MGM Offers Classic Gladiators to Syndication Market

LAS VEGAS, January 29: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studios is at NATPE this week offering up the 90s’ kids’ competition series Gladiators
2000, featuring a young Ryan
Seacrest, to the U.S. syndication market, following the success of American
Gladiators on NBC.

Gladiators 2000 is a half-hour series in which teens compete in
games that challenge their physical abilities as well as their knowledge of
nutrition, fitness and the human body. MGM is offering up 39 episodes in Las
Vegas this week.

In making the announcement
today at NATPE, Jim Packer, the co-president of MGM Worldwide Television,
stated: “The launch of the Gladiators 2000 is a timely initiative, which fits perfectly in our multiplatform
strategy for the franchise. The series offers stations a unique alternative to
weekend (i.e. educational) programming and with the current success of the new
NBC version of Gladiators, it’s
a great fit. And we know audiences will be receptive.”

Also this week at NATPE,
MGM is rolling out the new American Gladiators franchise broadband website, www.americangladiators.com,
featuring free wallpaper and screen savers, image galleries, new re-digitized
video clips and behind-the-scenes interviews with the original gladiators. In
the coming weeks, the site will also feature episode specials along with
original casual video games.

In other MGM news, the
studio has picked up the U.S. syndication rights to Tribune’s popular
home-improvement series Ron Hazelton’s HouseCalls, which was cleared in over 70 percent of the U.S
this past season. MGM is offering 22 new episodes for next season and the
following seasons, along with the nine previous seasons of the half-hour
series, in which Hazelton visits two homes and provides expert coaching for
do-it-yourselfers.

—By Mansha Daswani