Last night marked the return of that testament to big hair and (probable) steroid abuse, American Gladiators, in which average Joes and Janes engage in pseudo-athletic events against competitors whose spandex costumes can scarcely contain their bulging biceps.
This new crop of Gladiators isn't quite as endearing as the originals (Toa's shtick, in particular, is annoying) but Wolf's hair is the eighth wonder of the world and Hellga is a hoot.
I bring this up not only because I still giggle with glee while watching contenders dodge tennis balls shot from an air cannon in Assault and think the new Eliminator is wonderfully punishing, but because I'm guessing a videogame version won't be too far behind. NBC is fond of quickie-ports of its most successful shows, like Deal or No Deal and Fear Factor, so if this new American Gladiators proves popular, it seems likely that it will receive similar treatment.
What makes it all the more likely is that American Gladiators is really nothing more than a collection of minigames, and eventually, someone is going to figure out that using the Wiimote to compete in the Joust sounds like fun. If Gladiators' ratings are decent--which they likely will be, given the nostalgia factor and the writer's strike--we'll probably see a videogame tie in on PS2, Wii, DS, and PSP sometime this year.
If you missed last night's premiere, you can catch another episode tonight. Sadly, I don't think the Atlaspheres made it to this version of the show (those were the giant hamster balls), but on the upside they also seem to have ditched Sky Track (the upside down race track), which was godawful stupid.
