Buzzworthy

Matt Iseman hosts the extreme obstacle course competition show, “American Ninja Warrior.” NBC is airing a two hour special of the show, “USA vs Japan,” where 5 of its toughest competitors from each country will battle head to head. Iseman mentioned that fans will expect some of the usual challenges in tonight’s special, including others:

“You will be seeing some of the classics. You’ll see the ‘Jumping Spider,’ where competitors have to leap off of a trampoline between two parallel walls with no floor, lock themselves in with their hand and feet, and propel themselves forward and up. We’ll also see the ‘Ultimate Cliffhanger.’ This is where people are climbing along with just using a 1/4″ of fingertip space. That’s all they have, and they have to propel themselves over and up across a 30-ft span. It’s unbelievable what we put these guys through.”

While we talked about these fierce competitors going through vigorous obstacles, we couldn’t help but bring up one of our guilty summer pleasures, “Big Brother.” Iseman gave us his thoughts on the show from the last two seasons:

“It was not a very positive season. Competitively, I thought it was a boring season. I felt that Amanda bum-rushed the whole season, and everyone just laid down like a dead fish and took it. What was tough for me was that in “BB14,” we had previous champions coming in as coaches. We got to see some of the greater competitors, and I think I got spoiled as what I was expecting from a competition level. However, this past season did not live up to it.”

We talked more with Matt about “Big Brother” and “American Ninja Warrior” on the full podcast, which can be found below.

Follow Matt Iseman on Twitter: @mattiseman

“American Ninja Warrior: USA vs Japan” airs January 13, 2014 from 8-10 PM on NBC.