Gladiators (Australian TV series)
Encyclopedia
Gladiators is an Australian television series which aired on Saturday nights on the Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 from 1995 until 1996 almost consecutively for eighteen months. It was based on the American
American Gladiators
American Gladiators is an American competition television program that aired in syndication from September 1989 to May 1996. The series matched a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own gladiators, in contests of strength and agility.The concept was created by...

 version of the same name. It was revived in 2008
Gladiators (2008 Australian TV series)
Gladiators was an Australian television series which aired on the Seven Network in 2008. It was a revival of the earlier series of the same name, and was based on the American version of the show, which was also revived in 2008....

.

The premise of the show involves permanent competitors called "Gladiators" being put up against one-time-only "Challengers" in several different events which tests both physical and mental capabilities. In a typical episode, two men and two women compete for points against the Gladiators across four different events, with separate events for males and females. After this, each pair then competes against each other in The Eliminator, an obstacle course
Obstacle course
An obstacle course is a series of challenging physical obstacles an individual or team must navigate usually while being timed. Obstacle courses can include running, climbing, jumping, crawling, swimming, and balancing elements with the aim of testing speed and endurance. Sometimes a course...

, of which any points they have won previously go towards time for a head start
Head start (positioning)
In positioning, a head start is a start in advance of the starting position of others in competition, or simply toward the finish line or desired outcome...

 on their opponent. The winner of this is dubbed the champion of the episode. The episode champions then compete in the finals series.

All three series of the show was filmed at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Brisbane Entertainment Centre
The Brisbane Entertainment Centre is a centre, located in Boondall, a Brisbane City suburb, in Queensland, Australia.The arena has an assortment of seating plans, which facilitate the comfort of its users, subject to performance. Specific seating plans usually are allocated, depending on the...

 in 1995, and was hosted by Kimberley Joseph
Kimberley Joseph
Kimberley Joseph is a Canadian-Australian actress who is based in the United States. Joseph was born in Canada, raised on the Gold Coast in Australia, and educated in Switzerland. After returning to Australia, she began a degree at Bond University but dropped out at the age of 19 when she was cast...

 and Aaron Pedersen
Aaron Pedersen
Aaron Pedersen is an Australian television and film actor of Arrente/Arabana Australian Aboriginal descent.-Career:Prior to Aaron's acting career, Aaron plied his trade as a journalist with ABC2 at Elsternwick studios in Melbourne....

, with Mike Hammond replacing Pedersen after the first series. The show was refereed by John Alexander in the first series, and Mike Whitney
Mike Whitney
Michael Roy Whitney is an Australian television personality and former cricketer, who played in 12 Tests and 38 ODIs from 1981 to 1993....

 thereafter. John Forsythe served as assistant referee.

Events

Each episode features four events chosen at random, followed by the final round, the Eliminator.

The first series of Gladiators featured many events that continued to run for the following series. The events featured in the first series were Atlaspheres
Atlaspheres
Atlasphere is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, all participants are enclosed in Atlaspheres, heavy steel balls 2 metres in diameter...

, Duel
Duel (Gladiators)
Duel is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender and Gladiator engage in battle on raised podiums using pugil sticks. The object is to knock your opponent off....

, Gauntlet
Gauntlet (Gladiators)
Gauntlet is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender must run through a narrow alleyway defended by five Gladiators.-Rules:...

, Hang Tough
Hang Tough
Hang Tough is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender and Gladiator engage in what is often described as 'a game of aerial chess' on a grid of rings hanging from the ceiling.-Rules:...

, Hit & Run
Hit & Run (Gladiators)
Hit & Run is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender must run across the Suspension Bridge as many times as possible, avoiding the four demolition balls being swung by Gladiators on platforms adjacent to the bridge.-Rules:One contender...

, Powerball
Powerball (Gladiators)
Powerball is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, two contenders simultaneously face three Gladiators on a field with the contenders trying to score by putting balls into scoring baskets whilst the Gladiators try to prevent this.-Rules:The...

, Pyramid
Pyramid (Gladiators)
Pyramid is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event played on a giant sponge Pyramid, two contenders must climb to the top whilst two Gladiators attempt to halt their progress.-Rules:...

, Suspension Bridge
Suspension Bridge (Gladiators)
Suspension Bridge is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender and Gladiator engage in battle on a simple suspension bridge. The object for the contender is to reach the Gladiator's platform....

, Tilt
Tilt (Gladiators)
Tilt is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender and Gladiator engage in a tug of war on tilting platforms. Due to their weight advantage, the Gladiator is located on the higher of the two tilt platforms.-Rules:One Gladiator faces one...

