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American ninja warrior streaker fake11/21/2023 Nor did the show give us information about why it was safe for them to interact like this. Matt and Akbar were most definitely not six feet apart or wearing masks in their perch above the course, from which they exclaim and scream and freak out as usual. Well, except for the contestant competing (of course), and their two teammates cheering them on from the sidelines, and hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila. The show temporarily broke the fourth wall to let us see crew members cleaning the course, contestants and crew wearing masks and standing apart, and people being tested. I also appreciated that the show used some of its time to demonstrate good practices, because there are still people who minimize and/or outright deny that Covɪd-? is worth responding to, never mind the people who wear masks but not on their noses (what?! why?!). While I still think that filming reality TV shows this summer, in the middle of a nationwide outbreak, was unnecessary risk, I do appreciate that American Ninja Warrior used time during the two-hour premiere to tell stories like Pauline’s, and the teachers on Alyssa Bierd’s team, some of whom we saw teaching remotely, which just looked exhausting. “When my youngest son, who’s four years old, comes up to me and says, Mommy, why can’t I hug you? Mommy, why can’t I kiss you? it’s heartbreaking.” Yes it is. “To do this day, I sleep in the guest bedroom in my house,” she said. Her pain doesn’t end when she leaves work. She kept saying to me, Thank you for being there with him, so he’s not dying alone.” “Just last week I held the hands of my dying patient while his daughter watched him take his last breath through an iPad. “Some days are really just tough for us,” she said, becoming emotional. ![]() (Her husband, Jody Avila, has competed before.) Her bio package showed some b-roll of hospitals, but also an image of her face after wearing protective gear all day. The most emotional story for me was that of Pauline Avila, a nurse from Houston who works in an ICU unit. ![]() Introducing one competitor, Pauline Avila, Matt Iseman said, “During this new season, we want to recognize the heroes who’ve been working hard to keep all of us safe.” In other words, the people who’ve put themselves at risk despite being underpaid, overworked, and given lip service ( heroes!) instead of appropriate compensation or the resources they need to do their jobs safely and well. (Avila ended up with the fastest time of the first episode, finishing the course in 1:44.41, less than one second faster than Tyler Gillett’s 1:45.20.) The picture of Rodriguez above perfectly encapsulates the season so far: a clear message inside a familiar image. Flip Rodriguez and Jody Avila were both wearing yellow “Ninjas for Black Lives” t-shirts, an image Matt Iseman said we’d see on several competitors. ![]() But the obstacles being faced by America right now-a global pandemᎥc, reckoning with racism, continued violence committed by police against unarmed Black people-were there, too. ![]() The obstacles, and the people who tackled them, were very much the focus of the season premiere of this abbreviated season while there are some key differences we’ll get to, it was very much like a regular ANW episode.
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