Gladiators season 7

Gladiators season 7 was aired on ITV in September 1998. It was the last full season of the show in the UK and presented again by Jeremy Guscott and Ulrika Jonsson.

Changes

Many changes were made to the show in 1998 in an attempt to win back viewers after bad ratings in the previous year.

The glads costumes were changed. Out went their own individual designs and in came uniform-styled designs, coloured white and either red or blue for the female and male glads respectively. The letterings and styles of these alternated for each gladiator, With It normally saying GLAD or ATOR on the front.

New events were introduced as were new rules to certain games. The calibre of new gladiators introduced the previous year had mostly disappeared and only a handful were brought in the replace them.

Sadly, these changes failed to capture the imagination of the public, viewing figures kept declining in this series eventually forcing ITV to cancel the show after this season, at that time anyway.

Events

19 events were used in Season 7, the most in any season.

Three new games were introduced and were only destined to last for this season.

• Catapult - Two contenders and two gladiators hang on bungee cords opposite to each other. Using the bounce in the cord, the contenders have to grab a ball and throw it into their goal, defended by one of the gladiators. Each goal was worth 2 points.

• Dogfight - One on one contest, as contender and gladiator are strapped to their inflated zeppelin airship situated 30 feet above the floor. Using combat clubs, the contestants motive is to strike their opponents hit-sensitive chest pad twice, immediantely ejecting them from their harness and onto a safety net below. 5 points are awarded for 1 hit and 10 for "dropping" the gladiator. Each hit is recognised by a sparks explosion.

• Vertigo - The mostly played of The New events sees contender and gladiator racing against each other on 5 adjacent poles. After climbing up the First One, they to stretch as much as they can to get to the next pole. The first one to grab the ring at the end is the winner. 10 points are given for a contender win or otherwise it is 1 point per pole past.

Three games had their rules changed this year too.

• Gauntlet - New scoring system, 10 points for making the finish regardless of the time set, within the 30 seconds still though, or if beaten by the clock it is one point per gladiator they have got past.

• Pendulum - New rules, 4 lit sectors were now placed on the pendulum. Striking the main 3 awards 2 points for each one and 4 points for the bottom sector. Falling off the pendulum or having their flag removed by the gladiator still meant the end of game.

• Powerball - 2 gladiators were now on pitch and each gladiator had a certain contender to aim for.

All of the other events from 1997 were carried through, with the exception of Pyramid.

Gladiators

15 gladiators were used in this series. Out of the 5 glads which were introduced in season 6, only 2 remained (Fox and Siren), the others pulled out to injury or were simply dropped. Warrior also left after season 6, partly due to also being injured.

Two new gladiators were introduced, both to the male team. Diesel, who was actually rarely seen in this series. The other new gladiator was Vulcan, who joined after the Australian series had finished last year. Vulcan had already experienced UK Gladiators in International Gladiators 2 and in the second Ashes series. This introduction also set up a sparring rivalry between him and Wolf, which would distance throughout the season.

Season Results

Bold indicates show winner
(F) indicates female split event
(M) indicates male split event

Season 7 Champions: Jane Smith and Dave Walter

¹ Replaced Pauline Shirt in Duel after Pauline suffered a neck injury in Hang Tough.
² Did not compete in Gauntlet due to a back injury.

External links

• 1 Full information on the 1998 season