gladiators ninja warriors

Aussies Reacted To ‘Australian Ninja Warriors’ With A 90’s ‘Gladiators’ Love Fest

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Last night Australian Ninja Warriors had its big premiere and if the ratings or anything to go by, it could be sticking around for a while.

Drawing a national audience of over 2 million viewers, ANW’s debut episode was a ratings smash. Channel Nine are reporting the series was the highest rated non-sports program of the year – beating the likes of Married at First Sight.

Viewers were loving the physical challenges that play on the strength, agility and stamina of its fierce contestants – and yup – there’s some clear parallels with 90’s game show Gladiators. Oh, sweet memories.

For those too young to recall, Gladiators was a television game show that aired between 1995 and 1996. It pitted athletes against one another in often bizarre challenges, but eventually the series became more well-known for its colourful characters like Vulcan, Cheetah and Condor, as well as the red/blue/black spandex getup the players would wear.

Because nothing says respectable athlete like a sparkly chest-baring unitard.

Here’s a snapshot of how viewers felt about the similarities on Twitter:

Within the first few minutes, viewers worked out they are essentially the same show.

But it’s missing the awesome challenges involving those enlarged double-ended cotton buds aka pummel sticks.

We sure did miss this guy.

Never forget that Gladiators did return in 2008, but bombed hard.

We were unworthy.

Header via Channel Seven.