Posted by RabbitEars

Fans of either, or both, American Gladiators and Days of Our Lives should get a nice treat on March 14 (at 1pm in most markets; check local listings) when Gladiator “Titan” (Mike O’Hearn) guest stars on the venerable daytime drama.

In the episode, Chelsea Brady is getting wasted at a local watering hole, mourning the recent tragedies of the Brady family. Even her grandmother Kate can’t get her to stop! In steps the “strapping” bartender (O’Hearn), who offers Chelsea some coffee to sober up (which would only work in a soap opera), but she refuses him and storms out. When Shawn and Belle show up later, the bartender tells them to get in touch with Kate.

And that’s about it. Even though NBC bills this episode as “exciting,” it doesn’t sound like the bartender gets to throw anyone out of the bar at least, just quietly helps people out. Maybe he could at least punch out John Black to finally get that guy’s eyebrow to lower? Something? Oh, well.

Of course, maybe four-time Mr. Universe O’Hearn is trying to get some respect as an actor, although if his current resume — National Lampoon TV: The Movie, Barbarian, Keeper of Time, and the upcoming Tumblers and Captain Ultimate — doesn’t speak for itself, people just aren’t getting it.

Fans of Days, however, may recognize O’Hearn from a similar arena if they also enjoy the written equivalent of soaps — he is a cover model for Topaz romance novels.

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American Gladiators: © NBC Universal, Inc. Credit: Mitchell Haaseth

Book cover: Credit: Topaz Books

Tags: American Gladiators, Soap Operas, The Latest by RabbitEars
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Posted By RabbitEars

Well, if ya do, you’re not the only one! NBC’s revived American Gladiators premiered Sunday with this season’s highest adult 18-49 rating for any new series premiere, and was the Peacock’s top new series debut since Heroes back in 2006, and led the network to its highest non-sports rating during the Sunday 9-11pm ET time period in three years.

“We’re extremely excited by the response to American Gladiators,” said John Wallace, president of NBC Local Media Division, in perhaps an understatement.

The reason the Local Media president is now excited about the show too is that NBC plans to pummel us with the show even further by making the first three episodes of the series available to locally owned and affiliated stations for second runs the weekends of January 19-20, January 26-27 and February 2-3. “Viewers are urged to check local listings for exact re-broadcast times in their areas,” advises the press release.

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios seemed to stretch a bit to find a reason beyond additional ad revenue for NBC to be so excited about these increased plays. “[American Gladiators] may often air in the same time period as the syndicated series did when it became a smash series years ago,” he said. Yes, it very well may. But hopefully that time slot wasn’t 2am.

Nonetheless, at least for now, it looks like the new Gladiators will muscle its way onto weekends as well, jousting some other shows out of the way. Once again, you are “urged” to check your local listings, and if you’re lucky, the show will be in the same time slot as when you last saw the original, and it will be like your old friend never left!

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Credit: Chris Haston/NBC

Tags: American Gladiators, The Latest by RabbitEars
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Posted By RabbitEars

Well, the ’80s are officially back following today’s announcement from NBC that legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan is going to host the new incarnation of American Gladiators, coming to the network midseason. [Read more →]

Tags: American Gladiators, TV News & Program Updates, The Latest by RabbitEars
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