The second series of

Gladiators A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

started in December 2008 with a Legends Special. The series aired on

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

and Sky1 HD. Many changes were made from the first series, including six new Gladiators - Cyclone (returning from series one), Siren, Amazon, Warrior, Goliath and Doom. Three more games were added to the event pool - Pursuit & Suspension Bridge, which were seen in the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

version of the show, and Rocketball.

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer. He works as a pundit for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal ...

returned as presenter with

Caroline Flack Caroline Louise Flack (9 November 1979 – 15 February 2020) was an English television and radio presenter and actress. She won the twelfth series of BBC’s ''Strictly Come Dancing'' in 2014 and presented ''The X Factor'' and later '' Love Isl ...

, who replaced

Kirsty Gallacher Kirsty Jane Gallacher (born 20 January 1976) is a Scottish television presenter and model. She began her career at Sky Sports News in 1998 and hosted '' Kirsty's Home Videos'', '' RI:SE'' and '' Simply the Best'' before returning to Sky Sports ...

. Taking over from original referee John Anderson (due to his retirement from TV refereeing) was boxing referee John Coyle.

Gladiators

Events

Three new events were added to the pool for the second series.

Suspension Bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

and Pursuit returned from the original series. Suspension Bridge is now played over water and the Pursuit course also contains a water element. The only new event was

Rocketball ''Rocketball'' is a sports-action Commodore 64 computer game released by IJK Software in 1985. Rocketball was coded by John Sinclair and has music by L Pilling. ''Rocketball'' is based on the futuristic sports movie '' Rollerball'', released in ...

, a modified version of Swingshot from the original series. The Eliminator layout was also heavily revised for this series, now including the "Floor Travelator" as the preceding obstacle to the monkey bars.

The Contenders

^{Notes: Red & Blue denote the colours worn by the contestant

Contenders in bold are the ones that advanced

^ denotes the fastest runner-up in the 1/4 finals thus advancing to the semis.}

Episodes

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Ratings

Episode Viewing figures from

BARB Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to: People * Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves * The Barbs, a band Places * Barb, ...

Series

Specials

The Legends Strike Back

Aired on 21 December 2008, original Gladiators Lightning, Wolf, Scorpio, Trojan, Rocket, Cobra, Siren and Bullit returned to the arena to compete against the new breed of Gladiators. In both of the Eliminators, the new breed of Gladiators won.

Battle of the Forces

Aired on 15 February 2009, Contenders from the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

and the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

competed against each other in the second Battle of the Forces competition. The winning female contender was from the RAF and the winning male contender was from the Army.

Champion of Champions

Aired on 5 April 2009, last year's champions, Anna and Simon, compete against this year's champions, Kathryn and David. Anna proved to be on better form in the women's competition, but Simon failed to meet his expectations, and this year's winner David scooped the win.

Battle of the Athletes

Aired on 12 April 2009, four Olympic Athletes - Karen Pickering, Kelly Smith, James DeGale and Kyran Bracken - competed against each other for charity. Kelly Smith and Kyran Bracken were the Champions. Although a first occurred in ''Gladiators'' as boxer James DeGale slipped on the Floor Travelator, which has never happened before.

The Legends Last Stand

Aired on 25 October 2009, in the last ever episode, ex-Gladiators Trojan, Ace, Khan, Cobra, Rebel, Vogue, Panther and Siren return to the arena for one last time to compete against the new Gladiators. Features include Khan facing Goliath on Duel, and Wolf battling Trojan on Earthquake.April Highlights
Sky Media

Gladiators

Events

The Contenders

Episodes

Ratings

Series

Specials

Specials

The Legends Strike Back

Battle of the Forces

Champion of Champions

Battle of the Athletes

The Legends Last Stand

Notes and references

External links