Gladiators in chaos as one contestant injured after accident during reboot

13 January 2024 , 18:39

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Gladiators is back for a brand new series with hosts Bradley Walsh and Barney Walsh leading proceedings as fitness enthusiasts go up against the new Gladiators (Image: BBC)

One of the Gladiators was injured in a shocking accident on the show tonight.

The show first aired back in 1992 and made household names of a string of fitness stars including the likes of Wolf, Hunter, Jet and Lightning. Today, the show returned - a whole 32 years after its made its debut - with Barney Walsh and dad Bradley Walsh leading proceedings from Sheffield Arena in front of a screaming audience.

Tonight, contestant Finley admitted: "I twisted my knee. I'm going to come back and recover. This is not the end from me, you'll see me again," as he was escorted backstage to be looked after by the medical team.

One of the contestants was injured tonight (BBC)

It was later revealed he had been assessed by doctors and seemed well enough to continue on. He was cheered on by all the audience, who supported his return to the show as he took on Hang Tough against Legend.

Speaking about the filming of the show, Barney revealed the atmosphere was electric in the arena.

Bradley Walsh breaks down in tears filming 'emotional' ITV show with son Barney

"I didn't expect the atmosphere to be the way it was coming out onto the stage. That's a vivid memory for me, walking out the first time, because 3,500 people is a massive number. It sounds like a massive number, but you can't really conceptualize it until you walk out there. You've got everyone around you in that big round arena, all the lights going off, all the cannons, and everyone screaming and cheering, that was spectacular. The arena was electric, it was alive, and everyone could really feel that," he said.

Bradley added: "The audiences were amazing - just brilliant, lovely people, and I mean the atmosphere was smashing. We had a warm-up guy (Stuart Holdham) and two DJs (Danny Mylo and Rosie Madison) from a local radio station working together keeping the audience entertained, they worked brilliantly together. It was like being at a concert rather than a TV show!"

However, whilst the audiences were great, Bradley admitted some of the Gladiators were a bit cheeky.

Asked if he had to put any of them in their place, he said: "No they were so respectful, apart from Viper and Legend, Viper hardly spoke, and Legend spoke too much! Legend at one point picked Barney up and threw him onto the mat and he took my microphone and then threw it. It was hard work dealing with them it really was, but it was all in good fun and they were wonderful to work with."

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Jasmine Allday