Gladiators (2008 British TV series, series 2)

The second series of Gladiators started in December 2008 with a Legends Special. The series aired on Sky1 and Sky1 HD. Many changes were made from the first series, including six new gladiators - Cyclone (returning from series one), Siren, Amazon, Warrior, Goliath and Doom. Three more games were added to the event pool - Pursuit & Suspension Bridge, which were seen in the ITV version of the show, and Rocketball. Ian Wright returned as presenter with Caroline Flack, who replaced Kirsty Gallacher.[1] Taking over from original referee John Anderson (due to his retirement from TV refereeing) was boxing referee John Coyle.[2]

Gladiators
Series 2
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Release
Original networkSky1
Original releaseDecember 2008 (2008-12)

Gladiators

Female:

  • Amazon
  • Battleaxe
  • Cyclone
  • Enigma
  • Inferno
  • Panther
  • Siren
  • Tempest

Male:

  • Atlas
  • Doom
  • Goliath
  • Oblivion
  • Predator
  • Spartan
  • Tornado
  • Warrior

Ex-Gladiators (who didn't return for Series 2):

  • Ice
  • Destroyer

Bold represents new Gladiators for Series 2.

Events
Main article: List of Gladiators UK events

Three new events were added to the pool for the second series. Suspension Bridge and Pursuit returned from the original series. Suspension Bridge is now played over water and the Pursuit course also contains a water element. The only new event was Rocketball, a modified version of Swingshot from the original series. The Eliminator layout was also heavily revised for this series, now including the "Floor Travelator" as the preceding obstacle to the monkey bars.

The Contenders
Female Contenders Male Contenders
Heat 1 Steph Owens Roz Richards Justin Thompson Mark Mills
Heat 2 Leanne Maisano Wendy Williams John Maisano Simeon Bambrook
Heat 3 Becky Pykett Kathryn Evans Kris Stirk Terry Sterling
Heat 4 Yvette Shaw Gemma Green Norris Thompson David Staff
Heat 5 Kelly McTighe Hannah Creelman Ronnie Williams Dan Atkinson
Heat 6 Vicky Poole Emma Piper Qu Adoo Paul Witham
Female Contenders Male Contenders
Quarter-Final 1 Yvette Shaw Steph Owens Kris Stirk Dan Atkinson
Quarter-Final 2 Wendy Williams Kathryn Evans Justin Thompson Paul Witham
Quarter-Final 3 Hannah Creelman^ Emma Piper David Staff Simeon Bambrook^
Female Contenders Male Contenders
Semi-Final 1 Kathryn Evans Emma Piper Kris Stirk Simeon Bambrook
Semi-Final 2 Hannah Creelman Steph Owens David Staff Justin Thompson
Female Contenders Male Contenders
Final Hannah Creelman Kathryn Evans David Staff Kris Stirk
Winner (Female) Winner (Male)
Kathryn Evans David Staff

Notes: Red & Blue denote the colours worn by the contestant
Contenders in bold are the ones that advanced
^ denotes the fastest runner-up in the 1/4 finals thus advancing to the semis.

Ratings

Episode Viewing figures from BARB[3]

Series
Episode No.Heat No.AirdateTotal ViewersSky One Weekly Rank
1 Heat 1 4 January 2009 748,000 #3
2 Heat 2 11 January 2009 621,000 #5
3 Heat 3 18 January 2009 N/A (Under 561,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
4 Heat 4 25 January 2009 N/A (Under 548,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
5 Heat 5 1 February 2009 645,000 #7
6 Heat 6 8 February 2009 N/A (Under 592,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
7 Quarter-Final 1 22 February 2009 605,000 #7
8 Quarter-Final 2 1 March 2009 558,000 #10
9 Quarter-Final 3 8 March 2009 N/A (Under 584,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
10 Semi-Final 1 15 March 2009 N/A (Under 505,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
11 Semi-Final 2 22 March 2009 N/A (Under 532,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
12 Grand Final 29 March 2009 N/A (Under 514,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)

Specials
Episode No.Heat No.AirdateTotal ViewersSky One Weekly Rank
1 The Legends Strike Back

(1½ hours)

 21 December 2008 697,000 #3
2 Battle of the Forces 15 February 2009 548,000 #7
3 Champion Of Champions 5 April 2009 N/A (Under 471,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
4 Battle Of The Athletes 12 April 2009 N/A (Under 485,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)
5 The Legends Last Stand 25 October 2009 N/A (Under 621,000) N/A (Outside Top 10)

Specials

The Legends Strike Back

Aired on 21 December 2008, original Gladiators Lightning, Wolf, Scorpio, Trojan, Rocket, Cobra, Siren and Bullit returned to the arena to compete against the new breed of Gladiators. In both of the Eliminators, the new breed of Gladiators won.

Battle of the Forces

Aired on 15 February 2009, Contenders from the RAF, Navy and the Army competed against each other in the second Battle of the Forces competition. The winning female contender was from the RAF and the winning male contender was from the Army.

Champion of Champions

Aired on 5 April 2009, last year's champions, Anna and Simon, compete against this year's champions, Kathryn and David. Anna proved to be on better form in the women's competition, but Simon failed to meet his expectations, and this year's winner David scooped the win.

Battle of the Athletes

Aired on 12 April 2009, four Olympic Athletes - Karen Pickering, Kelly Smith, James DeGale and Kyran Bracken - competed against each other for charity. Kelly Smith and Kyran Bracken were the Champions. Although a first occurred in Gladiators as boxer James DeGale slipped on the Floor Travelator, which has never happened before.

The Legends Last Stand

Aired on 25 October 2009, in the last ever episode, ex-Gladiators Trojan, Ace, Khan, Cobra, Rebel, Vogue, Panther and Siren return to the arena for one last time to compete against the new Gladiators. Features include Khan facing Goliath on Duel, and Wolf battling Trojan on Earthquake.[4]

Notes and references
  1. "NEW PRESENTER: CAROLINE FLACK".
  2. "Gladiators: John Coyle Bio".
  3. BARB Archived October 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. http://www.skymedia.co.uk/Highlights/entertainment/april-highlights.aspx
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