Happy bday Livi aka Diamond! 👏👏

Look at the absolute size of those platforms and the classic checkered pugil sticks. As much as I enjoy the huge production value and polished look of the current BBC version, there’s just something about the slightly chaotic 90s aesthetic that felt so iconic. Do you prefer the modern arena style now, or do you miss the retro look of the original series more?

My boyfriend and I were just discussing missing Gladiator, which led us to discuss Giants latest statement and Dynamites enthusiastic attempts to sing.

I have given up searching, it’s not as simple as the good ol’ days with the simple Top 40 UK and I do not trust AI. Her Wikipedia also makes zero reference to her singing.

Does anyone know if she reached the top 40 with any of them, and if so what did she/they peak at?

I would be surprised if this is a yes, as I’ve definitely heard better, but who am I to judge, even my cat leaves the room when I sing!

Hear me out:

* SUMO BALL - would be a great return. Would fit the best for Cyclone. For a 5'10 96kg stallion, she can actually move fast and is surprisingly mobile for that size!

* VERTIGO - would be a great returning game for several reasons. Many of the lighter/leaner builts can participate in. Not only Electro, Fire, Dynamite, Apollo and Steel could ace it...

... but I have a feeling Viper COULD be in home there, being the smallest (male) but still muscular?! Definitely Sabre's speciality tho. Girl knows how to bend & stretch...

* POLE-AXE - Another more specialist event, rather than one for the all rounders. But it screams immediately for Comet. Poles, obviously.... but also, hip mobility is the key word here, alongside agility and brave mind!

What we think? Are these three the most likely next candidates to return for upcoming BBC season(s)?! 🔥

Surely Dynamite would win against most of the lass glads. But what about the mens side? It should be way more intriguing!

Hey everyone, another week, another set of Gladiators to talk about! This week, it's another set of speedsters, Fire and Phantom! I will say, I do feel out of it this week so I might not be able to remember everything I want to say in the post.

Fire has had a phenomenal season this time around! Definitely shown herself as a powerful Gladiator all around, with an incredible run of Destruction and being a new addition to the Hang Tough rotation and playing the events well. As we've said before, all-rounders beat specialists in this show so far and she's definitely proven herself as a great all-rounder with a great range of events.

Phantom is notable for now being the Male Gladiator with the best Duel record which is always an impressive feat. And an introduction on the Wall gives him a new event as well, which I always love. Great runs on Unleash but I will say, it was poor form to make him do the one in the final when he had an injury.

What do you all think of Fire and Phantom!

Now that Series 3 is over, I’ve been thinking about what they might bring back for the Sheffield filming this summer. I loved seeing Pyramid return this year, but I’m still hoping for Pendulum or Skytrak next. Nitro or Fury would be absolute beasts on those. Any old-school events you think would actually work well with the current set-up?

Hello again. I've given it a few weeks, and we can now observe a comprehensive table of the FULL Series 3 Terrestrial Ratings report.

2025 Christmas Special (Aired Dec 25th):
4.29 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
11th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
17th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

5.48 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
8th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
13th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x01 'Heat 1' (Aired Jan 17th):
5.14 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
6th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

5.74 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
7th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
7th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x02 'Heat 2' (Aired Jan 24th):
4.74 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
9th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
9th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

5.23 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
9th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
9th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x03 'Heat 3' (Aired Jan 31st):
4.75 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
6th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

5.35 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
6th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x04 'Heat 4' (Aired Feb 7th):
4.74 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
6th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

5.13 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
7th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
7th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x05 'Heat 5' (Aired Feb 14th):
3.56 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
7th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
15th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

4.07 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
5th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
9th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x06 'Quarter-Final 1' (Aired Feb 21st):
3.16 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
21st Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
34th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

3.67 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
13th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
20th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x07 'Quarter-Final 2' (Aired Feb 28th):
4.14 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
8th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
9th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

4.49 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
8th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
13th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x08 'Quarter-Final 3' (Aired Mar 7th):
3.54 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
12th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
17th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

3.90 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
12th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
18th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x09 'Semi-Final 1' (Aired Mar 14th):
3.87 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
8th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
11th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

4.23 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
8th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
13th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x10 'Semi-Final 2' (Aired Mar 21st):
3.61 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
7th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
18th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

3.95 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
17th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

-

3x11 'The Grand Final' (Aired Mar 28th):
4.18 Million Viewers (After 7 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 7 Days)
9th Place overall in the week. (After 7 Days)

4.53 Million Viewers (After 28 Days)
6th Place on BBC1 in the week. (After 28 Days)
11th Place overall in the week. (After 28 Days)

So, what can we gleam from the final full results? Mostly a lot of the same, in terms of abstract understanding. Gladiators is still very much fine, if not the juggernaut it was at launch 2 years ago.

