Apart from the swimming portion, the biggest change in the Eliminator is that the uphill treadmill is now at the end, rather than the very beginning. Some contestants just couldn’t take off, even with the rope, after exhausting themselves on the rest of the course.
Definitely not staged.
Remember that they select the top competitors out of thousands of applicants. They’re looking for good athletes who are also good on camera (and have a good “story,” like being a Marine or a firefighter.)
I, for one, am glad as hell that the froofy-ass “life coach” got her ass handed to her.
OK, after seeing my first episode of the new American Gladiators I have to say I like it. Not as much as the original, but I like it. However…
It needs less Hulk Hogan
It needs more events (original AG had 6 events and then the Eliminator)
And it needs fewer “creative” camera angles.
The best female times are pretty much the same as the best male times, though.
Tonight’s last male eliminator was painful to watch, and it became quickly obvious that the first guy to have the brains to just hold off on the treadmill for a minute and give himself a chance to get a little energy was going to win. It’s becoming quickly obvious that the way to win that hell is to pace yourself.
So far, the “head start” given the person with the most points has not had any effect on who who ANY of the matches; in essence, all the events you’ve watched have meant nothing in the final caculus, except the Eliminator itself. Every one has either been won by the person who started second, or else the person who started first won by a huge margin. The Eliminator is just so goddamned hard that it’s unlikely a match will be decided by a few seconds.
Why does anyone do the hand bike? It takes forever and there is no real penalty for falling. I’d just do a token attempt for two or three seconds, jump down, and be on my merry way. It seems that it’d save a ton of time.
Does anyone know why more don’t do this?!
Probably because on original American Gladiators there were only two outcomes to the handbike:
- Struggle for too long and then fall.
or
- Fly across in three seconds.
Everyone thinks they can just fly across.
EDIT: And there used to be a penalty for falling. Memory is a hard thing to break even if the producers told them there was no penalty.
I sincerely doubt ALL the competitors so far even remember the rules of the original show. I didn’t.
I suspect they try the handbike because they don’t realize it apparently isn’t oiled and is nearly impossible to use. Remember, none of the competitors have seen the new show, so how would they know? You’d naturally assume you could make it across, and that deliberately punting it would be a big disadvantage.
Yep, suppose that’s true.
Eventually there will be a competitor that HAS seen the new show though.
Wasn’t the only penalty for falling off the handbike (or anything else in the old Eliminator) getting beat up by the Gladiators? As soon as you fell, they’d pummel you with those giant pads until you could get away.
That’s what the Eliminator is missing…
The penalty for falling off the handbike was that the gladiators held you back for a bit of time (5-10 seconds?), IIRC. I think they should grease the bike a bit to make it easier and bring the penalty back.
I just watched the first ep. I disliked the WWE aspects, which I don’t remember so much from the original show. It sure looked at first like things were rigged for the FDNY guy, but then I realized that the skater-boi was just a big wuss. In the second round I was very impressed at Blue’s flip manuever to get away from the Gladiator on Hang Tough. Red almost came back in time to catch up. I’ll probably watch again.
StG
Seeing the show shouldn’t matter. They used to practice on the equipment for a few days before taping (they alluded to it in the commentary on occasion). Surely they still do, just for safety’s sake.
The past eliminators had penalties for falling off the handbike/rolling log/whatever they were using this season, with the time penalty of 10 (men) or 7 (women) sec “enforced” by a gladiator.
Couple of links that may be of interest:
Where are they now? courtesy of mental_floss and Gina Carano’s Maxim photos (Gina is the Gladiator known as Crush).
How far do they fall? 20 feet? 30? Even with the landing pad, that’ll take the wind out of you. And from what I can tell, there’s not a stair back up - they have to climb up the narrow scaffold.
Fury looks almost exactly like Jim Carrey’s Romanian gymnast character from In Living Color.
If you are ahead for the Eliminator, you can use your extra time to your advantage. When you get to the treadmil wait until you can hear the other guy coming, then go.
Also, did anyone else notice that the girls handled the treadmill much better than the guys?
Drink any time somebody claims they will offer greater than 100% effort in the coming event.
Watched Monday night’s episode and then watched Sunday night’s episode. Really cool show for the most part. There’s definitely some scripting going on, the contestants are way too well spoken. Too much trash talk too, why would the contestants be so hostile towards people they don’t even know? Do you go to people’s houses and start insulting them? That older guy was a grade-A jerk, I feel sorry for his wife and daughter.
From going back and forth on my Tivo I think the pre and post interview portions may or may not be recorded at the same time as the competitions. Also, there seems to be at least some editing and manipulation on the competitions themselves. I notice they always have the contestants finish the obstacle course. Once they turned off the conveyer belts just so the contestant could finish and bust through the cube wall. I’d like to think I could just run up the conveyer belt but everybody seems worn out after swimming and then climbing the 30 foot net.
I like how they never said the pigtailed lady on the Sunday night episode broke her leg. That definitely looked like a broken leg, it looked bad.
With liberal use of the 30-sec skip button to skip all the interviews and gladiator flexing and stock footage, the competitions themselves are often great. I love how that ex-Marine lady hung onto the rings with the full weight of the gladiator hanging on her, and when the gladiator tried to pry her hands off, the gladiator fell. The lady didn’t have enough strength or momentum to swing to the platform for full points though.
That 150lb Asian guy was a trip, he tore up that obstacle course.
They don’t really talk about the obstacle course, how is that scored or is it scored at all? Do you automatically win the competition just by winning the obstacle course??
Whoever is ahead in points gets a head-start on the obstacle course. Whoever finishes the course first wins the show.
Ok, I forgot about the head start part. So even if you do well on the rest of the show, the obstacle course is what really decides it. Not sure I like that.
Yes. What’s your point?