, and the Wall
The Wall (Gladiators)
The Wall is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, contenders race against each other up a climbing wall with Gladiators pursuing them.-Rules:...

. The second series introduced a few new events; Pursuit
Pursuit (Gladiators)
Pursuit was an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, the contenders race against each other over an obstacle course whilst being pursued by Gladiators.-Rules:...

, Swingshot
Swingshot
Swingshot is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, two Gladiators and two contenders are attached to bungee cords and must jump off a raised platform, bouncing up to a central pole with scoring balls....

 and Whiplash
Whiplash (Gladiators)
Whiplash is an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender and Gladiator stand within a circle, each holding the end of a 'dogbone'...

. The third series introduced further events; Joust
Joust (Gladiators)
Joust was an event played in several incarnations of the television series Gladiators. In this event, a contender and Gladiator engage in battle on mechanical skybikes...

 and Skytrak. In all series, The Eliminator
Eliminator (Gladiators)
The Eliminator is an event played in the television series Gladiators. This is the final event of the show in which the shows contenders race against each other over an assault course, ending with the Travelator, with the first to finish becoming the winner of the show moving on to the next round...

 is played at the end of every episode.

Atlaspheres

The two challengers and the two gladiators are caged in large Atlaspheres (spherical metal cages) that they have to propel themselves from within. The challengers' task is to roll the spheres onto any of four scoring pods, each pod scoring two points. They are given 60 seconds to score as many points as they can in this fashion, whilst the gladiators must block the challengers from scoring.

Duel

The challenger and a gladiator are each placed atop of an elevated platform with a short distance apart. Armed with a pugil stick
Pugil stick
A pugil stick is a heavily padded pole-like training weapon used by military personnel for training in rifle and bayonet combat since the early 1940s. The pugil stick is similar to a quarterstaff or Japanese bo, and may be marked at one end to indicate which portion represents the bayonet proper...

, they would attempt to cause the other to fall from their platform within 30 seconds. This could be achieved with either an offensive or a defensive strategy, although some challengers were disqualified if they made no attacking move towards the gladiator. A score of 10 points is awarded if the challenger knocks the gladiator off the platform. If the challenger manages to stay on the platform for the entire 30 seconds but doesn't knock the gladiator off the platform, they score 5 points.

Gauntlet

The challenger has to run through a gauntlet while passing five gladiators armed with ramrods. The second and fourth having power pads to slow the challenger down. The challenger must run through the course within 30 seconds to earn 5 points but if the run through the course within 20 seconds, they earn 10 points.

Hang Tough

The challenger and gladiator begin on opposite sides of the arena, on raised platforms. Between them hangs a grid of suspended rings, similar to gymnastic rings. The challenger's task is to reach the gladiator's platform by swinging between the rings, scoring ten points if successful. The gladiator meanwhile, swinging in the opposite direction, would attempt to intercept the challenger and pull them down. If the challenger manages to hang on for the entire 60 seconds regardless if he/she knocks the gladiator, and reaches the fourth row of rings (painted red) but not the opposite platform, they score 5 points.

Hit and Run

The challenger has 30 seconds to run back and forth across a suspension bridge, scoring two points for each crossing. Four gladiators (two on each side of the bridge) attempt to knock the challenger off using four large demolition balls.

Joust

The challenger and the gladiator sit on skybikes that twist, buck and spin like a rocking rodeo. Both players have combat clubs with which they attempt to knock each other off. The challenger would score 10 points for knocking the gladiator off, 5 for staying on for the 30 seconds.

Powerball

Two challengers face three gladiators on the Powerball pitch. Challengers had 60 seconds to place balls in the five scoring baskets on the pitch (2 points for a score in one of the four outer baskets and 3 points for the middle) whilst the gladiators had to tackle the challengers, preventing them from scoring..

Pursuit

Two challengers race against each other over an obstacle course, chased by two gladiators. The challengers run first then the gladiators run three seconds later. The course comprised a snake beam, hand ladder, wire bridge, two web traps, a high and low wall and a sprint finish. First challenger to finish the course scores 10 points, second five. If at any point the challenger gets tagged by the chasing gladiator, they score no points.

Pyramid

Two challengers and two gladiators face each other on a giant pyramid. The challengers aim to reach the summit, whilst the gladiators aim to stop them by throwing the challengers down to the bottom. The first challenger to reach the top of the pyramid and push the button within 60 seconds would score 10 points. If the other challenger could make it in the remaining time, they would score 5. If a Gladiator attacks a challenger while they are on the bottom step or makes a tackle below the waist however, the challenger is awarded ten points even if they did not make it to the top.

