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ICYMI: American Ninja Warrior Season 16 Premiere

The most elite athletes in the country are back for Season 16 of NBC’s American Ninja Warrior.

The competition returns bigger than ever with athletes as young as 15 competing on two unique courses with four new obstacles. The epic 18’ 6” Mega Warped Wall is back and head-to-head runoff races determine the final spot moving ahead to semifinals for each round.

Season 15 Finalist Caleb Bergstrom was the only one to finish all six obstacles in time and beat the Mega Wall to win $20,000.

Caleb Bergstrom – Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC

The premiere also saw newcomer Jonah Brown take a shot at the course. Brown smashed the buzzer and advanced to the Semi-Finals, narrowly besting last season’s runner-up Daniel Gil for the fastest run of the first hour.

8-time ANW Veteran Kyle Schulze aka “The Deaf Ninja” took on the qualifying course after sharing how he’s spent time teaching groups of deaf children how to navigate obstacles and terrain. Schulze’s journey on the show finally comes full circle as he nails the course and hits a buzzer for the first time in his career!

Kyle Schulze – Photo by: Elizabeth Morris/NBC

Several other Ninja greats also flew through the course and advanced to the next round, including Isaiah Thomas, Flip Rodriguez, Isabella Wakeham, Zhanique Lovett, Lance Pekus, and Jody Avila.

In the qualifier rounds, the top 11 men and top 3 women immediately advance to the semi-finals. The last spot in each leaderboard is determined by The Run-Offs, where two Ninjas run head-to-head. Last night, Jonas Harmermade it it through for the men with his wife, Olympic gymnast Mykayla Skinner cheering him on, while newcomer Ixchel Valentino took the final spot for the women.

The qualifiers continue next week on Monday, June 10(8/7c) on NBC.

Qualifying rounds continue in Los Angeles on the world’s most challenging obstacle course. The competition is bigger than ever with two different qualifying courses and new obstacle Heavy Metal making its debut. The epic 18’ 6” Mega Warped Wall is back and head-to-head runoff races determine the final spot moving ahead to semifinals for each round.