[JAS84]

The thing is more often than not people say they don't like them, they don't rate particularly better than civilian editions and actually have a higher per episode cost because of the celeb fees (the BBC not so bad, but ITV used to often pay the celebs more than the prize on offer for charity).

Personally I think the trick to celebrity specials is ensuring they're infrequent enough to actually be special - and not just getting any old celeb on. Ideally if they could make the 2024 edition an Olympians special that would be better than just random celebs, but might be filming a bit too soon off the back of the Olympics to make that happen.

Doesn't rule out retired Olympians. A couple of the Gladiators themselves are. I doubt they'd use active sportspeople anyway due to the risk of injury. They wouldn't want to be ruled out of the next football season because they broke their ankle playing Powerball, would they?

[James2001]

A couple of the Gladiators themselves are.

Same in the original series, Sharron Davies being the most well known. Also stood out with her because she was presenting other shows as herself (including a CITV Gladiators spin-off) at the same time she was doing the show.

[XIII]

I would imagine the likes of Mo Farah, Sam Quek and Laura Kenny would be in the running, Dr Zoe Williams being a former Gladiator would be a great celebrity contestant as well.

[PJamo]

There's also celebrities from a non-sporting background who are known to be quite into their health and fitness and would likely give it a good shot - Ben Thompson, Gethin Jones and Gemma Atkinson all spring to mind immediately.

[gottago]

The thing is more often than not people say they don't like them, they don't rate particularly better than civilian editions and actually have a higher per episode cost because of the celeb fees

That's really not the right way of looking at it, they're getting an extra day's filming out of a set and production team that's already cost the channel millions of pounds. Paying celebs a few thousand quid is a drop in the ocean compared to the wider picture. Celeb specials ultimately make a series far more cost efficient.

Viewers do watch and they do like them, regardless of a few moans on the internet.

[tellyblues]

Equally, some viewers don't like them and whether they make economic sense is immaterial and no matter which particular people are making certain decisions.

[PJamo]

I enjoy celebrity specials as occasional 'special' episodes of shows - it's when they increase in frequency (or entire series of the show with celebrity players are commissioner) that shows start to lose their appeal for me.

One a year, at Christmas ahead of the new series launching, seems fair enough to me.