firteen88

I guess I'm in the minority here but I thought it was AWSOME. Hasn't changed much from the old version, the gladiators are awesome and funny. Yes, when they talk it seems a bit scripted but the actual games don't seem scripted to me. I'l keep watching!!

orderandlaw

I could do without so much talking. I couldn't tell who was worse, Hulk and Ali, or the contestants.

That said, I like the new look and events. If they tweak the formula just slightly (swap talking for one more event), they can make this really good.

Oh, and is there a good reason they couldn't/didn't get Mike Adamlie back?

P.S. Gina "Crush" Carano is still hot.

GuessWho

BTW, Mike Adamle is back doing what he was doing before Gladiators... local sports reporter here in Chicago

Drop

I agree it stayed damn close to the original. The Gladiators seemed more brutal than the old series.

sauce07

This thing was so cheesey. The Wolf looks like Ben Stiller from Dodgeball, everybody is completely overacting, and the lack of gladiators in the eliminator kinda sucks. Now after all of that I hope it continues so I have a show I can watch in a few years while in re-runs.

boogieman03

I knew something was different. I was wondering why there were no Gladiators in the Eleminator.

Original Desmond

i dunno, it was fun but i just don't think they have updated the show and the games enough. It just all feels so dated

is Wolf the same Wolf from the old UK Gladiators ?

so far, no personality from any of the Gladiators is coming through. They didn't interview the Gladiators much.

orderandlaw

So, no? No good reason?

TheNightFlier

I thought it was just the opposite. The old Gladiators tried to take guys heads off in stuff like Powerball, Breakthrough and Conquer, Joust, and other events.

DRG

I enjoyed it. I didn't think any of the events were scripted, at least not in the 'staged' sense. I think they did sort of 'script' them in the editing room like they do with the Amazing Race and other reality shows, which kind of blows but doesn't kill the show for me. I actually thought the Gladiators showed more personality here than in the old version... keep in mind we've only seen two episodes where in the old series it took awhile before I could distinguish between them. I think the new Eliminator is great, and it actually looks like a challenge. I hate the way the commercial breaks are set up, though... that 'teaser' crap annoys me in reality shows and it annoys me even more here.

chanster

Thought it was OK, but the announcers sucked. They really need to bring in crappy middle age football players or something.

jonw9

Can you be a professional reality show participant?

I thought the show was OK, but lacked something from years ago. I could be that I have changed, but I like the ESPNclassic episodes.

I don't like the powerball holders, and I don't like the gladiators who seem to tackled and pin the contestants at times. Before it was stop them, then let them go.

I also agree things seem scripted and the spliced. Like king of the mountain, wold and the old guy fall to the bottom, the next angle shows the guy standing up, and wolf is 3 levels up already.

Lastly, I am tired of hearing "Spider Monkey" although I guess he showed his skills in the end.

I much watch this while flipping, but I won't set a timer for it.

SpaceBoy

I can't believe they somehow ruined this show in my personal opinion.

I have already went and deleted it from my dvr season recordings it was so bad..

The reasons I hate it are the same as mentioned above.

CKMorpheus

I'll be watching again tonight!

Timber

It would be much better if they un-primetimed it. Too many commercials and forced drama by cutting to the breaks.

fumanstan

I still ended up enjoying it, although a lot of the "staged" bits felt stupid and could do without them. I'm still planning on watching.

Barings

I am so glad I DVRed this show. With four events and four competitors, there's only about 16 minutes of actual competition on the show, not including the eliminator. I agree all the quick cuts during the events for the "action look" need to be removed.

I can take or leave the theatrics, though I am so glad that "elder statesman" lost, if only because he would have suffered a serious injury with the extent of his trash talking. (I think he actually believed what he was saying!)

One thing that always annoyed me in both the old and new show was the narrowness of the uphill treadmill in the Eliminator. It seemed most competitors would run up with one foot on the treadmill and one on the non-moving ground. I still don't know what the female competitor that lost was doing?

