Back in Gladiator Stadium

Well, here it is. Something I never thought we’d see again: a revival of American Gladiators. The original show debuted in 1989 and ran for seven seasons and it was certainly… something. Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge fan of the show back in the day (as I was the right demographic for it: young and stupid), and I still go back and watch old episodes from time to time whenever they’re on a streaming service. It’s good, clean, cheesy fun that holds up all these decades later.

I was also hopeful for the 2008 revival series, which aired on NBC for two seasons. Unfortunately, despite a bigger budget, the show just wasn’t very good. It was less a cheesy sports competition and more a reality show with sports veneer. It took itself way too seriously, losing that campy charm, while still being incredibly stupid. And it cared way more about talking to the contestants and gladiators than about showing us the actual sporting events (to the point where they didn’t even air all the events during the show and shoved some of them online instead). It was just a poorly designed concept and when it crashed and burned I wasn’t surprised in the least.

I would have thought that failure. Would drive a nail into the whole concept of American Gladiators, but no, the series is back. It returns in a more classic format, with the first season currently airing (three episodes at a time) on Amazon PrimeWhile Netflix might be the largest streaming seervice right now, other major contenders have come into the game. One of the biggest, and best funded, is Amazon Prime, the streaming-service add-on packing with free delivery and all kinds of other perks Amazon gives its members. And, with the backing of its corporate parent, this streaming service very well could become the market leader.. It came out with little fanfare, and almost no coverage, and if I hadn’t seen a random thumbnail for it sitting in my feed on the streaming service I wouldn’t have even known it existed. But it does, it’s real, and I had to watch the first episode just to see whether it was going to be a campy charmer or another trash fire.

Thankfully this new version of the show seems to be done by people that loved the original 1989 version and want to bring it back in its proper glory (read: cheesy but in all the right ways). It was spurred on by the revival of Gladiators in the UK, which started in 2024 and has already been greenlit for a fourth season (one day I’ll make it through all the American episodes and then can start covering international editions of the format). And because of that, notes were taken and this series is trying to do things right… including maintaining a strong connection to the original series through and through.

For those that know the previous versions of the show, the basic format of this new series should seem familiar. Contenders (read: contestants) are brought out to compete against the gladiators (usually head-to-head, but sometimes in two-v-group events) in a selection of sporting events. These range from games featuring head-to-head combat (Joust and Whiplash), games based on sporting events (Powerball and the Gauntlet), and some others that are uniquely Gladiators (like Atlasphere). The contenders accrue points and, after three events, they move on to the Eliminator.

Here the contenders aren’t playing against the Gladiators (for a change the Gladiators don’t have anything to do in the Eliminators at all this season) but go head-to-head against each other in a race across multiple obstacles. Whoever has more points gets a lead (based on half a second for each point they are ahead) and both have to try and make it to the end. First across the finish line wins the match, with the winner moving on to the next round of play while the loser is eliminated from the season.

As a fan of the classic show it was nice to see a new version attempting to bring everything back. As silly as the show can be, there’s a delicate mix to the format that makes it work. The focus has to be on the events, the action, the sport, and the sportsmanlike conduct afterwards. You need it to fight fun, that while the events are difficult everyone is having a good time. And then, just as quickly as an event starts, we have to move on to the next one with little downtime. You can’t bore the viewers because, otherwise, they’ll start to zone out.

That was something the 2008 revival struggled with. It was clearly modeled on the format of other sporting reality shows where the focus is on the players and not the games. So much time during that series was spent talking to the contestants, hearing their thoughts on the games (which, it’s a sports show, and their thoughts were never deep or interesting) or watching videos about the contestants to see more of their life before the games. None of it mattered, especially because we were there to watch silly, cheesy sporting events, not get a dissertation on their lives. So it’s good that the newer version does away with all of that.

The new version also plays on nostalgia. The original theme song is used at various points throughout the episodes, but the series also uses old footage to show off the events before they get played. This makes a certain amount of sense since this is a new version so there isn’t new footage of the games in action (although I’m sure they filmed all these episodes at once and could edit stuff from other episodes together to make game montages). Using footage of the classic series to show off the games, many of which have been brought back with only minor changes, gives the series connections to the past, tapping into the rose-colored glasses of all the old fans. It’s a smart move.

The games themselves are pretty great, although they’ve all seen some minor changes (presumably to make them safer). This first episode showcased three events: Whiplash, Powerball, and Joist. Whiplash has clearly been made much safer, with both the contender and the gladiator wearing far more safety equipment, the bone they grasp having been increased in size, and the players are allowed to have both hands on the bone and not just one. All of that would likely help to reduce the risk of injury from how hard people get thrown around in this game. Powerball has larger buckets now, with wider openings and softer edges. And Joust features slightly larger platforms for the players to stand on, along with shorter sticks. They all feel mostly like the original games, preserving the spirit of the games at the very least.

The Eliminator, though, feels a touch underbaked, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it changes later this season, or in season two. The contenders start at one end and have to go over and under a series of bars. Then they climb a rope, cross some monkeybars, and then climb a rope net. They’ll descend a zipline, walk across an irregular balance beam, and then, as their last hurdle, they have to run up a reverse treadmill at a thirty-five degree angle. Grab a rope, swing across the finish line, and you’re home free.

It’s not that these are bad elements, but the composition of all of it together feels lacking. Some elements, like the monkey bars and balance beam, are too simple. Other spots, like the rope net, are positioned in a way that feels more challenging than it needs to be. And having the conveyor at the end of the line, when players are out of gas, feels incredibly punishing. These elements all need to be rearranged, or even replaced with more interesting versions in some cases, to make this final event feel like a fair and interesting challenge. Right now it’s just not quite there yet.

Still, on the whole I really liked this series premiere. It’s fun and silly but it understands how to be just campy enough to play to the audience. It promises a good, campy experience for fans young and old, and I’m hopeful that it gets the time it needs to really develop and become a true, proper successor to the original series. It’s almost there already, and I’m certainly going to keep watching to see how everything goes in the weeks to come. It’s a great guilty pleasure, and that’s really all I need from American Gladiators.