Gladiators Australian Series 3

Male

Cougar (Ashley Buck) was dropped following allegations of indecent behaviour with underage fans, for which he was later cleared. Tornado was brought in to replace him.

Predator suffered an injury in Heat 4 and was sidelined for the rest of the series. Taipan also missed a number of episodes due to a knee injury and was only able to play in non-contact games like Hang Tough, Joust and Swing Shot.

Condor, Taipan, Tower and Vulcan went to Birmingham to film the second Ashes series in 1996.

Female

Rebel (Barbara Kendall) had quit midway through series two and was replaced by series two champion and International Gladiators 2 runner up Lourene Bevaart as Glacier.

Blade would suffer an injury on Hang Tough which was so severe it could not be televised and was sidelined from heat 7 until the semi finals. Cheeta would also be sidelined due to injury. Due to this, reserve Gladiator Electra was brought in though she never appeared in the starting credits or any publicity material. The official Australian Gladiators magazine makes no reference to her. She is married to John Forsythe, who was assistant referee and Director of training.

Delta, Fury, Glacier and Storm went to Birmingham in 1996 to film the second Ashes series.

Others

Laser, Lightning, Rio and Vogue along with Ace, Hunter, Rhino, Saracen and Wolf were the UK Gladiators who took part in the Ashes series. Falcon was a reserve and appeared in the opening credits but never appeared during the series.

Comet and Lynx along with Dynamite, Goliath, Titan and Viking were the Russian Gladiators who took part in the Australia Vs Russia series. Comet did not appear until the second episode and thus Lynx performed all four events in the first episode. Reserve Russian Gladiators Baghera, Colossus and Spider made the trip too but were never needed.

All fourteen Gladiators from the UK 1995 series appeared in the International Challenge of Champions series.

Events

Atlasphere, Duel, Gauntlet, Hang Tough, Hit & Run, Powerball, Pursuit, Pyramid, Swingshot, Suspension Bridge, Wall and Whiplash all returned. The Eliminator featured as the final event in every show.

Tilt had been axed midway through series two and did not appear in this series. Two new events were introduced, Skytrack and Joust, the latter of which was the apparatus for the UK event after it had been axed over there.

Shows

As per usual, fifteen shows were filmed in a progressive competition. An additional nine episodes were filmed for three special mini series; a Team Sports special, an Army Vs Navy series and an Australia Vs Russia series.

A further four shows were filmed in Birmingham in the UK, three as part of a second Ashes series and the International Challenge of Champions (filmed in 1995) both which were aired as part of series three.

Winning challengers are in bold.

¹This was the first appearance of reserve Gladiator Electra.
²This was the last appearance of Cheeta.
³Catherine Arlove was injured after Hang Tough and was unable to compete in the Eliminator and thus Marisa Huettner won the series as the strongest competitor holding the fastest Eliminator time recorded in any series.
⁴Replaced Sarah after she was injured.
⁵Replaced Hannah after she was injured.
⁶This was an episode filmed in the UK featuring the winners of International Gladiators 1, The first Ashes series, and the Australian series 1 champions. Only UK Gladiators featured in this show. As the injured Andrew Halliday was the winner of both the Ashes and first Australian series, he was replaced by David Wallis and Shane Saltmarsh respectively. Bernie Withers and Shane Saltmarsh were the runners up.
⁷This was a special episode made due to fan interest in the Gladiators themselves. The show was to air on 6 April 1996 but was pulled due to the election that occurred in Australia the week before. The episode was planned to air at a later date after series three.

⁸Marisa proved to be the strongest and most focused competitor defeating Catherine in the Eliminator by 13 seconds after she fell off the balance beam in one of the closest finals.

Heat 1

Original airdate: 5 May 1996
Challengers: Allison Ferry v Joanne Rogers, Shane Vuletich v Wayne Neuendorf

Eliminator

Heat 2

Original airdate: 11 May 1996
Challengers: Liz Howard v Marisa Huettner, Paul Stubbs vs Sam Greco

Eliminator

¹Cheeta caught Liz but was disqualified by Mike Whitney for starting before the whistle.

Heat 3

Original airdate: 18 May 1996
Challengers: Leanne Martin v Mary Kominos, Cameron Simon v Paul Reynolds

Eliminator

Heat 4

Original airdate: 25 May 1996
Challengers: Nicki Richards v Kylie Saunders, Jamie Rafanelli v Phil Burgess

Eliminator

¹ Predator suffered a season ending injury in Powerball and Vulcan was substituted in for the remainder of the game.