In terms if averages:

7-Day:
Series 1 (2024): 6.17 Million.
Series 2 (2025): 4.73 Million.
Series 3 (2026): 4.13 Million.

28-day:
Series 1 (2024): 6.85 Million.
Series 2 (2025): 5.27 Million.
Series 3 (2026): 4.57 Million.

Which means Gladiators has a healthy, steady audience of roughly just over 4 Million. Not bad at all, especially for 2026.

You may also note, from the chart above, that more often than not 'Gladiators' was not only charting in the BBC's Top Ten broadcasts, but was also charting in the Total top 10 for over half of the Season. Which is the prime real estate of modern broadcastinf Telly here in the UK.

And while ratings have declined, the decline does appear to be softening, especially from 2 to 3. I would estimate we have found, roughly, the shows ratings floor for the time being.

I have almost no doubt that Series 4 will decline again somewhat. But I expect the fall to be significantly less of a gap. And if I am right, then Gladiators will stabalise in a comfy, healthy place.

And so long as the series retains its strong ROI (Return Of Investmnent), with things like merchandise and event sales, aswell as international versions of the brand like on Amazon, then I expect we have many more brawls in the Arena to look forwards to.

No idea when I'll make my next update. At the latest, it'll be after this years celebrity special. But I may have another Ratings related topic I want to bring up at a later time.

Until then, I hope this has been helpful. See you's then!

I was just looking back at some classic clips and found this one of Andy Riddoch going into the Eliminator with a 22-point lead over Lee Blackledge. You rarely see that kind of gap in the new series, the points feel much tighter now. Does anyone else miss when a contender would just completely dominate the heats, or do you prefer the closer finishes we're getting in 2026?

Credit for the clip: @90s.gladiators.fan

Hi! I've seen a few posts with questions and discussion about the Gladiators Experience NEC, Birmingham, so I thought it would be nice to help with any questions anyone might have if they're going or thinking of going! Or any discussion or feedback if anyone has visited :)

A final word of warning.

* 2 out of 3 genuine catches on THE WALL in Series 3 ALONE! Previous 2 "wins" by default contender fumbling (afraid of his presence 😏).

* Has managed to eliminate (atleast) 2 contenders singlehandedly from COLLISION across all the series.

* A legimate victory on HANG TOUGH this season. Close bout with Junior in Series 2 tho, managing to get a body lock with them until they slid.

Honorable mention; bulldozing Shaun on SUSPENSION BRIDGE. Justice for Viper for getting disqualified once actually contributing something.

Week 6 and 2/3rds of the way through our Gladiators. This week it's time for our speedsters, Electro and Nitro. Again Nitro's been covered by u/Impressive_risk_5133 so I'll leave a link to their post as I normally do. https://www.reddit.com/r/gladiatorsuk/s/aPqPzEjDsP

I'm quite happy with Electro in series 3, she's been given more solo events and interviews so we can actually see her more. She's even been given Duels and Suspension Bridge to round out her event line up more. I particularly enjoyed the Unleashed thing she did with Bradley, I still think we should add that win to the stats. She's still more of the less commonly used Gladiators but as I said before, with 18 Gladiators this series, someone's inevitably going to end up like that. But still, I am happy she's getting her time to shine.

And Nitro, it's nice to have him back. His positive energy is exactly what we need in the show and series 2 wasn't the same without him. If I do have some criticism is that his showboating does hold back his events statistics and I would prefer it if he saved it for afterwards. But it's great to have him back as our main nice guy

What do you all think of Electro and Nitro?

There is something about the format that just works completely regardless of era. The events are simple enough that you understand the stakes immediately. The Gladiators have genuine character that comes through even in thirty seconds of screen time. And the contestants feel real in a way that heavily produced modern reality contestants do not. Watched the Wolf elimination episode from series four and my heart was beating faster than it had any right to for a programme from 1994. Does anyone else find the original holds up genuinely well or is it partly nostalgia doing the heavy lifting 🤔

In Hang Tough, a 'win' doesn't always equal a dominant performance. To measure true Hang Tough mastery, I’ve developed a scoring system that evaluates a Gladiator's performance across two distinct phases of the game, rewarding efficiency. To reflect the Gladiator's inherent advantage, technical and athletic failures are heavily penalised, more than their (expected) wins are rewarded.

