IN 1989, The Samuel Goldwyn Company launched what would quickly become an American television hit, Gladiators. It challenged ordinary members of the public to compete in a series of physical against a super-fit team of humans, known as the Gladiators.
In Britain, London Weekend Television (LWT) began to see potential in the programme and suggested to ITV to give it a try in the UK. They agreed and Gladiators launched to a UK audience in October 1992. Spearheaded by ‘Nasty’ Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, two of LWT’s most prolific show producers, the show was filmed at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena (now known today as the LG Arena.) An initial nine-week series was commissioned and it immediately got viewers hooked on the format. The show would eventually run for eight more years, way more than first predicted at the time.
What captivated the Great British public to show was its entertainment and variety value. Ulrika Jonsson and professional footballer John Fashanu became a perfect match to host the show, John Anderson was stern and popular in being referee for the events and John Sachs provided witty and down-to-point quotes as commentator for viewers watching at home. As for the Gladiators, they would range from “hard-to-beaters” like Hunter and Shadow, to “the glamour factor” of Jet and Lightning. However, the Gladiator that everyone wanted to get a glimpse of was Wolf. Every week, he would always get on the wrong end of John Anderson by playing silly or just cheating for the publicity.
The events were also well supported. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see games such as Powerball, The Wall, Hang Tough, Gauntlet and Duel adorning the line-up each week with other games like Atlaspheres, Pyramid and Skytrack playing a support role, appearing often, but not as much as fans wanted.
As with other shows, every series would bring in changes to freshen up the programme and outdo what it did before. New events were brought in each series, but with the exception of Pendulum and Poleaxe, they didn’t seem to capture the imagination of their predecessors. It was a same case for the Gladiators. Each series would often see new gladiators come in and others leave, either due to injury or some unknown reason. Then in 1996, a huge blow came to the show when it was alleged that Fashanu was part of a group of four ex-footballers that had agreed to take pay-offs to fix football matches. The following police investigation meant he was forced to resign from the show and was replaced the following year by England rugby international Jeremy Guscott.
This led to a massive change in direction for the programme. Jeremy was extremely professional at his job but his appointment completely bombed the public who simply missed Fash. The seventh series in 1998 brought in a raft of new features. The rules of nearly each game were modified dramatically and the Gladiators lost their individual costume designs and with it, perhaps their dignity and form as they were often well beaten in most of the episodes. The addition of gladiator Vulcan, who had earned a bad boy reputation from the Australian counterpart of the show, to the line-up, summed up how heavy the show had declined in later years as he made Wolf a pantomime villain throughout the series.
From its peak of 14 million viewers in 1994, figures plummeted sharply by the close of the 1998 series, now getting under five million and even struggling to hit the weekly top 30 ranks of ITV programmes. ITV took these failing figures to their advantage and axed the ailing show in February 1999. LWT were livid, as they claimed that the contract was still valid for one more series. ITV gave in but were not prepared to help fund the series. It was left to two fellow ITV regional companies, Carlton Television and Granada Television with their jointly-owned digital venture ONdigital to step in. This final series was cut down to just four episodes and only a handful of former champions returned to become ‘The Supreme Champion.’ The final episode was broadcast on Millennium Day 2000 and attained an impressive seven million viewers, ensuring the show went out on a high.
Eight years later, after successful revivals of the format in both the US and Australia, Sky1 tried their hands out on the show with new presenters Ian Wright and Kirsty Gallagher, a new bunch of Gladiators, new commentator Alan Parry and new elements involving fire and water. John Anderson did return to act as the ref though. It didn’t have the charm of the original format however and a second series in 2009 saw Caroline Flack replace Gallagher as co-host to Wright, the return of Wolf as a coach to the Gladiators and John Coyle replacing John Anderson as ref. Add in a new array of Gladiators to the line-up and it killed the programme, as it was axed again afterwards.
It is with no question however that Gladiators totally changed the perception of Saturday night programming on ITV and although it didn’t quite work out on Sky1, it was nice for there to be a proper attempt at a revival. Gladiators might be missed by everyone nowadays, but it’s popularity will also remain large.
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