Gladiators star Shadow has revealed the cast were paid just £500 per show during the first series.
The BBC show first hit screens in 1992 and immediately became a huge hit, attracting 20 million viewers each week.
But despite turning his lineup of bodybuilding gladiators into stars overnight, Shadow, real name Jefferson King, revealed he missed out on any merchandise or royalties when he signed up for the show.
Noting that the American version offered his programming long-term income from the show, he was instead paid a flat fee for each episode and could earn much more with multiple public appearances across the country.
Talking about the Anything goes with James English On the podcast, Shadow revealed: “There were thousands of people who applied for the job across the country,” noting that bosses ultimately hired “six boys and six girls” for the main line-up.
Gladiators star Shadow (pictured on the show in 1992) has revealed that the cast were paid just £500 per show for the first series, despite spending weeks training.
The former bodybuilder revealed that he missed out on any merchandise or royalties when he signed up for the program.
“I don’t even think about how big the show was going to be, in the first year we got £500 a show, and the second year was when it exploded and they realized how big the show was going to be.
‘Americans get repeated tariffs from every state that proves it, they get rights on goods.
‘We receive a flat fee per show. You could earn between £2,000 and £3,000 a month opening shops, signings and that sort of thing, but no, we didn’t get any merchandising rights or replay commissions.’
Asked if he had ever complained about the salary, which amounts to £1,071 adjusted for inflation, Shadow added: “Not in the first year, because there were a lot of people trying out for the programme, and if you didn’t you liked the contract, so you didn’t sign it.
‘There were several people who were waiting for the job. In the second year, they raised it to £750 per show, but at the end of the day, it was nothing compared to the American show.
“And don’t forget they did their thing in front of 1,000 people, in a stadium that looked like a cardboard cutout, ours was at the NEC, 10,000 people, twice a day, were big numbers.”
He went on to reveal that he and the rest of the Gladiators cast would work 14-hour days and spend two weeks training on the device before each series.
Shadow was booted from the show two years later amid allegations he took cocaine in a London nightclub.
Shadow said he was paid a flat fee for each episode during his two series on the show, and Gladiators could earn much more from public appearances.
However, according to the show’s creator, he left because he tested positive for steroids.
King reportedly began using cocaine from the age of 14 after moving to New York, and his addiction worsened after separating from his wife, after being dumped by the hit ITV show.
To finance his addiction, Jefferson took out loans from his family and became involved in crime.
In a 2015 interview he revealed that he had managed to turn his life around, but six years later, at age 60, he admitted to having participated in a drug-fueled blackmail plot.
He was sentenced to six years and three months after demanding £1,000 from the family of a 40-year-old man who had been taken hostage.
In 2021, a court heard how Jefferson was involved in a blackmail plot after a day of smoking drugs “rapidly degenerated”.
At one point, King is alleged to have ordered a co-defendant to “get a hammer to break his legs” after the victim, Aaron Ali, tried to flee.
Alleged ringleaders Simon Batson, Donna Harman and Otis Noel were also convicted for their role in the plot in which Ali was held for about six and a half hours.
It comes after it was revealed that Gladiators star Falcon left a large sum in his will after dying at the age of 59 in March 2023.
The star, whose real name was Bernadette Hunt, passed away after battling cancer for “several years.”
The star appeared on the iconic show from its second season in 1993 and remained an integral part of the show until its end.
She left almost £300,000 to her family in her will, probate documents seen by The Sun have revealed.
Bernadette left £444,000 in her estate, which was reduced to £293,000 once debts and costs were removed.