'American Ninja Warrior': Winner Daniel Gil says pandemic shoot was 'difficult' without his wife cheering on set
NBC's 'American Ninja Warrior' Season 12 came to a close on Wednesday, November 4. It was a short and successful season that was filmed keeping in mind the pandemic, which meant the ninjas' friends and family members could only cheer them on from a TV screen. The episodes were edited using canned crowd noise. The question now is: Was it enough?
Winner Daniel Gil, in a chat with MEAWW, however, said that "it was difficult" while acknowledging that the production crew did what they had to to ensure that the season was filmed and infection contained. A "lot of" safety guidelines were placed, lots of tests were done and restrictions employed to make the sets Covid-19 free.
"For the production crew for, for everyone involved and at the end of the day we all had the same goals and that was to make this season happened to do whatever could, whatever needed to be done in order to have a season this year, so you know, we applied to everything," the champ shared and added that this was the first time in many years of him being married that his wife did not travel with him.
"I spent almost two weeks by myself in a hotel room trying to stay in the zone and prepare for a challenge and competition like ninja warrior," Daniel expressed. However, it was not as dampening as it may have seemed at first because sure, there was no live audience, screaming fans but he still had his family on a big TV screen and they could watch him glide through the obstacle courses.
That was enough for him. This year, 'American Ninja Warrior' had created teams of three, which also acted like a bonus for competing ninjas. "So, I had to teammates running on the sidelines cheering me on encouraging me to do my best. So in as many ways as it was different it still felt like 'American Ninja Warrior'," Daniel pointed out and added there wasn't too much of a difference between this season and the previous ones. "I think that was a huge success," he concluded.
'American Ninja Warrior' Season 12 finale aired on November 4 on NBC at 9/8c.
