Gladiators (UK series 8)

On 11 February 1999, it was revealed in the British newspaper The Sun that Gladiators had been axed by ITV following continuing falling ratings—most shows in the previous series had dipped below six million viewers for the first time. This news came not long before the BBC announced that their once flagship Saturday night programme Noel's House Party was also to be axed after it too saw its viewing figures sharply decline. Both shows had regularly aired head-to-head against one another during their peak in popularity in the mid-1990s.

Soon after ITV officially confirmed that Gladiators would end, the recently launched digital terrestrial platform ONdigital, co-owned by ITV's two largest regional companies Carlton Television and Granada Television, persuaded LWT (itself owned by Granada) to produce a final mini-series in order to give the show a proper send-off. Gladiators: The Supreme Champion was commissioned by ONdigital for ITV, and all four episodes aired exclusively on the digital terrestrial provider over the Bank Holiday weekend as a back-to-back triple bill on 29 May 1999 and repeated over the next two days on 30 and 31 May before it was then transmitted nationally on the ITV network during Christmas 1999.

Long standing presenter John Fashanu was asked to return to co-host the mini-series alongside Ulrika Jonsson.

All gladiators that appeared in the previous series returned. Diesel (Darren Crawford) and Vulcan (John Seru) only appeared in the 'Battle of the Giants' episode.

The final episode was broadcast on 1 January 2000 and was dedicated to the memory of LWT's videotape editor Clayton Parker who died in a car crash on 14 February 1999 at the age of 45.

Episodes

References