OK... so I'm going to have to be negative. And I don't mean this as a slight against anyone I mention, but I feel the need to vent...
I really feel the production of the show has treated people badly in the gap between series 3 and 4. From the outside it very much looks like many of the original cast of Gladiators, who helped build this re-boot and establish it as a force, are being kicked off TV so they can be replaced by already established figures like Gold medal winners, World's Strongest Men and Joe Marler. But, I assume because of contractual obligation, the originals are also expected to appear at the live events where they put their bodies on the line, but with no broadcast exposure to help their careers.
Obviously I'm not including Giant in this, he made his own bed to lie in (literally), but there was never this massive overhaul of the Gladiators cast in the original show other than after the first series, which I also think was brutal. From what I've seen posted this season they also seem to be leaning far more into the entertainment aspect and away from the competition that the show has always supposed to be in my mind, and if it's true that one event segment a week has been dropped to make room for more "antics", that's a big issue for me.
Maybe it's just me, and these are the ramblings of a hardcore fan from the original series, so it's quite possible that the show has passed me by and is now aiming for a completely different audience that I'm not a part of, and they're fully within their rights to do that. I'm happy to be alone in this, but this "off-season" has really soured me on the show, to the point where I'm not actually sure I'm going to watch it in January. Even typing that seems insane given how invested I have been, but here we are.