SymphonicX
08-Sep-2008, 05:29 PM
I just watched the American Gladiators on Sky last night, gotta say it made for a very entertaining viewing...I'm a fan of the new and old Gladiators that we get here in the UK, so to see this was an amazing insight into how the show goes across the pond!
They definitely have a different style, aside from a lot more trash talk, from both contenders and gladiators, you can hear the comments made by contenders and gladiators (they mix the sound differently) but it's definitely not as polished as the UK version. However it's more theatrical in places and sometimes feels very intense. I have to say, the Duel (or Joust as it's called in the US) is much better in the American version. The one I saw, they were pummelling each other, it was a really good watch! Usually over here it's very stunted, and choppy, but over there they were really hammering each other off the podiums...brilliant stuff. They obviously have better set ups and more money to throw at it, and sometimes it shows.
However the attitudes of the contestants seem to echo the US version of The Weakest Link, people seem to be happy to be bad losers when it doesn't go their way...and during the Eliminator, the American contestants were struggling all the way to the end, literally on their knees by the time they were at the Travelator...they also have a rope to pull themselves up the last bit, which obviously the UK version doesn't have.
I think they were totally wrecked by that point due to a much slicker set up which means the contestants are thrown from game to game without any breaks in between, whilst I know for a fact that there's a good hour's set up between games in the UK version, due to it's much smaller scale. Still, the US version has people really going for it, and makes for an amazing watch!!
They definitely have a different style, aside from a lot more trash talk, from both contenders and gladiators, you can hear the comments made by contenders and gladiators (they mix the sound differently) but it's definitely not as polished as the UK version. However it's more theatrical in places and sometimes feels very intense. I have to say, the Duel (or Joust as it's called in the US) is much better in the American version. The one I saw, they were pummelling each other, it was a really good watch! Usually over here it's very stunted, and choppy, but over there they were really hammering each other off the podiums...brilliant stuff. They obviously have better set ups and more money to throw at it, and sometimes it shows.
However the attitudes of the contestants seem to echo the US version of The Weakest Link, people seem to be happy to be bad losers when it doesn't go their way...and during the Eliminator, the American contestants were struggling all the way to the end, literally on their knees by the time they were at the Travelator...they also have a rope to pull themselves up the last bit, which obviously the UK version doesn't have.
I think they were totally wrecked by that point due to a much slicker set up which means the contestants are thrown from game to game without any breaks in between, whilst I know for a fact that there's a good hour's set up between games in the UK version, due to it's much smaller scale. Still, the US version has people really going for it, and makes for an amazing watch!!