Los Angeles CA, January 15, 2008
Following on the heels of the highly successful premiere of their new reality series, ‘American Gladiator’, which has been picked up by the NBC Television Network for a second season, MGM has announced that, starting January 28th, viewers and fans will be able to go online to access exclusive content, watch clips and much more. MGM along with Johnny Ferraro, owner of Flor-Jon, Films Inc. also announced that they have put into development a cartoon series based on the “American Gladiators” franchise. Along with all of this will be a special ‘American Gladiators’ U.S. cross-city tour.
‘American Gladiators”, which premiered on Sunday, January 6, in a two-hour special airing from 9-11p.m. and hosted by former WWF Wrestling Champion Hulk Hogan was the highest rated new program premiere of the 2007 television season with viewers in the ‘Adults 18 to 49’ range. The show continued to average a 5.9 rating.
Johnny Ferraro who is executive producer of the new revamped American Gladiator’s series and creator of the original series which ran back in the mid ‘80’s, had this to say about the launching of the online site for ‘American Gladiator’ and about the cartoon based spin-off.
“The new series and multimedia promotional campaign truly fulfills my dream and vision for ‘American Gladiators. I look forward to the broadband site launch, cross-city tour, and new cartoon series. It’s truly exciting to see the Gladiators franchise grow and continue to succeed on all levels.”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., through its operating subsidiaries, is actively engaged in the worldwide production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home video, interactive media, music and licensed merchandise. The company owns the world’s largest library of modern films, comprising around 4,100 titles. About this exciting new development for one of MGM’s programming, Jim Packer, co-president of MGM Television had this to offer.
“‘American Gladiators’ is another example of how MGM franchises can be revitalized for today’s audiences. The studio’s strategy of reinvigorating popular franchises from our extraordinary library is definitely working and our new americangladiators.com broadband site will expand the franchise to the digital world.”
The online broadband site will encompass not only content from the new, revitalized version of ‘American Gladiators’, but will also contain feature clips from the original series which have all been re-digitalized. Clips will reintroduce original Gladiators to a new generation of viewers and give fans an update on where they are today. Featured segments will also include “best hits,” and stunts performed on the vintage show.
NBC originally ordered nine episodes of the series “American Gladiators” which is based on the original series which first originated from Erie, PA. The original series aired as a weekly syndicated show in the U.S., from 1989 through 1996. The show also spurred equally successful international versions in the United Kingdom, Latin America, Australia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, South Africa, and Japan.
The new American Gladiators, which airs on Monday nights on NBC Television, is produced by MGM Television (the original producers of the show along with Flor Jon Films) and Reveille (NBC’s “The Office” and “The Biggest Loser,” “Nashville Star,” “Ugly Betty”). Reveille’s Mark Koops, Howard T. Owens as well as David Hurwitz (Fear Factor) are the show’s Executive Producers alongside Johnny Ferraro.