I still think the competition is real. Also, does anyone have a Battledome clip where you could clearly see someone breaking an ankle at 90 degrees during a rotating King of the Hill event?

Charlie Goose

And weren't there more events leading up to the Eliminator? Didn't the original show have 6 per show?

Bluelitespecial

I enjoyed it, the guy who was the skateboarder from San Diego was horrible, but I felt like I was watching wrestling.

El Scorcho

Some observations I made last night but didn't type up yet:

1) Hang Tough - Seems identical as the original except for the minor detail of completely shrinking the size of the ring grid. From my recollection, it used to take about 3-4 swings by each the gladiator and the competitor to meet somewhere in the middle. Now it takes two. Seems like the grid is about half the size it used to be. It makes for little room for maneuvering to get around the gladiator.

2) Assault - LOL. Making them load the weapons and dig through sand to find the arrow is the stupidest thing ever. Fewer weapons and shorter distance between stations also ruins this event.

3) Earthquake - the Conquer portion of Breakthrough and Conquer only its on a platform that simulates an earthquake. I don't get the point of this. Seems like you could just lay down and wait out the timer and get an easy 5 points.

4) Joust - Nothing different outside of the water below. I think they should put alligators in the water to up the ante.

5) Pyramid - I've always thought this event was stupid. The gladiators have a size advantage as it is but giving them the advantage of gravity on top of the size advantage is ridiculous. The only reason a contender could get to the top is because of an over-zealous gladiator (like the one that dove and missed at the fireman last night).

6) The Wall - Nothing seems to have changed here, which is good. I always liked this event but have always felt that the head start needs to be based on distance and not time. It always sucks for the viewer when the contender struggles initially and, after 10 seconds, the gladiator just walks up to the wall and yanks on them.

7) Hit and Run - Another "meh" event, although it's going to be pretty cool when one contender is looking one way and gets blindsided by a 100-lb ball that drills them. Other than that, I hate the fact that you can just lay down and let the obstacles fly over you.

8) Eliminator - Just cruel putting the hand-bike and treadmill at the end. Just plain cruel. They need to put the penalties for not completing the hand-bike back into play. Or grease the chain a little bit more!

Overall -- people shouldn't bitch about the cheesiness of the show compared to the original version. Do you all forget the famous Malibu video clip? It's always been cheesy. They need to seriously cut back on the contender profiles and interviews after every event though -- nobody cares. We want more events.

I have no idea if there are more events in the pipeline tonight but I sure hope they bring back Swingshot.

Drop

That's what I saw in the Gauntlet and Powerball. Joust depends completely on the Gladiator, and back in the day some them sucked even worse than last nights. The hits felt much harder, and the fact that the competitiors were so wiped out after every event proves it.

It stayed very true to the original series, I'm not sure how you can love the original and not love this (unless they expected something different). This series still has to find it's groove too. So it'll get better, especially when the Gladiators display more personality.

The Gladiators were almost always non issues in the Eliminator, I'm not surprised they weren't incorporated into the new one. They might be eventually though.

TheNightFlier

I guess we'll agree to disagree then. It felt that the Gladiators were putting on more of a show than being competitive. The Gladiators on the old show were portrayed as looking to win most of the time. I remember guys like Lazer, Nitro, and Thunder in Powerball going for knees, slamming guys, and just being rougher in general. Turbo punched a guy in the face one time during Hang Tough.

The new show has too much extracurricular stuff which needs to be cut back. I was epecting them to at least keep the games the same size (Hang Tough, Assault). It would also be nice to see them compete in 6 events, not a shortened version.

devilshalo

Nitro would beat the shit out of the new gladiators.

Shannon Nutt

I don't mind the cheese as much as I do the fact that the contests outcomes are obviously as staged as professional wrestling. That's my biggest complaint with the new show. If the old show was also staged, they did a better job of not being so obvious.

pinata242

I miss the random Gladiators at the end of The Eliminator. There was nothing better than that testicle-rising suspense you felt as they busted through that paper.

The best was when they'd hit the empty one but fall all over themselves because you have to assume you're about to run head-first into a wall of meat.