Gladiaattorit was a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 competition

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

 television program

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 part of the international Gladiators franchise. The show ran 1993-1994, was directed by Hollywood director Renny Harlin

Renny Harlin

Renny Harlin is a Finnish-American film director and producer. He is best known for Die Hard 2 , Cliffhanger , The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea...

, produced by Markus Selin

Markus Selin

Markus Selin is a television and film producer.-Career:Selin's first feature was conceived in the mid-80s. While attending a party in L.A. he was introduced to fellow Finn Renny Harlin and so became good friends with the aspiring director who was then working as a buyer for a Finnish distribution...

, and filmed at Planet FunFun

Planet FunFun

Planet FunFun was an indoor amusement park located in Kerava, Finland. Originally the park was called Fanfaari but soon after the opening, new owners took over and renamed the park Planet FunFun. Among others the Hollywood director Renny Harlin was one of the new owners...

. It was hosted by Katariina Ebeling in 1993 and Minna Aaltonen

Minna Aaltonen

Minna Kaisa Aaltonen is a Finnish actress who has played Marianne in London's Burning, Ingrid Coates in Dream Team and she has appeared in Kotikatu, The Bill, Dalziel and Pascoe and Lexx and also features on beer ads in Ireland...

 in 1994.

It was rerun on the original MTV3

MTV3

MTV3 is a Finnish commercial television station owned by Bonnier. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Finnish Broadcasting Company’s YLE1 took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV , due to the channel getting its revenue from running commercials...

 channel in 2002.

Persons becoming famous from the show included Tony Halme

Tony Halme

Tony Christian Halme was a member of the Finnish Parliament, representing the True Finns party. He was also known by the pseudonym Viikinki he used while appearing in the Finnish version of the TV game show Gladiators in the 1990s...

 (Viikinki — Gladiator Viking) who would become a member of the parliament and Virpi Butt (Timantti — Gladiator Diamond) who committed a murder in 2003.

Competitors Pirjo Litilia, Riikka Hartikainen, Jarmo Jousisto, and Tommi Vuoristo would later compete on International Gladiators 1

International Gladiators 1

International Gladiators 1 was the first full scale international competition using the Gladiators format. Champions and other contenders from Gladiators series in the United States , United Kingdom , and Finland competed against an international team of Gladiators...

. Gladiators Flash (Salama — Marjo Krishi) and Terminator (Terminaattori — Mikko Tukonen) would also appear on IG1.