Last year’s surprise runaway juggernaut Australian Ninja Warrior didn’t exactly sneak up on its competition in 2018 – ads trumpeting its return and confirmation of its talent have been promoted for weeks – but it still slayed on Sunday night in terms of positioning and recruiting.

Watching season two gives you the feeling of being inside a G-rated cage fight as what is dubbed “the toughest obstacle course in the world” is tackled.

It’s sport as pure entertainment, where a 64-year-old called Pa Rambo, who celebrates his feats by bench-pressing his seven-year-old grandson, seems both extraordinary and expected.

“I’m 64 years young,” Pa Rambo says through a bushy handlebar moustache, while posing in torn leathers on a Harley Davidson. “I don’t look at age being a big deal.”

It’s slickly produced, but not to the point of being aggravating.

“Our heroes are back and they have a score to settle,” promised the pre-show promo, and the score for Nine will no doubt prove to be giant ratings and a corresponding advertising revenue bonanza.

During its first season in 2017, the show had two key ingredients: it delivered genuine tension and the competitors are natural, ordinary people – mums, teachers, “dads sitting on the couch” .

They’re not vanished hired actors, which makes the show perfect family fodder: hey kids, check out the relatable, everyday superheroes attempting feats of daring and strength.

Other networks are secretly resigned to losing the timeslot during Ninja’s run.

“Its audience will probably decline 10 to 15 per cent year on year from last year, but overall it will be massive,” a sales executive at Seven told The New Daily.

“Revenue will be up because it’s a proven product, ratings wise. It would have been harder for them to sell sponsors last year when it was an untested quantity.”

The formula is unchanged second time around: winning or losing is life-affirming, and the show is positioned as positive but not mawkish. The back stories are powered by adrenalin rather than faux tragedy, and everyone is just rapt to be there, from cast to crowd.

The first person to complete the course in season two is ‘BMX Bandit’, Daniel Walker. Yes, watching a fellow with a man bun, tattoos covering his arms, chest and legs perform terrific feats of derring-do while his little daughter screams “You did it” is bona fide entertainment.

There are styling juxtapositions which feel weird – Bec Maddern dressed as if she’s off to a time warp cocktail party in Morocco while co-host Ben Fordham and roving reporter ‘Freddie’ Flintoff go casual – and they sometimes extend to the narrative and commentary of the show.

People who are brutal with their own disciplined fitness and revel in physical pain are whispered or shouted about by the hosts as if they aren’t expected to quite understand what’s going on.

“This cannot be happening,” intoned Maddern as an early favourite is disqualified. Pretty sure it can.

Some viewers yearn for a game show where randoms shove as many items as they can into a shopping trolley on Price Is Right. Ninja competitors need more than luck and more motivation than the lure of a free jet ski.

It’s different to the other commercial networks’ Sunday night offerings. Seven has House Rules and Ten MasterChef, both of which pass themselves off as reality TV, but actually dish up teams deliberately cast as villains or aspirational in contrived situations.

There is casting here, obviously – the Viking, the Onesie Ninja – but the personas are secondary to the contestants’ actual capabilities.

Having said that, you can walk away from Ninja Warrior for 20 minutes to do the dishes or shove something in the dryer, and you won’t miss any plot twists or vital clues or suspense building.

Watching it is a similar experience to hooking into an unlimited box of chocolates: the first 15 minutes are unbridled pleasure, and the rest feels a bit like you’ve done it all before and may not need to do it again for some time.

Response from viewers was mixed:

Ahhh turn off Netflix, Google Play, Amazon Prime and turn on channel 9!!! That would be a “no thanks”.

— Adam Ivan Tulich (@adamivantulich) July 8, 2018

Do you know what I love about @NinjaWarriorAU?!?
You cheer for everyone….you want everyone to make it! #NinjaWarriorAU

— Dane McGuirk (@danemcguirk) July 8, 2018

@NinjaWarriorAU I'm lying here on the bed weak with Lyme Disease watching Australian Ninja Warrior and wishing I had my strength back but loving EVERY moment of the show! Everybody is amazing and so fabulous!

— Suna Mutcer (@sunamutcer) July 8, 2018

Australian Ninja Warrior gives you a little taste of how horrific a remake of Arashi would be

— Nathan Wind (@Dura_Ace) July 8, 2018

I’m not a big sports fan but for reasons I can’t explain, I’m addicted to Australian Ninja Warrior.

— Jason of the Godless (@dingodadd) July 8, 2018

Said the Seven exec, “It’s a lay down misere. It will do really well.”