Saturday, January 05, 2008

TV: The Return of American Gladiators to TV

Remember the show called American Gladiators from the early 90's?




From wikipedia:
American Gladiators is an American competition television program that matches a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators", in contests of strength and agility. Originally a weekly first-run syndication show, running from 9/16/89 to 5/11/96, it is being revived as a 2008 prime-time series on NBC.


In this day and age of reality-TV and post-"Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" gameshows, it appears it's coming back and may be a hit. Only time will tell.

Here is the official site. Wrestling's Hulk Hogan and the daughter of Muhammed Ali, Laila Ali, are set to host.
NBC's revival of American Gladiators is scheduled to premiere on Sunday 1/6/08, and will then move to Mondays at 8:00 ET/PT.


Events

  • Assault: The contender has 60 seconds to make it through a course that spanned the entire arena floor, firing off weapons to hit a target located near the Gladiator, while avoiding high-speed tennis balls fired at them from a cannon.
  • Earthquake: The contender and Gladiator wrestle in a battle in a 12' diameter platform that is moving above the floor of the arena. Whoever throws their opponent off is the winner.
  • Gauntlet: The contenders have to run through a half-pipe chute while avoiding five Gladiators, all holding blocking pads to impede the contender's progress.
  • Hang Tough; The contender has 60 seconds to negotiate a grid of gymnastics rings to get to a platform on the other side of the course, while trying to avoid a Gladiator who is swinging against the contender.
  • Hit & Run: The contenders simultaneously traverse a 50 foot suspension bridge hanging above the water tank. Four Gladiators, two on each side of the bridge, attempt to knock the contender off using four 100-pound demolition balls.
  • Powerball: The contenders have 45 seconds to place balls into one of five containers in the field, which are protected by three Gladiators.
  • Pyramid: The contenders have 45 seconds to scale a pyramid and press a scoring button while three Gladiators work to throw the contenders off of the pyramid.
  • Joust: The contender and Gladiator hit each other with pugil sticks until time expires or one of them falls from their platform.
  • The Wall: The contenders scale a 40 foot tall wall while two Gladiators pursue them. The first contender to reach the top wins.
  • The Eliminator: The Eliminator, the final event, is an obstacle course. The first contender to finish the Eliminator wins the competition.







EDIT:  3/21/13 - Do not underestimate the popularity of American Gladiators! Perhaps it was Gina Carano's popularity instead once she started fighting in MMA/making movies which propelled this entry to be the 9th most popular post as of this writing?

Individual pictures and names of the Gladiators posted here:

TV: Pictures of the new American Gladiators




My other Gina Carano posts:



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