It's that Red Nose Day time of year on NBC again, and celebrities ranging from actors to athletes to hosts tackled the American Ninja Warrior course to raise money for charity. There were a number of great competitors on the celebrity edition of American Ninja Warrior, but World of Dance judge Ne-Yo is a standout as the first one to make it to the Warped Wall at the very end of the course, and he didn't hold back when the time came to try and dominate it. Check out Ne-Yo's run of the American Ninja Warrior course!
Ne-Yo proved that he was going to be a formidable force on the course in the very beginning of the video when he and American Ninja Warrior star/coach Drew Drechsel did a synchronized backflip to get pumped. With his wife and kids watching, he raced right through the Floating Steps with no trouble at all. He let Drechsel tackle the Grab Bag first to give him a look at how it's done, then tackled it himself, although without the upside-down twist Drechsel threw in. The Spinning Bridge barely looked like it spun with house quickly he ran across it, and the Flying Shelf Grab didn't give him too much trouble.
Things started to get tricky when he got to the Doorknob Drop, which was a new obstacle that had stopped every competitor who had come before him, including his fellow World of Dance judge Derek Hough. Still, he kept moving, and he made it to the end of the obstacle and the foot of the Warped Wall. He'd already won $25,000 for charity at that point; surely nobody would have blamed him if he was unable to make it to the top of the 14.5 foot Wall. Ne-Yo was not to be stopped, however, and he ran right up the Warped Wall on his very first try, slammed his hand on the buzzer, and went into an epic celebratory dance fitting of a man who judges the best and brightest on World of Dance. Thanks to Ne-Yo's efforts on American Ninja Warrior, $30,000 will be donated to charity.
While Ne-Yo was the first of the eight celebrities to make it to the buzzer, he wasn't the only one. Access correspondent Scott Evans made it to the buzzer thanks to a save from his American Ninja Warrior coach Flip Rodriguez, and American Ninja Warrior host Akbar Gbaja-Biamila gave the course a try for the first time after commentating on more than 4,000 runs. He ripped off his suit and jumped into action. Due to a bicep tear, Akbar tagged American Ninja Warrior coach Kevin Bull in for the Flying Shelf Grab, but took the rest of the course himself.
The most surprising person to make it to the buzzer may have been Olympic gymnastic gold medalist Nastia Liukin. Much smaller and lighter than the rest of her competitors, it seemed at first that she simply didn't have to mass to make it past some of the obstacles. The gymnast proved all doubters wrong, however, even coming back from what could have been a crisis on the Doorknob Drop. It took an assist from her coach Barclay Stockett to top the Warped Wall, but she slammed that buzzer all the same.
All things considered, the celebrity edition of American Ninja Warrior was incredibly entertaining as well as a way to raise money for charity. Nobody was quite as successful as Arrow star Stephen Amell when he ran the American Ninja Warrior course last year and rocked the salmon ladder, but who are we to complain? You can find Ne-Yo back in primetime on Tuesday, May 29 at 10 p.m. ET with the premiere of World of Dance Season 2. For more of what you can watch in the not-too-distant future, check out our summer TV premiere guide.
