NBC spent so much money on sets for the second season of "American Gladiators", possibly for naught? The Hollywood Reporter says that:

"American Gladiators" stumbled in its return to NBC, while "House" led Fox to a nightly win Monday. After a strong run during the writers strike, "Gladiators" returned to NBC's schedule with an average of 4.9 million viewers and a 1.9 rating/5 share among adults 18-49, logging its lowest original rating and finishing a distant third in the 8-10 p.m. time period. "House" was the top program of the night with 14.8 million viewers and a 5.8/14 in 18-49. ABC won the 8 p.m. hour...

That's not good. Read the whole thing.

Jennifer WiderstromI was a bit slow picking up why Jennifer Widerstrom, aka "Phoenix", is wearing wings in her publicity photos. But finally I realized that they're phoenix wings.

Still, you have to be careful trying to extract meaningful symbolism from "American Gladiators". The sirens of myth are usually depicted with wings, and yet there aren't any photos of Valerie Waugaman with them strapped on. Also, Widerstrom's hair is purple, and I'm not aware of any mythological tie-in to that.

Those nice folks at NBC sent out three new videos to promote this Monday's premiere of season 2 of "American Gladiators". Here they are:

• Crush!
• Jet!
• Venom!

Pretty cool. At least they're letting the gladiators talk a bit more this season.

NBC has finally published photos of some of the new gladiators. Thus far the released new female gladiator photos are for Monica Carlson [Jet] and Jennifer Widerstrom [Phoenix]. Check 'em out here.