Dozens of families have been left furious after queueing for hours in the sweltering heat to watch the filming of a hit TV show. Parents said they were forced to wait up to three hours in the 29C sun for the grand final of Ninja Warrior UK in Manchester.
One family had travelled from Newcastle only to be hit by delays and watch a '15-minute rope climb' once they finally got into Manchester Central. Crowds were promised an 'afternoon of excitement' and ITV show contestants would face each other and 'the Ninjas' in head-to-head races.
However, children watched in 'total disbelief as four of the finalists climbed a rope, with none of the contestants racing each other on the iconic course. Bosses for the programme - hosted by Ben Shephard, Chris Kamara and Rochelle Humes - have been hit by 29 complaints from fed-up ticketholders.
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Lynda Ashton attended the filming with her sister and three nieces, who made a 300-mile round trip from Newcastle. She described the event as 'appalling' and said that some of those in attendance could not even see the rope climb.
She told the Manchester Evening News : "I want to bring to your attention the appalling way in which families were treated today at the taping of Ninja Warrior at Manchester Central. For all intents and purposes, we were led to believe that we were attending the recording of an episode of the show.
"My sister and her three children travelled down from Newcastle in order to attend the show. What happened was just an absolute disgrace.
"Briefly, all the taping consisted of, was the two female and two male finalists of the series climbing a rope. The whole thing lasted maybe 15 minutes. No one actually took on the whole course and because of the size of the venue, you couldn’t even see the rope climb.
"This was after queueing in the heat for the best part of three hours, queueing for another hour inside, as the morning session had
overrun and when people realised what little they were actually going to see, many people left the venue in disgust.
"We, as well as many other people, have wasted a lot of time and money to get there for the day, we’ve lost a days leave from work and have come away feeling very angry and frustrated.
"SRO Audiences (the company responsible for issuing tickets) have emailed me to send an apology and to try and explain events, so clearly are aware that things did not go well today. They are placing the blame with the production company but there is no come back from them and I do feel this needs to be escalated and attention brought on the total fiasco that was today."
Another woman, named Catherine, attended with two teenagers and her adult sister. She said that the only time anybody took to the main course was when a 'ninja' completed part of it, with one of the presenters running along the outside.
She said: "As a grown women I can get over this but I was totally gutted for the hundreds of kids that had spent money on merchandise to see very little. There was no communication during the three-to-four-hour wait. They could have let people know their intentions so people had a choice.
"We were queueing in the heat, sold drinks, sold foam hands, but still not told what their intentions were going to be. Inside, the warm up act told when to cheer as we watched one of the ninjas do part of the course against one of the presenters, who ran around the outside.
"The rest of the show was the actual finalists climbing up the ropes at the far end where hundreds of people couldn’t even see. Lots of people got up and left during the performance.
"The kids' faces were of total disbelief. Many wanted to stay in case they missed something.
"We stayed until the end! People were disgusted at how they had been treated. Simple communication was the key to this."
Other ticket holders took to Twitter to vent, following the show. @Sarah_Clarke81 wrote: Fuming is an understatement! Queuing in 29° heat from 12.30pm-3, then queue inside till 4.30pm. Sat down & ONLY watch 2 rope climb races that were at the other end from the seats!!!
"Watched it on a screen. No one did the course. No wonder people got up and left." @MacDamaged tweeted: "was a joke 3+ hours of waiting to sit facing empty course. Kids crying as nothing to see and exhausted after waiting hours in sun and some families having no driven for 3+ hours to get there.
Meanwhile, @OHareEmma said: "Utter disgrace! Kids are heartbroken and I am out of pocket! Those kids deserve priority tickets to the next season!"
SRO Audiences sent an email to ticket holders late last night to apologise on behalf of production team Potato. In the email, which has been seen by the M.E.N, a company spokesman confirmed that 29 negative emails had been received by the company about the event.
It read: "As you are probably aware, SRO Audiences issues the tickets for this show on behalf of the production company and are not responsible for the content of the recording itself but we do send out a description of the show that the production send us.
"Throughout the week's recordings, we have received lots of lovely emails from people who have had an exciting & fun visit. However, this evening, we have picked up 29 emails which relate very similar stories of disappointment. (We also had two thanking us for an exciting visit - and we very much appreciate those too)."
It continued: "The first show of the day started a little later than scheduled and was scheduled to finish at 3pm. At TV recordings, the object is to ensure that the show is recorded and occasionally shows do run a little late if things do not go as planned.
"In fact, the early show today finished much later than scheduled and the second audience (which was scheduled to be seated between 3.15 & 4.15pm) was in fact seated later than this, entering nearly an hour late. The SRO team helped to seat the audience as directed as quickly as possible to try to pick up time and then left the site.
"It seems then that the final recording was much shorter and only involved a small part of what will appear on the final episode. I completely understand how frustrating this must have been. We understood that the two recordings on Wednesday would have similar amount of content.
"The SRO team had all talked about how warm it was while waiting to go in, and while we do state on the tickets that, once wristbanded, people are welcome to leave the site and return at the doors open time, in fact today, as the doors opened so much later, even those people who did leave and return later ended up waiting for a good hour for the doors to open.
"I have contacted the production team about this recording and we shall be sending to production each of the emails that people have written (a couple had specific points about the content that we are unable to answer). However, I feel that the second audience today did not have the experience that we understood they would have and for this, we apologise on behalf of the production.
"We are now adding a priority note to the record of each ticket holder who attended the final show today so that on the next occasion you book tickets with us, we shall make them priority tickets where these are available."
A spokesman for production company Potato said: “The Ninja Warrior UK team are sincerely disappointed that a small number of audience members at yesterday's final did not enjoy their experience. The audience is an integral part of Ninja Warrior UK, with more than 800 people attending each filming session each day.
"The Production Team, the presenters and the staff of Manchester Central work incredibly hard to ensure the audience experience is exciting, enjoyable and entertaining. Throughout the filming of this series, it has been evident that the audiences have thoroughly enjoyed their time watching the show.
"But we absolutely take on board the comments and is something we will factor in in the future. The producers offer their unreserved apology and assurance that they will work closely with their partners on Ninja Warrior UK to address audience complaints as quickly as possible.”
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