American Gladiators

American Gladiators is an American competition TV show that aired on NBC and Citytv in Canada. Hosted by Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali, the show matches amateur athletes against each other and the show's own "gladiators" in contests of strength, agility, and endurance. It is a remake of the original series of the same name which ran from 1989 to 1996, with elements of the British version of the 1990s. The show was refereed by Al Kaplon, a former American League umpire, who can also be seen as the referee in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Play-by-play narration was handled by Van Earl Wright. Two seasons were produced by Reveille Productions and MGM Television, both of which were aired in 2008. The first season was taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. The show moved to the Los Angeles Sports Arena for season two. Format Season 1 of the revival featured 24 contenders (12 male, 12 female), while Season 2 had 40 contenders (20 male, 20 female). Men and women compete in separate tournaments, with two men and two women competing in each episode. In each episode, contenders take part in several events against the Gladiators, trying to earn as many points as possible before the final event, the Eliminator. Each point separating the contenders translates into a half-second advantage for the leader (or a half-second handicap for the trailing contender). For Season 1, preliminary round matches consisted of four events plus the Eliminator; semifinals and finals matches were extended to five events plus the Eliminator (by comparison, the original series had either six or seven events plus the Eliminator). The first two preliminary matches of Season 2 had four events plus the Eliminator. All other rounds had six events plus the Eliminator. For 90-minute episodes, all the events were shown in their entirety, but for 60-minute episodes, two events for each gender were shown only in brief "recap" segments; those events could be viewed in their entirety on the NBC website. In Season 1, the four male contenders and the four female contenders who won their respective preliminary matches with the fastest Eliminator times advanced to the semifinals; the winners of the two semifinals matches competed in the finals. In Season 2, the top six contenders of each gender advanced to the semifinals; after three semifinal matches, the two winning contenders of each gender with the fastest Eliminator times advanced to the finals.