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Airdate: Australian Spartan

Seven reveals its wildcard with Spartan brought forward

Seven is playing a programming wildcard with Australian Spartan set to begin at 7pm on Sunday night.

The move is months ahead of plans revealed to advertisers at Seven Upfronts last October and Angus Ross indicating “…the Commonwealth Games would certainly be a pretty smart launch pad for a show like that.”

The move is clearly designed to pre-empt Australian Ninja Warrior and capitalise on viewing numbers out of the Winter Olympics.

Whilst Seven is yet to confirm further plans My Kitchen Rules is expected to be held over next Sunday with Spartan to be followed by the Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony.

Inspired by the fitness phenomenon Spartan Race which takes place in 35 countries across five continents, Australian Spartan demonstrates Seven’s commitment to delivering event television.

Hosted by Edwina Bartholomew and Hamish McLachlan, with Wendell Sailor as the program’s sideline reporter, Australian Spartan can only be conquered by a truly unified team of three and takes place on the biggest course built in the country.

Teams race across a series of specially designed obstacles engineered to challenge their ability to work together as a group and challenge their physical and mental toughness. In the end, only one team will rise to become the ultimate Australian Spartan champions.

After a series of heats and one semi-final, 10 grand finalists compete in an extended Spartan course. From there, the two teams left standing race head-to-head in a spectacularly designed grand final course with the winning team taking home $150,000.

Australian Spartan is a Matchbox Pictures and Eureka Productions co-production for Channel Seven.

The format rights for Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge are held by NBCUniversal International Formats and will be distributed worldwide by NBCUniversal International Distribution.

7pm Sunday on Seven.

13 Responses

  1. I haven’t seen season 2 of the US version, but this doesn’t look anything like season 1. It’s funny (to me) that during the Olympics they advertised for Melbourne Spartan weekend coming up, which looks more like season 1. This really feels like “Team Ninja Warrior” but I guess the proof is in the viewing.

  2. Great news. No “genre matching” putting it up against Ninja Warrior. There is room for both shows, especially being screened months apart like this. I confidently predict both will be ratings winners.

  3. Spartan may also be another Cannon ball ?
    Not sure if the viewing audience will take to another ch 7 copycat attempt.
    Pretty much same obstacles, set etc…… typical !!!

  4. Certainly smart given the ratings/shares Seven got last week thanks to the Winter Olympics. Not waiting until after the Comm Games (which would’ve been bigger), does mean they get a very early jump on Nine’s Ninja Warrior.

  5. Oh my, I wasn’t planning to watch this, but the picture you have included in the article could well tempt me to check-it out!
    I did kind of think the amount of promotion this got during the tennis was over the top for a show that wasn’t expected until after Easter. I guess we now have our answer why so much promotion….

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