Who is your favourite Gladiator?

[noblegiraffe]

We've been watching this every week with the kids and have been pleasantly surprised that it's something that we're all really enjoying, even our hard to drag away from his computer teen boy sits down willingly.

Our family favourite is definitely Legend, he's hilarious and we all hope that when he's competing that he'll be interviewed at the end. Loved the bit where he complained about the lights being in his eyes when he failed on the Wall.

From the women it's a toss-up between Sabre and Fury. Oh to have the confidence of Sabre! And Fury is just awesome and so fierce.

See - applied maths in context.

A survey was carried out to ask who was people's favourite Gladiator.
Bionic didn't get mentioned.
Why not?

How would you allocate gladiators to games using maths?

Maths isn't my strong point but that is interesting! If screen time is the main driver of favourites, is the opposite also true? Meaning Bionic wouldn't come up in surveys revealing either the favourite or the least-favourite gladiators? 🤔

I reckon if you did least favourite gladiators you'd get Legend and Viper coming up because they're the ones who are going to provoke strong opinions either way.

But who would the people who have Legend and Viper as favourites put as least favourite? The others are all nice!

However Bionic is in the trailers for this year's Comic Relief so he may get his airtime there!

Hopefully these people will come back and tell us! It does seem like a list of the top favourites and least favourites could be quite similar. Comet and Bionic not featuring on either list!

Now I have to think about least favourite which feels mean....maybe Dynamite because she just seems to lack a killer instinct.

I don't think I have a least favourite really, it's all good fun.

We both remember watching it when growing up and now it's the first TV programme that we watch with the kids, all of us watching together. It's brill.

Watching the QF 2... if they make another series I REALLY hope they do something about Gauntlet, it is a rubbish game and 95% of the contenders get through SO easily.

Favourites and best IMO are Giant, Sabre, Nitro, Fury and love to hate Legend (amused to learn IRL he is a lovely bloke called Matt)! Least convincing are Dynamite and Viper. All the others are finding their stride, and varying degrees of OK.

I am overly but unashamedly invested in it!! 🙈

They do do well on Gauntlet but I still love it.
And think the Gladiators spice it up recently haven't they

No I don't think Viper's that good really is he. Shame.

Viper makes me laugh with his twitchy face where he's trying to keep that gurn going. Presumably he has a very squeaky camp voice as they never let him speak.

Sabre and her arse slapping is very annoying.

Favourites in our house are Nitro with his little dance, Phantom because of his silly hood, and Giant because he's such a bizarre shape and so smiley. Lady-wise, we love Athena's weird contemporary dance intro and Fury's strength.

Barney's a shocker, bless his little nepo-baby socks. (edited to add I don't blame him for taking the gig, but someone should have realised he's pretty exposed)

if they make another series I REALLY hope they do something about Gauntlet, it is a rubbish game

It's basically free points isn't it? They all get through in about 10 seconds. Those massive gloves look more of a hindrance than anything else.

The guy last week who forfeited Gauntlet must have been feeling really bad, it's basically a free 10 points.

They seem to have got the hang of The Wall judging by this week, Nitro flew up and almost got the better of Chung. But Gauntlet still just seems like easy points, even if they're acting meaner (like Legend and Phantom throwing Jake out tonight). Both Gauntlet and The Wall need shorter time limits I think. Gauntlet would be fine at 20 seconds, and The Wall gives too much time between contender and Gladiator.

How did Gauntlet used to be different? I remember contestants being chucked over the side all the time, did the gladiators have more effective equipment?

Did anyone here watch the Titan Games (I think that was the name). Not so humorous but still amazing physiques and brilliant role models for girls.

Ha! Similar in our house…every time his little bio bit comes on someone shouts “look at his wings! when he pops those muscles out of his back.

I think Bionic has not had much air time due to injury…same with Comet. Feel for them! I hope we get to see more of them in the rest of the season and next.

Sabre was an early favourite in our house but she is getting increasingly cocky and her constant smug sly side looks to the camera are off putting. Fury is now the firm favourite.

With the men, my kids adore Nitro and his dancing and we all crack up at Legend’s panto routine. Steel and Apollo also well liked here! There's actually none of them we don’t like…our favourites are probably influenced by frequency of appearance.

Even if I didn’t have kids, I think I’d still enjoy watching it. It’s just great, entertaining and exciting family TV. Well done BBC for brining it back.

I know the sets must be incredibly expensive but I wish they’d bring in a few more games.

We like Sabre in our house, and DS likes Viper because “he’s a ninja” 😂

we love it! It’s so nice to have something both adults and DC can get involved with. I love Phantom and Nitro, worry slightly that legend is going to pull a face muscle with all the pouting.

of the women we love Fury and Athena - really hope they bring back another season.

i’m slightly freaked out by Giant’s back if I’m being honest - it’s like he’s got a whole muscle group extra….

We like Athena because of her bow and arrow pose - and because she's so short. 5"4, I think - which would be quite tall for our family but is obviously tiny for a gladiator...!
The funniest thing for me is how every single week you see the contestants and think gosh yes those are some very fit and muscular people and then see them against the gladiators and they look like absolute weeds. I sometimes wonder where Giant buys his clothes, surely he can't go to normal high st shops!
Also wondered last night how they get into the podiums for Duel 🤔

Was coming here to say exactly that.

I can answer with a dubious authority about how Gauntlet used to be different as I am currently down a rabbit hole watching all the 90s episodes of Gladiators UK (😳🙈). The arena(s) at that time were much bigger and Gauntlet was longer (I think!), so Gladiators had more length in each section. I think from series 4 or 5 onwards and (possibly always from semifinals onwards) there were 5 Gladiators not 4. Contenders scored max. 10 points only if they made it through in under 20 seconds, 5 if they made it through in under 30, and 0 if they didn't make it through completely within 30 seconds; they didn't pick up points for clearing sections but not making it through.

In the 90s, The Wall jutted out at various points so it seemed tougher, although in the first series contenders always seemed to clear it. It was only as time went on and the Gladiators had more practise with it, that Gladiators won that event more often than not.

Thank you for that extensive response, @GreatOak . Am I right in thinking they didn't have those big glove things, just the horizontal poles? I'd love a go on Gauntlet, they should do a special for perimenopausal raging women.

Think I must be a bit odd because I’m actually into the ref! Overall loving the show but it’s hard to not compare this cast to the originals.

I love Nitro, he's just such a nice guy.
Probably Diamond is my favourite girl.

They definitely need more games, the 90s series had a lot more. Gauntlet is shit and just too easy.