Gladiators (British TV Show) - International Series

International Series

While the show itself was inspired by the USA's American Gladiators, the UK show inspired many other countries to start their own series. The first two countries to get in on the act after the USA and UK was Finland. All three appeared on the first International Gladiators series. They were joined by Russia who participated in several international shows but never had a domestic series. Shortly after this series other countries such as Australia and South Africa followed the trend. They participated in IG2 along with Russia, UK and USA. Finland bowed out and Germany was brought in. Like Russia they never had a domestic season and this was their only venture into Gladiators. Japan had a brief forray into Gladiators with their own series entitled Bang,Bang,Bang,Bang. Little is known about this version but some American Gladiators did appear. Other countries that launched their own version included Nigeria, Denmark and Sweden. Nigeria and Denmark both began in 2002 and were launched after the success of the South African and Swedish versions. Both lasted only one season. Sweden started in 2001 and ended in 2004 after 5 seasons making it one of the longest running versions. With Sweden gone in 2004, no other nations remained, and therefore the Gladiators craze was over for the time being until discussions erupted in the United States in 2007 about a revival.