Skytrak

Two challengers and two gladiators compete in this event, which was a race around an eight-figured track suspended from the ceiling. Both competitors and gladiators competed upside down. The contestants got a small head start and the Gladiators would have to hit a buzzer trailing behind the contestant in order to eliminate them.

Suspension Bridge

The challenger and gladiator, armed with hammerheads, face each other on a suspension bridge. The challenger has 60 seconds to cross the bridge for 10 points. If they can survive for the full time, they score 5.

Swingshot

The challengers and gladiators are suspended and attached to bungie cords facing towards the centre of the arena where a basket of coloured balls sit atop a high column. The challengers are to drop towards the ground, bounce up to grab a coloured ball, then bounce back to their stations where a scoring basket sits. Gladiators have to time their jumps to block the challengers' movements. The red balls are worth three points, the blue balls are worth two and the white balls are worth one.

Tilt

An aerial tug of war in which both the challenger and the gladiator are on tilting platforms. The challenger is placed on the lower platform, which is tilted back, and the gladiator is placed on the higher platform tilted forwards. Because of their weight advantage, the gladiators had the harder job of having to tilt their table back in order to get any leverage on the rope. Two 30-second bouts are played. The challengers earn five points each time they pull the gladiator out of their platform, two for staying on for the 30 seconds. The event was axed after Series 2.

Wall

The challengers climb up a wall with hand and foot holds while the gladiators are set off seven seconds behind. First to the top of the wall scores 10 points, second five. A challenger can still score 5 points if they manage to hang on to the wall for the full minute. Male and Female challengers had different walls to climb.

Whiplash

The challenger and gladiator grip a "dog bone" and the challenger must use this to pull the gladiator out of the ring, earning 10 points if successful. Both players must grab and hold on to the dog bone and they may use tactics to force the other player to let go of the bone, and win the game.

The Eliminator

This event is played at the end of every episode. It involves a head-to-head contest between the two female challengers, and between the two male challengers. They both have to complete an obstacle course
Obstacle course
An obstacle course is a series of challenging physical obstacles an individual or team must navigate usually while being timed. Obstacle courses can include running, climbing, jumping, crawling, swimming, and balancing elements with the aim of testing speed and endurance. Sometimes a course...

 in the quickest time possible. The challenger who has earned the most points throughout the episode starts the course earlier than the other, based on how many points they were leading by. For every point they lead by, they start half a second earlier.

In the original series the course consisted of padded hurdles of varying heights, a rope climb, monkey bars, running across spinning logs, climbing up a cargo net, going down a flying fox
Zip-line
A zip-line consists of a pulley suspended on a cable mounted on an incline...

, walking across a balancing beam
Balance beam (gymnastics)
The balance beam is an artistic gymnastics apparatus, as well as the event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes referred to as simply "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB....

, running up a travelator which is going in the opposite direction, then after that, the first challenger to swing on a tarzan rope through the crate paper banner at the finish line is the winner of the episode.

1995 (series one)

Gladiators Australian Series 1
Gladiators Australian Series 1
The first series of Australian Gladiators began airing on Channel 7 on 29 April 1995 following successful versions of the Gladiators format in America, the UK and Finland. The series closely resembled the UK series albeit with just four events and the Eliminator....



Male winner: Andrew Halliday

Male runner-up: David Wallis

Female winner: Bernadette Withers

Female runner-up: Theresa Brett

1995 (series two)

Gladiators Australian Series 2
Gladiators Australian Series 2
The second series of Australian Gladiators began airing on Channel 7 in August 1995, almost immediately after the first series which had proved a ratings success....



Male winner: Shane Skeen

Male runner-up: Joe Lukowski

Female winner: Lourene Bevaart

Female runner-up: Kathy McMorrow

1996 (series three)

Gladiators Australian Series 3
Gladiators Australian Series 3
The third series of Australian Gladiators began airing on Channel 7 on 4 May 1995, the week after the last episode from series 2 aired.Twenty four episodes were filmed at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in December 1995 including three three-part specials. A further three episodes were filmed in...



Male winner: Paul Reynolds

Male runner-up: Paul Stubbs

Female winner: Marissa Heuttner

Female runner-up: Catherine Arlove

International competitions

Australian Gladiators and challengers competed in two international competitions; The Ashes and International Gladiators

The Ashes

Two special competitions against the British challengers and Gladiators titled The Ashes were held in 1995 and 1996.