Heat 5

Original airdate: 1 June 1996
Challengers: Astrid Edlinger v Catherine Arlove, Joshua McEwan v Kerry Packer

Eliminator

Heat 6

Original airdate: 8 June 1996
Challengers: Jacqui Walters v Christine Dale, Jeff Prewett v Gavin Smith

Eliminator

Heat 7

Original airdate: 15 June 1996
Challengers: Leesa Sharpe v Debbie Santic, Daniel Di Paolo v James Lenehan

Eliminator

Heat 8

Original airdate: 22 June 1996
Challengers: Sandra Hansen v Siobhan Skinner, Keith Hansen v Peter Cranney

Eliminator

Quarter-Final 1

Original airdate: 29 June 1996
Challengers: Leanne Martin v Debbie Santic, Joshua McEwan v Paul Reynolds

Eliminator

Quarter-Final 2

Original airdate: 6 July 1996
Challengers: Marisa Huettner v Christine Dale, Paul Stubbs v Peter Cranney

Eliminator

Quarter-Final 3

Original airdate: 13 July 1996
Challengers: Catherine Arlove v Joanne Rogers, Phil Burgess v Jeff Prewett

Eliminator

¹ Fury caught Joanne early but lost her footing on the track, forcing Catherine to crash in to her. Fury was taken down and Catherine re-ran her race with Delta which she won.

Quarter-Final 4

Original airdate: 20 July 1996
Challengers: Nicki Richards v Sandra Hansen, Shane Vuletich v James Lenehan

Eliminator

Semi-Final 1

Original airdate: 27 July 1996
Challengers: Sandra Hansen v Catherine Arlove, Shane Velenecchi v Paul Stubbs

Eliminator

¹ Despite appearing to hit Catherine's buzzer multiple times, no sparks appeared. Upon replay a malfunction was reported and Catherine received 0 points.
² Catherine had legally hit Glacier off the bridge, however threw her hammerhead to the matts, and in a controversial ruling only scored five points.
³ Shane's detonator triggered despite Tornado not being remotely close to him, luckily he kept running the race to claim his ten points.
⁴ Hammer was disqualified for dropping his hammerhead.

Semi-Final 2

Original airdate: 3 August 1996
Challengers: Marisa Huettner v Debbie Santic, Jeff Prewett v Paul Stubbs

Eliminator

Grand Final

Original airdate: 10 August 1996
Challengers: Catherine Arlove v Marisa Huettner, Paul Reynolds v Paul Stubbs

Eliminator

¹ Storm was disqualified for holding and impeding Marisa's progress during the web trap
² Despite crossing the line first for 10 points, Paul Reynolds' score was reduced to 6 for knocking over two cones

Team Sports Special Heat One

Original airdate: 17 August 1996
Challengers: Natalie Shapiro & Leigh Martin (Softball) v Kristen Towers & Julie Towers (Hockey), Johnny Platten & Richard Champion (AFL) v Matthew Hayden & Jimmy Marele (Cricket)

Eliminator

Team Sports Special Heat Two

Original airdate: 24 August 1996
Challengers: Debbie Watson & Naomi Castle (Water Polo) v Sharon Finnan & Keeley Deverey (Netball), Graham Mackay & Jason Croaker (Rugby League) v Brett Smith & Michael Foley (Rugby Union)

Eliminator

Team Sports Special Heat Final

Original airdate: 31 August 1996
Challengers: Natalie Shapiro & Leigh Martin (Softball) v Debbie Watson & Naomi Castle (Water Polo), Johnny Platten & Richard Champion (AFL) v Graham Mackay & Jason Croaker (Rugby League)

Eliminator

¹ Storm was red-carded for attacking the challenger's head while pulling from the Wall.
² In an Australian Gladiators first, both Richard and Tower fell from the bridge at the exact same time, calling for a re-match.

Army vs Navy Heat One

Original airdate: 7 September 1996
Challengers: Sandra Hansen & Suzie Llewellyn (Navy) Vs Sandra-Lee Walker & Michelle Perrone (Army), Peter Gatti & Keith Lewis (Navy) Vs Gavin Davis & Ritchie Gibson (Army)

Eliminator

Army vs Navy Heat Two

Original airdate: 14 September 1996
Challengers: Tess Donellan & Donna Hunt (Navy) Vs Candice Cushway & Jacinta Peel (Army), Tim O'Brien & Jon Iles (Navy) Vs Dwaine Stevenson & Rick Morse (Army)

Eliminator

Army vs Navy Final

Original airdate: 21 September 1996
Challengers: Sandra-Lee Walker & Michelle Perrone (Army A) Vs Candice Cushway & Jacinta Peel (Army B), Gavin Davis & Ritchie Gibson (Army) Vs Tim O'Brien & John Iles (Navy)

Eliminator

Production

Production began in October 1995 following the success of series two. Recording dates were pencilled in for 11–22 December at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

The Gladiators were given their specialist training schedules in October and took a break from promotional activities in November whilst the production crew started work on the new events.

Filming bgean in December and continued though into the new year. Seating in the Brisbane Entertainment Centre was increased to 8,000 and the arena itself had some subtle changes with darker lighting and an increased use of spotlights similar to the UK arena at the National Indoor Arena. The Arena floor was also changed to a black floor with lights, just like the UK.

A fourth series went into pre production. Pendulum, a UK event seen in the International series was to be introduced and there were events being developed that would be unique to the Australian series.

However, due to injuries, rising production costs and a slight decline in viewing figures, Channel 7 opted not to go ahead with a fourth series and after being on television for an almost constant eighteen months, Gladiators was over until its revival in 2008.

A team of Gladiators and challengers travelled to Birmingham to film a second Ashes series in the summer of 1996 after the show had been cancelled.