Yahoo News The most popular Gladiators revealed
The BBC One reboot has been hugely popular, but there's a clear favourite in the cast
BBC One's Gladiators reboot has been a huge hit with viewers, smashing the ratings for its return to TV.
Now, the most popular Gladiators in the new cast have been revealed by their social media followers on show and personal accounts — and it looks like there's a clear favourite with viewers so far.
Following in the footsteps of original series stars Jet and Hunter, 16 super strong athletes have joined the revamped cast to take on a variety of gruelling challenges against the contenders.
The series might only be a few episodes in, but plenty of the new Gladiators have already made their mark and amassed a dedicated following on social media.
All of the Gladiators (with the exception of Viper) have two Instagram accounts: An official BBC one to promote their character and the show, and their personal accounts which were established long before they joined the series.
Who is the most popular Gladiator on the 2024 series?
Sabre (Sheli McCoy) has by far the most followers to her show account which has attracted 22,200 fans online, along with 113,000 on her personal account which she uses to promote her own gym.
Following Sabre, the second most popular Gladiator on the show is the 6ft tall Diamond — real name Livi Sheldon who has the second largest number of Instagram followers on her Gladiators account (14,300), bolstered by 26,900 followers on her own page.
Legend (real name Matt Morsia) is another early fan favourite, shown by his impressive 13,900 followers on his official Gladiators Instagram account, and a huge one million followers of his personal account — suggesting he already had a big fanbase before being cast in the show.
Giant is the fourth most popular Gladiator having amassed 12,300 followers on his his official BBC account, which is back up by 149,000 followers on his personal account.
Comet (Ella-Mae Rayner) might be still building her Gladiators followers, but she is another cast member with a huge pre-existing fanbase of 320,000 followers to her personal account.
At the other end of the scale, Viper (Quang Long) is currently at the bottom of the social media popularity list as he had no personal Instagram account and the lowest number of Gladiators fan followers at 3,225. Viper was booed by the crowd on Saturday after breaking the rules by knocking a contender off a podium before the ref's countdown to start had been completed.
The BBC has confirmed that Gladiators is its most successful launch for an entertainment series in seven years, since 2017's Let It Shine which drew in 6.3 million viewers to watch the search for stars of a Take That musical.
Gladiators' first episode has now been watched by 8.7 million, with an average of 6 million tuning in on launch night.
The most popular Gladiator Instagram accounts
Sabre (Sheli McCoy) 22,200
Diamond (Livi Sheldon) 14,300
Legend (Matt Morsia) 13,900
Giant (Jamie Christian Johal) 12,300
Fury (Jodie Ounsley) 11,600
Comet (Ella-Mae Rayner) 9,483
Nitro (Harry Aikines-Aryeetey) 7,699
Steel (Zack George) 6,744
Dynamite (Emily Steel) 6,500
Athena (Karenjeet Kaur Bains) 6,381
Phantom (Toby Olubi) 5,743
Bionic (Matty Campbell) 4,973
Apollo (Alex Gray) 4,809
Electro (Jade Packer) 4,748
Fire (Montell Douglas) 3,440
Viper (Quang Long) 3,225
The Gladiators with the most popular personal Instagram accounts
Legend: 1m
Comet: 320,000
Nitro: 271,000
Steel: 223,000
Giant: 149,000
Sabre: 113,000
Athena: 36,800
Electro: 34,400
Fury: 33,600
Diamond: 26,900
Dynamite: 17,700
Phantom: 9,605
Apollo: 8,507
Fire: 6,559
Bionic: 5,564
Viper: NA
Gladiators airs on BBC One on Saturdays.