The first Ashes series was held in at the Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 Entertainment Centre, in 1995. The Australian Challengers were Kerry Warman, Nellie Baker, David Wallis and Andrew Halliday. The female challengers lost in the heats to the British challengers; Kerryn Sampey and Eunice Huthart, while both male challengers won in the heats to the British challengers; Phil Campbell and Matt Beeke. Thus, the Ashes competition ended in a tie, since two British female challengers and two Australian male challengers were in the final. The final was won by Kerryn from the UK and Andrew from Australia.

The second Ashes series was held at the National Indoor Arena
National Indoor Arena
The National Indoor Arena is a large indoor arena and is owned by the NEC Group. It is situated in central Birmingham, England and was opened in 1991, as the largest indoor arena at the time in the UK...

 in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, in 1996. The Australian challengers were Marissa Heutter, Catherine Arlove, Paul Reynolds and Paul Stubbs. The Australians managed to win the Ashes, with two Australians in the Female final, won by Marissa, and a win in the male final from Paul Reynolds.

International Gladiators

Australian Gladiators and challengers competed in one International Gladiators in 1995. This was the second of the International Gladiators
International Gladiators 2
International Gladiators 2 was filmed in the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham during 1995 and was broadcast on ITV in 1996, the second series of Gladiators using the International moniker...

.

Female challenger Lourene Bevaart finished in second place, losing to American Peggy Odita in the grand final (Lourene became Australian Gladiator 'Glacier' for the third domestic series). Male challenger Andrew Halliday also reached the grand final, but quit due to injury in the show. He was replaced by Shane Saltmarsh. Shane went on to finish in second place, losing to American Pat Czismazia.

Other Mini Series

There were four other three-part mini series shown. In series two, there was a Sports Athletes challenge. In the third series there was a Team Sports challenge, Army Vs Navy series and Australia Vs Russia series. All three of these series saw contender teams of two battle against each other and the Gladiators.

An episode filmed for the UK series, International Challenge of Champions which featured Australian challengers was shown after series three.

Two special episodes, Behind the scenes and Heart of a Gladiator were also made.

Gladiators

Male

  • Commando – Geoff Barker (1995–96)
  • Condor – Alistair Gibb (1995–96)
  • Cougar – Ashley Buck (1995)
  • Force – John Gergelifi (1995)
  • Hammer – Mark McGaw
    Mark McGaw
    Mark McGaw is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. He achieved national and state representative honours in the sport and following his retirement became one of the Gladiators in the Australian version of the TV show...

     (1995–96)
  • Predator – Tony Forrow (1995–96)
  • Taipan – Michael Melksham (1995–96)
  • Tornado – Tony Latina (1996)
  • Tower – Ron Reeve (1995–96)
  • Vulcan – John Seru
    John Seru
    John Seru is an actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known as "Vulcan" in the Australian version of TV series Gladiators, as well as joining the British Gladiators team in Seasons 7 and 8. He is also known for his part in the James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, where he plays...

     (1995–96)

Female

  • Blade – Bev Carter (1995–96)
  • Cheeta – Nicky Davico (1995–96)
  • Delta – Karen Alley (1995–96)
  • Electra – Roz Forsyth (1996)
  • Flame – Lynda Byrnes (1995–96)
  • Fury – Julie Saunders (1995–96)
  • Glacier – Lourene Bevaart (1996)
  • Rebel – Barbara Kendell (1995)
  • Storm – Charlene Machin (1995–96)

After the show

In early 2007, an episode of the television series Where Are They Now featured some of the Gladiators as special guests. During their presentation, David Koch challenged Lynda Byrnes (Flame) in an arm wrestle, but lost. Special guests included Flame, Storm, Commando, Predator, Glacier, Vulcan as well as Mike Whitney
Mike Whitney
Michael Roy Whitney is an Australian television personality and former cricketer, who played in 12 Tests and 38 ODIs from 1981 to 1993....

, the referee during the second and third series. The Seven Network used this segment as research towards reviving the show depending on viewer numbers for the episode as well as if the ratings fell after the end of the segment.

Revival

On 9 September 2007, it was officially announced by the Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 that the show was being revived and will return in early 2008. Auditions for new gladiators took place via e-mail and closed on 16 October 2007 while auditions for challengers took place in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

 and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 from 20 October to 4 November 2007. Once the gladiators and challengers had been chosen, filming of all the episodes for season four took place from 6 January 2008 to 10 February 2008 at The Dome, Sydney Showground, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

.

The revived series of Gladiators
Gladiators (2008 Australian TV series)
Gladiators was an Australian television series which aired on the Seven Network in 2008. It was a revival of the earlier series of the same name, and was based on the American version of the show, which was also revived in 2008....

premiered on 30 March 2008.

External links

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