Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 17 finale of American Ninja Warrior, available streaming next day via a Peacock subscription.
NBC is the place to be in the summer for competition TV shows, and American Ninja Warrior just wrapped Season 17 as the fall portion of the 2025 television schedule approaches. Already renewed for Season 18 with some more format tweaks, ANW already included some changes for Season 17. While I can offer my congratulations to the champion, watching the two-hour finale left me more excited for the upcoming special women's episode than who got the $250,000 grand prize for Season 17.
Kai Beckstrand Wins American Ninja Warrior Season 17
19-year-old Kai Beckstrand officially won Season 17 of American Ninja Warrior, granting him some serious bragging rights as well as the $250,000 prize. This isn't the teen's first win in the franchise, as he was an American Ninja Warrior Junior champion before competing in the adult version. He was up against his younger brother, Luke Beckstrand, in one of the brackets of the finale, then went on to race against Noah Meunier for the win. Meunier is also 19, proving that teens continue to more than hold their own ever since the minimum age limit was lowered.
While it was fun to see the Beckstrand brothers going up against each other, I didn't find this to be American Ninja Warrior's most exciting finale, mostly due to the Season 17 format changes. For the first time ever, all rounds of the competition took place in Las Vegas rather than spread across multiple cities leading up to a big finale at Mt. Midoriyama. The finals also were conducted with side-by-side and head-to-head races in a bracket-style tournament.
While the new bracket approach and side-by-side races surely have fans among the viewing audience, I just found myself missing the more traditional format with the races for time. So, I was underwhelmed by the finale as a whole... except for two segments of the broadcast and the promo at the end.
Two Moments Hyped American Ninja Warrior Women's Championship
Prior to the Season 17 finale, NBC's had an episode of ANW simply billed as "Women's Special Episode" on the schedule for September 1 with no further details. The promo at the end of the finale shed more light on what to expect: the broadcast will be American Ninja Warrior's Women's Championship.
The format appears to be the same as the regular season that just ended, with women going head to head against each other. ANW legend Jessie Graff appears to be participating, but no list of competitors has been released at the time of writing. So, why am I excited about this despite the Women's Championship having the same format that I wasn't invested in from the regular season of ANW?
Well, that goes down to a special segment that recurred throughout the Season 17 finale. American Ninja Warrior took the time to count down some of the most memorable moments in the history of the show. The #4 ranking went to Supergirl stuntwoman Jessie Graff, one of my personal favorites, in honor of her 2016 run in which she became the first woman to complete Stage 1 of the Finals, complete with the Warped Wall. Graff has gone on to appear in several seasons since, but I 100% understand why this was the one to land her one of the most memorable moment ranings.
The #1 most memorable moment went to none other than Kacy Catanzaro and her 2014 run in Dallas. She defied the odds that year to become the first woman to complete a City Qualifiers course and then a City Finals course. According to the Season 17 finale, submissions from both men and women "skyrocketed" for the season after Catanzaro went viral for making history. (Catanzaro went on to become a wrestler with the WWE.)
Seeing ANW revisit the history-making women from past seasons really put me in the mood to see more female competitors tackling the courses, so the timing for the upcoming episode couldn't be better for me. Tune in to NBC on Monday, September 1 at 8 p.m. ET to catch the Women's Championship special of American Ninja Warrior.
