"We've been circling around this property for a long time now," said Craig Plestis, exec VP of alternative programming, development and specials at NBC Entertainment. "It's truly what's not in the TV landscape right now. While everyone's zigging, I'm attracted to doing a zag."—Variety

The above-referenced alternative programming "zag," as you may already have figured out by watching the embedded clip, is NBC's just-announced plan to resurrect early 90s reality competition American Gladiators to caulk one of the inevitable cracks in its midseason schedule.

We certainly can't argue with the executive's appraisal of the current TV landscape—our own cursory scan of our cable channel guide shows a disturbing lack of programming centered around steroidal pro-wrestling washouts firing tennis balls at struggling actors who look good in patriotically colored spandex. (Not even Fox has something like that at the moment, a glaring hole in their lineup of apocalypse-beckoning unscripted fare.) Expect visionary NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman to "sexy up" the dated, too-safe original by introducing a level of jeopardy that viewers now expect from their competition shows, demanding that participants Hang Tough above a pit of starving tigers, and by replacing the harmless, fuzzy ordinance in the The Assault's cannon with armor-piercing bullets—there's no better incentive for a contestant to give his all than the fear that promotional footage of his gruesome death will be used to pimp the premiere of the revived series during commercial breaks on a Deal or No Deal rerun.