Warning: spoilers forward for the Season 17 finale of American Ninja Warrior, out there streaming subsequent day by way of a Peacock subscription.
NBC is the place to be in the summertime for competitors TV reveals, and American Ninja Warrior simply wrapped Season 17 as the autumn portion of the 2025 tv schedule approaches. Already renewed for Season 18 with some extra format tweaks, ANW already included some modifications for Season 17. Whereas I can provide my congratulations to the champion, watching the two-hour finale left me extra excited for the upcoming particular ladies’s episode than who bought the $250,000 grand prize for Season 17.
Kai Beckstrand Wins American Ninja Warrior Season 17
19-year-old Kai Beckstrand formally gained Season 17 of American Ninja Warrior, granting him some critical bragging rights in addition to the $250,000 prize. This is not the teenager’s first win within the franchise, as he was an American Ninja Warrior Junior champion earlier than competing within the grownup model. He was up in opposition to his youthful brother, Luke Beckstrand, in one of many brackets of the finale, then went on to race in opposition to Noah Meunier for the win. Meunier can also be 19, proving that teenagers proceed to greater than maintain their very own ever for the reason that minimal age restrict was lowered.
Whereas it was enjoyable to see the Beckstrand brothers going up in opposition to one another, I did not discover this to be American Ninja Warrior‘s most enjoyable finale, largely because of the Season 17 format modifications. For the primary time ever, all rounds of the competitors came about in Las Vegas relatively than unfold throughout a number of cities main as much as a giant finale at Mt. Midoriyama. The finals additionally had been performed with side-by-side and head-to-head races in a bracket-style event.
Whereas the brand new bracket method and side-by-side races certainly have followers among the many viewing viewers, I simply discovered myself lacking the extra conventional format with the races for time. So, I used to be underwhelmed by the finale as a complete… besides for 2 segments of the printed and the promo on the finish.
Two Moments Hyped American Ninja Warrior Ladies’s Championship
Previous to the Season 17 finale, NBC’s had an episode of ANW merely billed as “Ladies’s Particular Episode” on the schedule for September 1 with no additional particulars. The promo on the finish of the finale shed extra gentle on what to anticipate: the printed will likely be American Ninja Warrior‘s Ladies’s Championship.
The format seems to be the identical because the common season that simply ended, with ladies going face to face in opposition to one another. ANW legend Jessie Graff seems to be collaborating, however no checklist of opponents has been launched on the time of writing. So, why am I enthusiastic about this regardless of the Ladies’s Championship having the identical format that I wasn’t invested in from the common season of ANW?
Nicely, that goes all the way down to a particular phase that recurred all through the Season 17 finale. American Ninja Warrior took the time to rely down a few of the most memorable moments within the historical past of the present. The #4 rating went to Supergirl stuntwoman Jessie Graff, one in all my private favorites, in honor of her 2016 run wherein she grew to become the primary girl to finish Stage 1 of the Finals, full with the Warped Wall. Graff has gone on to look in a number of seasons since, however I 100% perceive why this was the one to land her some of the memorable second ranings.
The #1 most memorable second went to none aside from Kacy Catanzaro and her 2014 run in Dallas. She defied the chances that yr to turn out to be the primary girl to finish a Metropolis Qualifiers course after which a Metropolis Finals course. In response to the Season 17 finale, submissions from each women and men “skyrocketed” for the season after Catanzaro went viral for making historical past. (Catanzaro went on to turn out to be a wrestler with the WWE.)
Seeing ANW revisit the history-making ladies from previous seasons actually put me within the temper to see extra feminine opponents tackling the programs, so the timing for the upcoming episode could not be higher for me. Tune in to NBC on Monday, September 1 at 8 p.m. ET to catch the Ladies’s Championship particular of American Ninja Warrior.