I'm a bit surprised there's not a thread for this. I thought there would be at least a few former G4 watchers that would be talking about the show.
So, it's been airing its fifth season for about three weeks so far, alternating between G4/Esquire and NBC. They've shown the regional qualifiers for Venice Beach, Baltimore, and Miami. Next week is Denver. I know several people that were there, and one of those people was me!
Camped out in the walk-on line from Friday to Sunday (some guys actually got there Wednesday and Thursday), and got a number to run: "W174." Alas, filming stopped at sunrise (I dropped 60 pounds, and all I got was this lousy number!), with them only having reached W161. Poo. (I think they were using continuous numberings from previous regions, since the guys in Venice had W001 to W050.)
On the bright side, I *did* actually get called onto the set and got to hang out with all of the competitors in the waiting/warm-up area, and I was mere inches from the course when they took us alongside to explain the rules. Also, since the competitor area was right next to the quintuple steps, you can start a drinking game and take a shot every time you see me! (I'm in the Indiana Jones-ish hat with a large gray raincoat, glasses, and a freshly trimmed beard. From the camera side of the course, we're all bunched up to the left of the bleachers, almost directly behind the quintuple steps.)
Denver qualifiers are going to be on G4/Esquire at 8:00 Central Sunday, July 21, and at 7:00 Central Monday, July 22 on NBC. Yes, those are two completely different episodes showing the same night of filming (a very long, cold night... just barely above freezing), but a different subset of competitors.
If they show their runs, cheer extra for Christopher Gray (for driving me and a couple other walk-ons around Denver), Shaun Summers for letting me train on his homemade course (I think there's a good two dozen obstacles he has), and Joey Zavala (for driving me from Denver to Amarillo, which was about half of the trip back into central Oklahoma).
Seriously, they ran 125 people that night, and only show such a small handful of them.
First episode of the Denver qualifiers tonight at 8:00 Central on G4/Esquire.
I have no idea who they're going to show tonight and who gets shown tomorrow night, but hopefully at least some of my buddies get shown. I'm sure they're going to show John Dodson and Shawne Merriman, since they're already sorta famous outside the show.
By the way, Shawne's freaking huge! He was standing behind me when the first batch of competitors and walk-ons were taken alongside the course for discussion of the rules for each obstacle.
Last Denver qualifier episode tonight at 7:00 Central on NBC.
I'm disappointed at how they showed Isaac's run. He showed up wearing robes and looking like Jesus, and a bunch of us in the competitor waiting area started singing "Amazing Grace" before he took off the robes and ran the course. I figured they'd show that for the amusement/absurdity factor, but nope (just Chuck Testa).
That's me in the hat (the article's about the guy just to my left in the red shorts. (You can click the pic to expand.)
Four people in the pic got to run: the guy in the ball cap was walk-on #11 (next-to-last guy to run that night), the guy in the pink shirt was invited and made it to the Denver finals (Shaun Summers; has an awesome home-built course), and the guy squatting on the right is Chris Okruhlik (got an invite and was also shown on NBC; went out on the Spinning Bridge--you can just barely see me between the quintuple steps during his run on a decent HD TV).
I was walk-on #25, so I got to go on the set and hang out in the waiting/warm-up area with all of the competitors, but didn't actually get to run. (I probably would have if things went a bit more smoothly and 30-40 minutes of extra filming got squeezed in.)