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'Million Dollar Mile' episode 1: CBS' high-stakes, high-budget response to 'American Ninja Warrior' piques the interest of viewers

The concept of 'Million Dollar Mile,' as ambitious as it sounds, was executed beautifully in the very first episode

CBS premiered one of its most ambitious adventure reality shows, ‘Million Dollar Mile’ on Wednesday, March 27. While the trailers looked promising, it was almost impossible to not compare the show to NBC’s long-running ‘American Ninja Warrior,’ (ANW) and having seen the first episode we can confirm that this assumption is not wrong.

However, the CBS show takes things to a whole new level, significantly increasing the stakes and adding an element of threat that goes beyond inanimate obstacles. CBS has already ordered 10 episodes.  Its similarities to ANW lie in the fact that it will be “shutting down the streets of a major city”; ANW is filmed on city streets and locations across the country. However, in this new show, executive produced by LeBron James, the city of Los Angeles turns into a larger than life race course has incorporated various forms of obstacles, which requires the contenders to do wall climbing, swimming, etc. So it's a course designed to be a good balance between feats of speed and agility as well as strength.