MGM Expands American Gladiators Franchise

LOS ANGELES, January 14: On the heels of the success of the
new American Gladiators on NBC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Studios has announced plans to launch a full promotional campaign for the
reality hit, including a broadband website, a U.S. multi-city tour and an
animated series.

On January 28, MGM will launch a broadband website that will
pay homage to the original series. Located at americangladiators.com, the site
will feature clips of the original series, broadcast in the early 90s, and give
fans an update on where those original contestants are today. MGM, Reveille and
Flor-Jon, Films Inc. will then unveil a special American Gladiators U.S. cross-city tour. In addition, MGM and
Flor-Jon’s owner, Johnny Ferraro, the show’s creator, are developing a cartoon
series based on the franchise.

“American Gladiators
is another example of how MGM franchises can be revitalized for today’s
audiences,” said Jim Packer, the co-president of MGM Television. “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.”

American Gladiators
has been picked up by NBC for a second season. NBC originally ordered nine
episodes of the show, which is produced by MGM Television (the original
producers of the show along with Flor Jon Films) and Reveille. In addition to
acting as a co-producer on the series, MGM is also the worldwide distributor of
American Gladiators.

American Gladiators
first aired as a weekly syndicated show in the U.S., from 1989 through 1996.
The show also spurred successful international versions in the United Kingdom,
Latin America, Australia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, South Africa and
Japan.

—By
Mansha Daswani