Gladiators (1992 UK TV series) Series Eight

The eighth and final series of Gladiators (also referred to as Gladiators: The Supreme Champion) began airing on ITV on December 11, 1999 and continued until January 1, 2000. Ulrika Jonsson presented the show with returning host John Fashanu. John Anderson and John Sachs also returned as referee and commentator respectively for the final time.

Premise

On February 11, 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 Saturday 29th May 1999 and repeated over the next two days on Sunday 30 and Monday 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 Saturday 1 January 2000 and was dedicated to the memory of LWT's videotape editor Clayton Parker who died in a car crash on Sunday 14 February 1999 at the age of 45.

Contenders

Contenders in this series were all past champions from the show. Eunice Huthart and Paul Field were both invited to compete in the series, but both declined to appear.

Female

• Kerryn Sampey — Series 3 runner-up and 'The Ashes' champion
• Janet Allen¹ — Series 4 champion
• Andreya Wharry — Series 5 champion and 'The Springbok Challenge' champion
• Audrey Garland — Series 6 champion
• Jane Smith — Series 7 champion

Male

• Phil Norman — Series 2 champion
• Mark Everitt — Series 4 champion
• Mark Mottram — Series 5 champion and 'The Springbok Challenge' champion
• Piers Bryant — Series 6 champion
• Dave Walter¹ — Series 7 champion

¹ Substitute contender

Gladiators

Female

• Falcon — Bernadette Hunt
• Fox — Tammy Baker
• Lightning — Kim Betts
• Rebel — Jennifer Stoute
• Rio — Jane Omorogbe
• Siren — Alison Paton
• Vogue — Suzanne Cox

Male

• Ace — Warren Furman
• Cobra — Michael Willson
• Diesel — Darren Crawford
• Hunter — James Crossley
• Rhino — Mark Smith
• Saracen — Mike Lewis
• Vulcan — John Seru
• Wolf — Michael Van Wijk

Episodes

• ¹ Janet Allen replaced Kerryn Sampey in heat one due to Sampey injuring herself in Powerball.
• ² Dave Walter replaced Piers Bryant in heat two due to Bryant injuring himself in Gauntlet.

Events

In this series, the pool of events was reduced from 19 to 8, and only "classic" games (introduced in either Series 1 or 2) were played. The least played event was Whiplash, which only appeared during the 'Battle of the Gladiators'. This was the only event introduced after Series 3 to make it into the pool of events.