Gladiators: What we learned watching the first show

Meet the new Gladiators on the block! Top row, left to right: Legend, Fire, Bionic, Diamond, Nitro. Second row, left to right: Electro, Giant, Steel, Apollo, Comet. Third row, left to right: Viper, Athena, Fury, Phantom. Bottom row, left to right: Sabre, Dynamite

Contenders, ready! Gladiators, ready! VIEWERS ready!

The first episode of the new series of Gladiators hit our screens on Saturday 13 January - and it was pretty spectacular.

We were introduced to the Gladiators themselves, saw some of the games they'll be playing, and got an idea of the kind of challengers we might meet each week.

Let's take a look back at some of what happened, and if you watched it, let us know what you thought in the comments.

The Gladiators are made of tough stuff

Viper is one of the scariest Gladiators!

We got to meet lots of the Gladiators on the show this week.

The teams of men and women are super strong, fast and covered in muscles!

Lots of them have been successful athletes in their former lives too.

Some of them are nice, some are mean - and to be honest, Viper was a little bit scary!

At one point, he was disqualified from a game by the referee for bending the rules.

The crowd are up for it

The show took place in the Sheffield Arena and the crowd were LOUD.

Like in Ninja Warrior, the contenders have their families in the audience waving banners and wearing t-shirts.

But it seemed like everyone else had foam fingers that they waved in time to music, and sang along to the Queen hit "Another One Bites the Dust", which was a throwback to the original series from the 1990s.

They also cheered the contenders and had their say on the baddie Gladiators too - Booooo!

We saw some new games

Lots of the games in Gladiators, like Hang Tough and Duel, are making a comeback from the original series over 20 years ago.

But we also saw a new game - Ring - where contenders had to force their way past a Gladiator and hit a buzzer in the centre of a big circle.

It was tough! One of the contenders even got hurt during a game called Gauntlet - although they came back from that injury to win and go through to the quarter-final!

Speed can beat strength

While the Gladiators were all big, strong and super-impressive, all the contenders were quick on their feet and often that served them well.

As they gained points during the competition, they also earned time for the final Eliminator round - a race around a special obstacle course.

That round is where the winner is chosen - there are no Gladiators to face when you get there, and it's a one-to-one race.

Fastest contender wins!