The highly anticipated final of the Gladiators reboot is taking place this Saturday, with four contenders vying for the title. Finlay Anderson, Wesley Male, Bronte Jones, and Marie-Louise Nicholson will put everything on the line in the final arena challenge in what has been a grueling 10 weeks of competition. The show has proved to be very popular among viewers with an average weekly audience of 8 million, and its success has secured a second series.
According to Kalpna Patel-Knight, the BBC’s head of entertainment, the Gladiators reboot has been a hit because it has brought families together; “It has been wonderful to hear how much families have loved watching this together. We can not wait for more action from the Gladiators.”
Over the last 10 weeks, 16 new Gladiators have been introduced, the likes of Sabre, Legend, Giant, and Diamond have become fan favorites. The Gladiators have had to train extensively over the past few months to prepare for the series. Media analysts have credited the show’s success to the original format; “when you watch Gladiators, it’s exactly the same as it was in the 1990s, in terms of the challenges, the music, and the eliminations,” said Tom Harrington, an analyst at the media research firm Enders Analysis. He attributes the show’s success to the producers retaining everything that made it attractive in the first place.
First premiered in 1992 on ITV, Gladiators was a talked-about show that had never been seen before. It was aired until the year 2000 before being brought back by Sky in 2009. The 2021 reboot saw the BBC acquire the rights to the show. The first episode was watched by over six million people, making it the BBC’s biggest entertainment launch in seven years. With competition for viewership broader than ever, it is quite an achievement that the Gladiators have been able to captivate audiences and draw them back to Saturday night TV
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