American Ninja Warrior: Finally, a winner after 7 seasons

After seven seasons and 3,500 contestants, somebody has finally won American Ninja Warrior.

Spoilers: On Monday night, NBC revealed that 33-year-old professional rock climber Isaac Caldiero became the first person to complete all four stages of “Mt. Midoriyama” at the Las Vegas finals and win the $1 million prize (video below).


Caldiero very narrowly edged out another contestant—Geoff Britten, who surprised fans by also finishing the just-shy-of-impossible obstacle course. A familiar competitor on the show, Caldiero is one of the many obsessive ANW athletes who build replicas of the course at home. Ninja Warrior is based on the Japanese game show Sasuke and has baffled contestants since debuting stateside in 2009.

“Winning this event always seemed impossible,” said Caldiero, who beat the finals course of four stages and 23 obstacles. “As the first American Ninja Warrior I want to use this opportunity to inspire the world to find your impossible and conquer it.”

Below executive producer Kent Weed takes some of our burning questions:

Entertainment Weekly: How is this going to impact the show?
Kent Weed: I think it only helps the show and it’s only going to bring more viewers. They’ve done something nobody’s done before, but can they do it again? You’ve seen it before with athletes, where people who have risen and gotten very far, and then disappeared. Will we have a repeat next season? And we’re always adjusting the courses and making them more difficult. And part of the uniqueness of American Ninja Warrior is the minute [contestants] see the courses they start building them in their backyard. I think that’s why we had success this year — we didn’t make a lot of changes to Stage 3. And Isaac basically built Stage 3 in his backyard from last season and worked out on it every single day. So he said, “If I could just get to Stage 3, I can do it.” He almost didn’t make it a couple a times, but he did. And because of that he was prepared in his head more than anything. And up until last year, nobody had completed Stage 3, and that was during USA vs. the World. And once Brian Arnold did that, it broke the barrier showing that it could be done. Because half of this is really mental. source:ew