Gladiators reboot draws multigenerational crowds at Sheffield Arena

When Gladiators films at the Sheffield Arena the atmosphere is deliberately loud and communal, with a camera block for contestants’ friends and family and audiences who cheer, wave foam fingers and stay for the long day of taping. The original Gladiators first entered the UK Saturday-night schedule in 1992 and left the air in 2000; the BBC relaunched the format in 2024.

Almost nine million people watched the first episode of the reboot, which the broadcaster has said overperformed among young viewers and has become a show families can watch together. The current cast mixes ex-professional athletes, influencers and new faces — Apollo (Alex Gray), Nitro (Harry Aikines-Aryeetey), Hammer (Tom Wilson), Dynamite (Emily Steel), Cyclone (Lystus Ebosele) and others — and the producers created characters before casting.

The show highlights diversity (Athena is Sikh, Fury is deaf, Viper is Chinese, and Aneila Afsar was the first hijabi contender), and the Gladiators are drug tested each season; Giant apologised after a video emerged in which he seemingly posted about taking steroids, allegedly promising “Take this and you’ll get big.” Filming is lengthy — an 11-hour day with families permitted picnics and a bar open until just before the Eliminator — and injuries are common: by the time the forthcoming series wrapped, Legend, Athena, Diamond and Bionic were using crutches or slings but are expected to appear across the series, not always in Lycra.

Key Topics

Culture, Gladiators, Sheffield Arena, Mark Clattenburg, Alex Gray, Harry Aikines-aryeetey