Gladiators

GB

Reality Documentary
English     6.5     1992     GB

Overview

Gladiators is a British television entertainment series, produced by LWT for ITV, and broadcast between 10 October 1992 and 1 January 2000. It is an adaptation of the American format American Gladiators. The success of the British series spawned further adaptations in Australia and Sweden. The series was revived in 2008, before again being cancelled in 2009. The series was originally presented by John Fashanu and Ulrika Jonsson, however, Fashanu was replaced by Jeremy Guscott in 1997. Guscott left the series in 1998, and subsequently, Fashanu returned for the final series in 1999. The series was refereed by John Anderson and the timekeepers over the show's run were Andrew Norgate, Derek Redmond and Eugene Gilkes. John Sachs was the show's commentator, and the series was accompanied by its own group of cheerleaders, known as G-Force. Despite being made by London Weekend Television, all episodes of Gladiators, International Gladiators, the second series of The Ashes and the first series of The Springbok Challenge were recorded at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. The first series of The Ashes and the second series of the The Springbok Challenge, however, were filmed on the sets of the Australian and South African versions of the shows respectively. The series also spawned a version for children, entitled Gladiators: Train 2 Win, which was broadcast on CITV between 1995 and 1998.

Similar

America's Toughest Jobs is a reality television show that lasted one season and aired on the American television network NBC. It pitted contestants against each other as they attempted a series of difficult and dangerous jobs. The prize was the sum of the salaries that would be earned by people doing these jobs in their first year. The show's creator and executive producer was Thom Beers, notable for creating shows such as Deadliest Catch and Monster Garage. Some of the jobs he chose to be featured on America's Toughest Jobs were featured on shows he previously created. The host was Josh Temple, a character actor who had minor roles in shows such as Will & Grace and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In each episode, contestants took part in tasks associated with a job, and were supervised and evaluated by workers or employers in that business. After spending time on the job, the supervisors selected one or more top employees for praise, and selected the employees who had the worst performances. Those employees were required to compete head-to-head in an additional challenge to determine who would be eliminated. For example, in the gold digging episode, the bottom four contestants were required to spend additional time digging for gold with the contestant who found the least amount eliminated. Once there were four contestants remaining, timed challenges were held for three of the season's toughest jobs with the contestant who had the slowest time at each eliminated until a winner was determined. At the end of each episode, an information screen was shown that detailed what the eliminated contestant decided to do after the show.

More info
America's Toughest Jobs
2008