Gladiators (2008 British TV series)

Gladiators is a British television series which aired on Sky One from 11 May 2008 to 25 October 2009. It was a revival of the earlier series of the same name and based on the second American version of the show. The US, UK and Australian versions of the show were all revived in 2008.

For the first series, the show was hosted by Ian Wright and Kirsty Gallacher with original referee John Anderson returning. The second series saw Caroline Flack replace Gallacher as host and Anderson replaced by boxing referee John Coyle.

The show was cancelled in May 2009 by then director of programmes Stuart Murphy. On 13 January 2024, a second revival started broadcasting on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, presented by Bradley Walsh alongside his son Barney.

Format
Series one featured 32 contenders (16 male, 16 female). Men and women competed in separate tournaments, with two men and two women competing in each episode. Contenders participated in events against the Gladiators, trying to earn points before the final event, the Eliminator, each point separating the contenders translated into a half-second advantage. The four events leading up to the final were selected from a total of eleven events. The grand prize in Series 1 was £50,000 per winning contender.

Changes from the original series
The show featured a lineup of new Gladiators, however Amazon, Panther, Siren and Warrior share names with Gladiators from the original UK series and several others share names with those from international series. Owing to Sky One's greater advertising requirements, and contestant interviews prior to each of the events starting, the number of events before the Eliminator was cut from five to four. The revival also had a more dramatic presentation and featured new theme music.

Whereas in the original series the Gladiators all wore matching leotards, here all costumes were different and some themed to their aliases: Spartan wore a costume resembling that of traditional depictions of a spartan tunic and Battleaxe's costume was styled to look like battle armour. Many of the Gladiator costumes were noticeably more revealing than in the original series, with Gladiators Atlas, Destroyer and Ice in particular were wearing very little.

Events
The new Gladiators studio set meant that there was only room for eleven events, nine from the original series: Duel, Gauntlet, Hang Tough, Hit & Run, Powerball, Pursuit, Pyramid, The Wall and Suspension Bridge. The two new events were Earthquake and Rocketball, which originated in the first and second American Gladiators series respectively.

Notable changes from the original series include Duel, Hang Tough, Hit & Run, Pursuit and Suspension Bridge now being played over water. The revised Eliminator featured a swimming section, a climb to the top of the Pyramid and two Travelators in series two.

Leader of the pack
Wolf (who featured in all eight series of the original Gladiators) returned to be the Gladiators' "Leader of the Pack". He featured in all episodes of series 2. His real name is Michael Van Wijk.

Series One (2008)

 * Male winner: Simon Wray
 * Female winner: Anna Miller

Series Two (2009)

 * Male winner: David Staff
 * Female winner: Kathryn Evans

Champion of Champions (2009)

 * Male winner: David Staff
 * Female winner: Anna Miller

Music
All the music to the new series was specially composed by British composer Paul Farrer, who is also known for his music for The Weakest Link and Dancing on Ice. Other artists' music has been used in certain events.

Series One
According to reports, at least one contestant had to withdraw from the opening episode, while one of the Gladiators slipped on a bridge and had to leave the set. Another Gladiator had a stomach bug and Enigma suffered an injured ankle. In addition, Enigma was involved in an incident on Gauntlet, in which Leanne Lennox kicked a ram rod into her face, resulting in a confrontation and then her being disqualified. Contenders also suffered injuries, including a broken toe suffered by Nicola Trench on Earthquake, a damaged knee suffered by Gavin Sunshine in Gauntlet, a shoulder injury suffered by Joel Grant Jones in Powerball, and a broken arm suffered by Greg Kirk in the quarter-finals during Powerball. One contender, Gavin Sunshine, was so badly injured that he refused to start after his whistle and the other contender, Kevin Dixon, won the show by default.

Sky One responded to say that health and safety is their number one issue, and they want to minimise the injuries, but pointed out that; "This is Gladiators – a tough physical show for athletes. It's not Family Fortunes!"

Series Two
In the second episode of "Gladiators: The Legends Strike Back", female legend Scorpio suffered an ankle fracture while participating in The Wall.

In the fourth episode, a female contestant, Gemma Green, had to pull out owing to sustaining a knee injury in Gauntlet just before the Eliminator. David Staff broke his nose during the semi-finals while on Earthquake with Doom; however, he went on to score points. He later went on to win the eliminator and eventually went on to win the series as male champion. He also competed on the champion of champions special, aired on 5 April 2009, and won. Also, Gladiator Warrior sustained an injury during gauntlet where he and contender Justin Thompson clashed heads, sustaining a cut just above his eye. He was taken off and fellow gladiator "The Big O" Oblivion took his spot.

Gladiators G-Zone
Originally advertised as Gladiators: G-Force, this short ten-minute programme profiled a selection of the Gladiators, including Spartan, Panther and Atlas. A two-minute profile of Oblivion, not previously shown, appeared as part of a repeat run.