Japan.

Production company Shine Endemol attempted to get Australian networks to sign on for years before, as PS reports, Channel Nine took the $15 million gamble and bought the license to the show.

And despite Nine finally agreeing to air the show, Ninja Warrior was given a short nine-episode run purely because most executives believed it would tank.

“I think next year you will see Nine trying to work out how to get the most out of it ... the nine episodes was a short run in case it tanked and we could walk away from a turkey fairly unscathed. But this thing has caught everyone by surprise,” the publication’s spy revealed.

While we didn’t see any of our own ninja warriors make it to the notorious Mount Midoriyami, the obstacle course’s final stage, we did see Andrea Hah, a female rock climber from the Blue Mountains, make it up the warped wall.

It took American Ninja Warrior a whopping six seasons to mirror the same feat.

Andrea Hah makes Ninja Warrior history. Picture: Nine

The first season of Ninja Warrior was shot at Sydney Harbour’s Cockatoo Island last December with the second season planning to be shot at an undisclosed location in December this year.

If you think you have what it takes to be Australia’s first ninja warrior, you can apply here.

Originally published as First season of Australian Ninja Warrior kept short after networks feared it would tank