r/AmericanGladiators

So I've decided to watch the final season of the original series.

Season 6 was really circling the drain, and 7 was worse.

Nitro moving from Gladiator to commentator was decent; but Zap was let go (why her and not one of the other female gladiators?). Season was very short, just a total of 16 contenders in single elimination format.

I also observed how in the later seasons (5 thru 7) the show put more emphasis on the special shows and International Gladiators as opposed to the parent show.

Major step down from Season 5.

The tournament format was confusing: a lot of preliminary matches and the top 4 point scorers made the semi-finals. I think they should've used the Season 5 format (preliminary rounds were for seeding purposes then single elimination).

Kyler Storm and Dan Cunningham both managed to beat Turbo in Hang Tough during the season (the only other times Turbo lost in that event were to Coz Worthington and Cliff Miller).

As I said before, Snapback was just Swingshot on the ground.

From the original series, is there any table or chart that lists the number of DQ'S over the years?

I'm aware that Blaze accumulated the most DQs for an individual Gladiator. Most DQs were in Powerball (hits and tackles above the neck); but some were also in Hang Tough (grabbing contenders uniforms or helmets).

In fact one Season 5 episode had Sky get two DQs: high tackle in Powerball and excessive holding in Pyramid

1. Extremely overproduced -- The reboot is focused way too heavily on dramatizing the action. How so? Slow-motion cuts during the games, rapid camera cuts that disjoint your ability to follow along, excessive sound effects, and cuts to the audience mid-action. The games themselves are extremely engaging and fun, but all of this excessive post-production turns the show from feeling like an action-sports competition with drama into a Hollywood movie depicting sports, which is typically cringe.

2. There is not enough action -- They shortened the matchups by one competition but kept the runtime the same as the OG series. After 15-20 minutes of runtime, only one game has been played. These games only last, at most, around 5 minutes in totality, meaning they are spending roughly 65-75% of that stretch on theatrics and talking instead of actual competition. And if the game itself runs shorter than 5 minutes, that number gets even worse. Also, after nearly every game, we get interviews, which is way too much.

3. There is a Travelator Issue -- In episodes 1-4, every woman competitor who was in the lead coming into the Eliminator lost their matchup. Why is that an issue? It signals that their strongest women competitors are losing due to a singular obstacle. That is great for the short-term entertainment of that matchup, but it is also reducing the opportunity for future matchups that could be super competitive with close endings. Why is that important? WATCH SEASON 5, EPISODE 9: Wesley “Two Scoops” Berry vs. Mark Muse.

4. Commentator Team aren't great -- Namely, Roxie and Miz feel very unnatural in their delivery, and it does not resonate with the dramatic, intense feel of the OG show. But this is something that time and consistency can heal, as this truly isn’t their background. Miz is a wrestler and former reality TV cast member, while Roxie’s focus was on Viacom with music countdown shows. Neither is coming directly from this exact competition/sports commentary line of work.

Tldr: I binged all 7 seasons this year, weeks before I heard about this reboot. When watching the reboot, I noticed they need to scale back the post-production edits, reevaluate the Travelator, and focus on the ACTION quickly, with less of the in-between talking.

I love Chris Rose's work on silly stuff like when he's announcing the Jomboy Warehouse Games. I'm not convinced he didn't record all of American Gladiators in a day from his garage in California.

What do you all think was the best and worst overall seasons of the show, and how would you rank them best to worst

Pretty much everyone agrees that Season 3 was the greatest: perfect mix of quality contenders and Gladiators at top form (Zap returned from maternity leave, Diamond, Storm and Tower stepped on board, Turbo, Lace and Gold missed time due to injury). Also the events were good, The Maze and Swingshot debuted; plus they moved to Gladiator Arena.

Worst was season 7: Very short season, most of it was International Gladiators anyway. Zap and Nitro leave,.but he stays on as commentator and she returns to face Dallas on an alumni special episode. By this point, Gladiator Arena crowds were quite small and less vocal.