‘AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR: USA VS. THE WORLD’ AND ‘TIMELESS’ SEASON TWO PREMIERE JUMPSTART SUNDAY NIGHT FAMILY VIEWING BEGINNING MARCH 11
Three-Hour Special Brings Athletes Together From Around the Globe and Serves as Lead-In to the Second-Season Debut of Network’s Popular Era-Jumping Series
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – Jan. 22, 2018 – Looking to create strong family-friendly viewing on Sundays beginning March 11, NBC will air its annual three-hour “American Ninja Warrior: USA Vs. the World” special at 7 p.m. ET/PT and conclude the night with the highly anticipated second-season premiere of “Timeless.”
As previously announced, family viewing continues Sunday, March 18 with the second-season premiere of the hit alternative series “Little Big Shots,” hosted by Steve Harvey, and the debut of the Neil Patrick Harris-led gameshow “Genius Junior.” That will be followed by “Timeless,” whose 10-episode season will air each week at 10 p.m. Sundays.
Last year’s telecast of “American Ninja Warrior: USA Vs. the World” ranked as the #1 non-sports-related show of the night on the broadcast networks in adults 18-49 and in “live plus seven day” figures, the special rose to a 1.4 rating in 18-49 and 5.1 million viewers overall.
In its first season, “Timeless” averaged a 2.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.0 million viewers overall in “live plus seven day” ratings from Nielsen Media Research. “Timeless” tied for #1 versus regular broadcast competition in its timeslot in adults 18-49 and adults 18-34. It also generated strong high-income and high-education audiences, indexing at a 124 among adults 18-49 living in $100K+ homes and a 126 among adults 18-49 with four or more years of college (with 100 representing an average concentration of those viewers).
Critics heaped praise on the show’s first season. The Washington Post said the series was “casually fun and intriguingly executed,” the Los Angeles Times said “Timeless” was a “high-minded adventure thriller” and The New York Times called the show “a good-natured science-fiction adventure series.”
ABOUT “AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR: USA VS. THE WORLD”
Only two weeks following the conclusion of the Winter Olympics, this special will once again bring athletes from around the globe together for intense competition. Four teams from North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia will battle on the tough, four-stage national finals course featured in “American Ninja Warrior.”
Team USA features impressive veteran ninjas Drew Drechsel and “The Weatherman” Joe Moravsky. A speedy competitor, Drechsel has qualified for the finals in Las Vegas five times and made it to Stage 3 two times. Five-time competitor Moravsky has made it to Stage 3 on the Las Vegas finals course three times, more than any other athlete in the competition. Also joining Team USA this year are former nationally ranked gymnast and head coach/trainer Najee “The Phoenix” Richardson and Sean Bryan, the “Papal Ninja.” Bryan is also a former competitive gymnast and NCAA athlete who enjoyed a breakout season on “American Ninja Warrior” this past summer.
Contestants will tackle “American Ninja Warrior’s” punishing Las Vegas finals course in a head-to-head format that pits members from each team against one another.
Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila host and Kristine Leahy co-hosts.
The series is executive produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions’ founders Arthur Smith and Kent Weed (“Hell’s Kitchen,” “NFL Pro Bowl Skills Showdown,” “Unsung,”), along with Brian Richardson and Anthony Storm.
ABOUT “TIMELESS”
From Eric Kripke (“Revolution,” “Supernatural”) and Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”), season two of this thrilling action-adventure series will pick up right where we left off with our heroes. We continue to race throughout history with our beloved team: Rufus (Malcolm Barrett), a scientist; Wyatt (Matt Lanter), a soldier; and Lucy (Abigail Spencer), a history professor, in an attempt to prevent the destruction of our world as we all know it. This season they’ll find an unlikely ally in their quest to ruin Rittenhouse, a deadly organization with plans to change history and reshape reality — even though Lucy’s family has been a part of Rittenhouse for centuries. Still making every effort not to affect the past themselves, they will visit 1692, 1917, 1941, 1981 and more. We’ll be introduced to the likes of Marie Curie, Hedy Lamarr, William Randolph Hearst and a multitude of other influential people throughout history.
The cast includes Abigail Spencer (“Rectify,” “Suits”), Matt Lanter (“90210,” “Star-Crossed”), Malcolm Barrett (“The Hurt Locker,” “Dear White People”), Goran Višnjić (“ER,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Paterson Joseph (“In the Name of the Father,” “Aeon Flux”), Sakina Jaffrey (“House of Cards,” “Mr. Robot”) and Claudia Doumit (“Scandal,” “New Girl”).
Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke are the creators, writers and executive producers. Tom Smuts (“Bosch,” “Mad Men”) and Arika Lisanne Mittman (“Elementary,” “Dexter”) are co-showrunners and executive producers. Don Kurt (“Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams,” “Justified”), Greg Beeman (“Minority Report,” “Falling Skies”), John Davis (“The Blacklist”), John Fox (“The Blacklist”) and Marney Hochman (“The Chicago Code”) also executive produce.
“Timeless” is a production of Sony Pictures Television, Davis Entertainment, MiddKid Productions and Kripke Enterprises. (NBC)
Having escaped cancellation by the skin of its teeth last time out, will this be the second and final season of Timeless, or will NBC extend the drama for Season 3? Stay tuned…
DJ says
Timeless is an excellent show. Glad to see it’s coming back.
Warren Leathers says
I agree … I enjoyed it
Matthe Mullikin says
Unfortunately what has killed Timeless is the same thing that is going to kill COLONY as well for some reason the morons in charge of producing decent shows like TIMLESS , THE COLONY and others don’t realize that there are people that like these shows but get BURNT OUT ON WAITING on them to return , then when they do return most of the SPARK is almost burnt out , it is sort of like being called into a Car Dealer he tells you he has a great deal , you get interested then you come in to purchase the car to find out the deal ran out a day or two ago . The same goes with the producers of these shows they get you interested then make you wait a year or more when the spark of excitement has all but gone away then you watch it when it comes back on only out of morbid curiosity then all the excitement is dead . This new generation of producers have some good ideas but burn people out on waiting for the next season that seems to never come or if it does come back your excitement for the show you once had has been ruined on waiting a year or more for something that has all but burnt out let me give you one PERFECT EXAMPLE ” WAYWARD PINES ” great show that was doing great good story line , then all of a sudden boom it was gone , the producers could learn a thing or two and realize that some of the best movies and shows in history started out slow with viewers then really took of later like the walking dead , Lost got people hooked then just dropped the ball on the fans and that is what it seems has happened lately , they give the people decent show only to kill them off then leave us with CRAP they think we should watch . I think it is coming to the point that film and t.v. are almost dead because of political correctness and those that think they should decide what we should watch , sound like socialism or indoctrination to me .
Kevin in Iowa says
You NAILED it! I could not have said it better myself.
Kevin in Iowa says
You mentioned ‘The Walking Dead’. When I first heard about it I thought, oh no not another lame zombie series. For 3 years I never saw one episode. Then one Sunday evening I decided, what the hell I’ll watch. I was shocked, it was great and the dead looked real. The live characters were very compelling. Instantly hooked! I don’t like their long break in the middle of the season, though.
Back to Timeless. I like it, alot.
Kay B. says
I couldn’t agree more. I wish everyone in the entertainment business would simply do their jobs and stop telling us what they think we should believe. Just stick to putting out entertaining content and keep their opinions to themselves. Plus give people a chance to decide whether they really like the show enough to continue watching before they decide to cancel it; don’t take such long breaks in between seasons and don’t put out short seasons. Anybody else notice how short the seasons are now versus 10 or 20 years ago? NOT cool!