The ATS Team’s Approach to Duty of Care

With footholds in Los Angeles, London and Lisbon, The ATS Team has established a specialty in all things challenge-, stunt- and game show-related. It has designed and constructed television competition obstacles and sets as seen on Ninja Warrior’s global franchise, The Titan Games, Big Brother and The Amazing Race. Within this space, The ATS Team has kept an eye on the duty-of-care processes that keep contestants safe and productions running smoothly.

“Since we are in charge of physical safety, we essentially walk through all the possible moves and actions a contestant might make and evaluate what potential injuries could happen,” says Nate Moore, CEO. “From there, we determine what can be done to prevent the potential injuries and what the acceptable level of risk is. Challenges and obstacles are naturally risky, and there is no possible way to prevent every bump and bruise. Generally, my focus is not to prevent minor scrapes and bruises since that is a natural outcome of this type of activity. We are mainly focused on serious injuries.”

For Ninja Warrior, in particular, Moore says the focus is primarily on the contestants’ physical well-being while on the obstacle course, and the production company is in charge of their mental well-being. “We take the physical well-being of the competitor on the obstacle course very seriously,” he adds. “That is the whole reason we have in-house testers that physically test each obstacle before it even makes it to set. I started on the show as an obstacle tester in 2012, and there have been numerous times over the years that we have stopped development on an obstacle due to potential dangers to competitors. I specifically remember one obstacle that required a competitor to drop and catch themselves with their hands in a spider-jump-style chimney, but there was nothing for their feet to help them. The move was so violent on the shoulders that it easily could have dislocated or torn something in the shoulder. Obstacle-related activity is already risky, especially for joints like the shoulders, but we are able to mitigate a significant amount of that risk by prescreening the obstacles that make it to the show. There are numerous other non-obstacle-related safety concerns we take into consideration as well and are constantly adjusting for.” He cites as examples pool width, water depth, fall height, padding placement and padding thickness or density.

Every show, Moore says, presents its unique safety concerns that require its own bespoke standard of care. “When we started doing Top Dog, it was the first time we really had to start evaluating courses based on safety for dogs, but dogs come in such a variety of sizes that we had to ensure that each obstacle would not cause any issue for the different breeds,” he explains.

“When Team Ninja Warrior [now known as Ninja Warrior: Ninja vs. Ninja] came along, we had already done the standard Ninja Warrior format a number of times, but this slight tweak in the format significantly changed our safety standards,” Moore continues. “When competitors are racing head to head, they easily get caught up in the moment and will attempt much higher-risk moves than they would if they were just running the course alone. They may find themselves behind, and instead of using all the elements on an obstacle they normally would, they try a much longer and higher-risk move in an attempt to catch up. This may result in landing on the platform harder, missing the platform altogether or hitting their head on the obstacle in a place that never would have happened normally. All this to say that I believe it is very important to view every project with fresh eyes and not get caught up in the ‘this is how we always do it’ mentality when it comes to safety.”

The ATS Team recently brought in Nicola Griffiths as senior VP of production. Griffiths is tasked with forging co-production deals and relationships with indies, broadcasters and streaming platforms, with a focus on The ATS Team’s slate of original IP.

“Having worked with ATS across multiple projects in my previous roles, I know that their dedication to delivering outstanding content in a safe and also budget-conscious way is second to none,” Griffiths says. “Further to that, they are both talented and very fun to work with. I’m honored to be part of the team.”

Her attention as she settles into the role is on building out existing relationships with established production companies and forging new connections moving forward to deliver fresh formats and content. She is working to help grow the company’s slate of international formats. “This is an area that I would love to develop and grow with the team, specifically with relation to creating hubs,” Griffiths says. “Getting different international territories to work together on formats to create efficiencies and also collaborate editorially feels very fitting in the current global climate.”

She adds that ATS has “a fantastic development slate of original IP, and I am passionate about helping develop this and move into this space with them in the coming year.”

With reality firmly fixed as a staple of the entertainment landscape, alongside big-scale, family-viewing game shows, Griffiths is optimistic about the year to come: “ATS is uniquely placed to deliver on both these stages with their skills in set-building, international contacts and talented team.”