Gladiators season 6

Gladiators season 6 aired on ITV in September 1997. It was presented again by Ulrika Jonsson and was joined this season by Jeremy Guscott, taking over from John Fashanu who quit after the recent football match-fixing scandal.

Gladiators

17 gladiators were present in this series.

Five new gladiators were introduced, including four female ones. They were Fox, Gold, Rocket and Siren. Khan was only new introduction to male team this season. However only Fox and Siren were to remain from this lot after this season.

Nightshade and Zodiac both left due their lack of appearances in the previous season. Laser, Panther and Trojan had also left but their reasons weren't fully explained.

Events

17 events were used in this series.

Pursuit was the only event from last years list to be axed.

Pole-Axe and Pyramid were both re-introduced with new safety measures. Pyramid now contained a red safety step giving the contender a free run to the top whilst in Pole-Axe, both contender and gladiator were now attached to safety harnesses, they would still come off the pole if they lost but would not drop to the floor.

One new event was introduced for this series.

  • Tightrope - Contender and gladiator are attached to ropes and have to race to the platform where they would change over to race back down across a zip line to hit a target, dropping the opponent down in a sparks explosion and on to a safety net below. 10 points were awarded for a win.

This season also saw to introduction of split events. This meant the men and women played a different event at a certain point of the show. However, for some reason this did not happen in Heat 3 or in the third quarter final.

There were a couple of changes to the Eliminator course too. A small cargo net replaced Spaghetti Junction, two sets of trapezes replaced the rolling beam and two see-saws replaced the balance beam.

Season Results

Bold indicates show winner
F indicates female split event
M indicated male split event

Show Number

Contenders

Events played (excluding eliminator)

Date of original transmission

Heat 1

Wendy Dawes/Paula Bush1 v Julie Hall
Eddie McFarlane v Brian Doamekpor

Powerball, The Wall, Tightrope, Whiplash (F), Duel (M), Hang Tough

September 13, 1997

Heat 2

Debbie Sharp2 v Wendy Famiglietti
Ally Graham v Alex Agbamu

Skytrak, Swingshot, Pendulum, Whiplash (F), Sumo Ball (M), Gauntlet

September 20, 1997

Heat 3

Jo Newman v Zoe Kennedy
Andrew Whitehouse v Anthony Nesbeth

Atlaspheres, Pendulum, Powerball, Duel, Hang Tough

September 27, 1997

Heat 4

Jayne Offer v Christina Hartley
Mark Roberts v Adam Stretton

Powerball, The Wall, Tightrope, Suspension Bridge (F), Hit & Run (M), Gauntlet

October 4, 1997

Heat 5

Nora McGoldrick v Pauline Morris
Andrew Sidey v David Rodrigues

Atlaspheres, Pendulum, Tightrope, Suspension Bridge (F), Whiplash (M), Gauntlet

October 11, 1997

Heat 6

Audrey Garland v Non Evans
Piers Bryant v Matthew Bartlett

Duel, Hit & Run (F), Powerball, Pyramid, Hang Tough, The Wall (M)

October 18, 1997

1 Replaced Wendy Dawes in Whiplash after a back injury
2 Did not take part in Gauntlet due to a knee injury