Ryan Seacrest’s Kiddie ‘Gladiators’ Series Resurrected!

The runaway success of NBC perfect storm Ben Silverman’s resurrected American Gladiators, the spandex-clad, suspiciously muscled new stud of his network’s strike-crippled primetime stable, inspired studio MGM Television to scour its back catalog for a way to further exploit the just-revived brand. According to THR, that desperate hunt turned up short-lived 1994 spin-off Gladiators 2000, a Ryan Seacrest-hosted curiosity that pitted pre-teen competitors in scaled-down bloodsports from the flagship show and added educational quizzes about health and fitness (cower before the brain-melting nutritional nightmare that is the Food Pyramid!).Having unearthed this long-forgotten treasure, MGM will be selling 39 episodes for syndication; above, a thrilling sneak preview of what we assume will eventually land on NBC’s Saturday morning schedule, as the lure of both scoring again with this pre-proven concept and bringing that younger, muscle-suited, frozen-in-mid-90s-time Seacrest (a guy Ben Silverman likes to party with almost as much as Ben Silverman!) into the Peacock family will likely prove irresistible to the hit-recycling executive.

• Kid ‘Gladiators’ return [THR]
• G2 Gladiators 2000 [YouTube]