Didn't get very far.
(it suddenly occurs to me that, of all the 28 pages of fine print I signed, maybe I'm not supposed to reveal anything... well, maybe I'll not be too descriptive...)
they added some brand new stuff and modified some of the old. The most different thing was the first thing after the steps and took out more than any other one thing. Including me.
I can see the practical value of arranging it that way - it saves time to eliminate people sooner - but I was disappointed not to have a chance to try the other obstacles, all of which I think I had a very good chance of completing.
It seems that the majority of people who try out, and certainly almost everyone who tries multiple years and/or does very well is completely obsessed with the show, the primary focus of life the other 364 days a year is that one night.
There may have been others besides me who were just there cause it seemed like a fun thing to try, but it certainly seemed like the exception.
We gave a ride to a guy who had driven 17 hours to get there, and was heading home the day after it ended. There was someone who had come from Alaska! For me the 750 mile (round trip) drive was barely tolerable as it was.
I did have a lot of fun on the mini vacation though. We went a couple days early, we hiked around the giant "Hollywood" sign, went to a giant (free!) science museum which had a real space shuttle, and took the metro to the "walk of fame" and the theater with the handprints.
Including gas, eating out (we brought food, but not enough for 3 days), and the air BnB, we spent around $500. Which I guess isn't bad for a mini-vacation, but it makes it about the least "Mustachian" thing I've done in the past 12 months.
The actual Ninja Warrior part was not as much fun as I had hoped. They had me get there at 10pm. Aside from a few minutes of paperwork and maybe 10 minutes going over the course and the rules, I spent 7 hours just standing around (outdoors, no chairs or anything), until I finally got my turn to try at about 5am the next morning. They made the steps harder this year, but it was still trivially easy (it claimed a couple, but very very few). In the past the second obstacle has frequently been something you have to just hang on tight to as it either lurches or spins, but this time you had to jump to it, no foot or hand holds, and bear hug it as it swung. I couldn't tell quite how I landed or what I should have done differently, it was all too quick, but I think I would have to practice it probably a dozen times to get it. Seems like having long arms would be a big advantage, although I saw a lot of tall guys land wrong and go down.
12 hours of driving, 750 miles, $500 - and about 45 seconds on the playground :-(
Even if I had made it to the end, 3-5 minutes.
I think you really have to want to be on TV for its own sake, or be trying to prove to the world how great you are, to make that ratio of work to play worth it.
On the other hand, all of the training itself was a LOT of fun, not to mention good exercise. Making the application video was fun too. And now I can add this to the list of random and interesting things I've done.
So I definitely don't regret it - but I probably won't do it again (unless they start filming in NorCal and/or that high-speed train gets finished in the next year or two)