American Gladiators is Back and Better than Ever!

I'm so excited! Just a few more days until the next season of American Gladiators begins. NBC has announced that every episode will have something new. There are eight new Gladiators and seven new events. They've moved into a bigger arena and some of the older events look so much better. The wall got taller, the pool is larger, Hang Tough is tougher, and the Power Ball area looks like it has been expanded.

There are 40 new Contenders, but only 16 episodes. That means that simply winning your heat, or episode, won't guarantee you a spot in the semifinals again. They've made The Eliminator tougher, too, so the new Contenders will have their work cut out for them. I didn't think they could make it much tougher than last season, but in the clip I saw, the events definitely will be more difficult. They will be earning the right to move on, that's for sure.

There are three new Gladiators in this first episode. Two of them are familiar faces. Last season's winners are back, now playing for the other team. The women's champ, Monica, is now Gladiator Jet and the men's champ, Evan, is now Rocket. There is a new female Gladiator in the mix named Phoenix with pink hair and wings. She looks tough, but she's also gorgeous. Fury, Stealth and Mayhem seem to be missing this time around. I'm not sure if they're totally off, or if they will show up at some point later in the season, as it seems like there may be different Gladiators in each episode. My favorites, Crush and Wolf, are back, so that's all good.

The two new events premiering on Monday look awesome! Vertigo is a race on 30-foot high poles. The Contender and the Gladiator race up the first pole and then have to use their momentum and weight to swing that pole over to the next one. They have to make it across eight poles and be the first to reach the trapeze at the end. Rocketball looks sort of like the old Slingshot only in reverse as they start from the ground. They push a big button to make their bungee cord contract to propel them into the air. The Contenders try to make baskets on the middle tower and the Gladiators try to block them, instead of peeling balls off the old slingshot tower and making the basket back at their home base.

One of the previews I saw showed Atlasphere. I loved that event in the original series! That's the one where the Gladiators and Contenders look like gerbils in those balls running around with the Contenders trying to set of the smoke in the scoring pods and the Gladiators trying to prevent it. I also saw some kind of tug-of-war game on a high pedestal over water. Wicked! And I can't even imagine what Skytrack is. It looks like they have to quickly crawl around a track that twists and turns and even goes upside down.

Wow, they're pulling out all the stops for American Gladiators. This ought to be a great season: we've been promised something new every week! The fun begins Monday, May 12th at 8:00 (ET) on NBC. Catch y'all then.

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