American Gladiators Is Back On NBC!! ~ News, Politics and Anything Else I Want to Say

Before getting into the BCS National Championship game tonight, I watched a little bit of the reincarnated American Gladiators. I knew this show was coming back but I didn't know it was on tonight until late this afternoon. I asked a few coworkers about it and got very mixed responses from "oh, ugh" to "awesome!". This show, fundamentally, is in fact awesome. I don't know that it has a place in prime time though.

The basic idea is you get a bunch of people who spend way too much time at the gym (these are the Gladiators) and pit them against "average" people who just spend too much time at the gym. That is the fun part. The show has all of these crazy games that involve shooting at each other, hitting each other with big padded bars while standing on a platform, many other physical games and finally The Eliminator! Dorky but fun to watch.

This new version of the show is very true to the original that I remember watching back in the early 90s from time to time on Sunday mornings while skipping church. We watched it in one of the Sunday School rooms. (Sorry Mom!) It still has all the great games from the original and the basic ideas are the same.

That is where the greatness is lost though. The hosts of the new show are Hulk Hogan and one of Muhammad Ali's daughters, Laila Ali. The fact that they are hosting isn't so bad but the way it is run is bad. It is run like a stupid WWF event with the annoying macho talk (from the ladies too) and all the stupid sports cliche talking. I swear, in one interview with the women competitors (before The Eliminator), they both said they were going to give it 110%. I mean, come on!!!

If it stays in this time slot there is NO WAY it will beat How I Met Your Mother once the writers strike is over but it will be fun while it lasts. It is in HD too which is always a plus since I don't have an HD package and only get what the network is sending out on basic cable.

And one last note. Although she didn't win tonight, watching Christie Philips compete was nice. She is a Karate Instructor, read her bio. And watch the video...