The Methodology

Every Gladiator starts with a Base Score of 60. Points are added or subtracted based on the following weights:-

1. The Hunt (Active Hunt and Efficiency)

This phase measures how a Gladiator navigates the rings and engages the contender.

• Rewards Speed. An efficiency bonus is applied if the Gladiator wins.
• Punishes: Passivity and technical errors
  • Time taken to latch on contender: If gladiators don't seek to get hold of the contenders, they aren't being active hunters
  • Flailing (Unforced): Heavy penalties for spinning or losing momentum due to poor ring-work.
  • Flailing (Forced): Lighter penalties for losing momentum due to contact with the contender.
  • Falling before latching on the contender

TT Latch: -1 point per 6s. -10 if no latch occurs.
Flailing (Unforced Error): -3 points per 5s.
Flailing (Forced Error): -1 point per 5s.
Falling before latching: -30 points.

2. The Kill (Power & Finish)

This phase measures the Gladiator's ability to capitalise on latching onto the contender.

Active Takedown & Stayed on Rings: +18 points
Active Takedown & Fell off with contender: +10 points
Contender fell. No Gladiator’s intervention: +5 points
Standoff (60s Limit reached, didn't score): +3 points

If any of the 4 scenarios occur, this value is added (rewarding speed). Otherwise, it is subtracted (punishing a quick defeat).

Game Time (T): Calculated as (60 - T) x 0.5

Punishes: Inefficiency and athletic failure.

Struggle Time to bring contenders down: -1 point per 2s
Fell Without Contender: -20 points
Infractions: -5 points per warning

• Both of Fury's wins are clinical - bringing the contenders down quickly without the need to fall off herself.
• Comet ties with Fire on fastest time taken to fully latch onto the contenders (for instances where they are caught), but her flailing for 30s against Zavia and the fall against Naomi punished her score.
• Aside from Fury, the other female Gladiators who've played HT are similar in weight. The average time Sabre spends on struggling to bring the contenders down reflects a technical deficiency.
• Bionic had already lost momentum and was flailing about before the contact with Finn.

This scoring methodology rewards clinical precision and punishes "leakage" (conceding crossings) and technical errors. A "perfect" score comes from a Clinical Finish: hunting the contender quickly, initiating contact, and securing the takedown while remaining firmly on the platform. A "suicide tackle" (falling with the contender) is effective, but is viewed as technically inferior to a clean gatekeeping performance.

1. The Scoring Pillars

• The Kill (Active Takedowns): High points for physically removing the contender.
• The Hunt (Pressure): Points awarded for every physical contact initiated, rewarding an aggressive, proactive playstyle.
• The Anchor (Stability): A "Retention Bonus" is awarded if a Gladiator achieves a takedown while remaining on the platform.

2. The Penalty System

Because the event heavily favours the Gladiator, "The Edge" is as much about what Gladiators don't lose:

• Self-Falls: The heaviest penalty. Falling due to over-aggression or poor balance is a significant technical failure.
• Weighted Crossings: Points are deducted for every crossing conceded. Crossings conceded while the Gladiator is still active on the beams are penalised twice as heavily as those that occur after they have fallen.
• Outmanoeuvred: A mid-tier penalty if the contender successfully pushes the Gladiator off.

3. Weights

• Active Takedown: +30
• Retention Bonus (Takedown + Stayed On): +50
• Contender fell without intervention: +10
• Each physical contact: +5
• Contender survival time (seconds): -1 per 5s
• Self-Fall: -20
• Pushed Off: -15
• Crossings conceded before falling: -2
• Crossings conceded after falling: -1

Scores are averaged over the number of times played.

• Fury and Steel have a tendency to be overly aggressive with their tackles, resulting in them falling off without the contender. In S3, Fury was up against two contenders who pushed her off the platform.
• Personally hoping for the new Gladiators to play this event regularly.

Hi, me and my friend are planning to go the gladiators experience from Glasgow at the end of may, im really excited as im a fan of the show, shes excited about doing the courses, but also quite nervous as she nit really watched the show. Ive managed to help calm her nerves a little but we are both a little nervous as we are not the fittest. Has anyone here been to it and can say what its like? Also was debating doing the meet and greet too but also nervous about that too. Lastly can anyone say what the shop is like too? Apologies for the long message 😅

Here's the full article on Metro.