American Gladiators Casting: Jamie Kovac and Jennifer Lynn Cowan at Las Vegas "American Gladiators" tryouts in 2007.

One of the things that's struck me as odd in the "American Gladiators" revival is the smaller proportion of physically strong women among both the gladiators and the competitors. With the exception of Robin Coleman, who is gloriously huge, most of the women are fairly slender compared to the original series - certainly none rival the startling muscularity of Lori "Ice" Fetrick or Raye "Zap" Hollitt.

Is NBC wary of casting noticeably muscular women for "American Gladiators", fearing reduced public acceptance? Regardless of motivation, the outcome is that some events are not as compelling or competitive as they might be. For example, not a single female contestant has been able to finish the hand bike on "Eliminator" without dropping to the mat. The event requires unusual physical strength to complete, and most of the female contestants have had zero chance of finishing it.

Ha! OK, not really. Kim Marciniak and Toni Oppliger were both strangely overmatched by the contest, and several of the gladiators seemed a little out of it, too. Neither competitor did particularly well on any event on this showing of "American Gladiators".

1. The episode began with "Power Ball", and while Marciniak was able to dunk two balls, Oppliger went scoreless.
2. Next up was "Joust", and while both contestants won their event, in each case it was mostly due to Siren being strangely unable to stay on her feet.
3. The third event was "Hang Tough" - Oppliger managed to hang in there for the full time but didn't reach the opposite platform. Marciniak was dunked by Fury.
4. "Assault" was tedious, with both competitors running out the clock without sending Hellga skyward. At least I think that's what happened - I flipped over to Fox News to watch the Beltway Boys do the pregame on President Bush's State of the Union at this point.
5. Coming back for "Eliminator", Oppliger wearily dragged herself through the course, where Marciniak took several minutes just to get over the first wall. Marciniak did not cover herself in glory. The third time she tried to climb the rope, I started watching through my fingers in embarrassment for her. During her post-game interview, I was afraid she was going to start talking about "U.S. Americans" and "the Iraq". That's the only thing that could have made it seem even more interminable.

At least we've finally reached the finals.

Tonight is going to be awesome on "American Gladiators". In the ladies' competition (the only one we care about), 46-year-old Toni Oppliger will face off against 28-year-old Kim Marciniak.

Oppliger, a phys. ed. teacher, is the oldest competitor in this season's "American Gladiators". Marciniak is a former Rutgers University dance team member, and New York Knicks dancer.

Tune in at 8/7c tonight on NBC!