Having been bashed, bumped and bruised on his way to winning Gladiators earlier this year, you might expect Josh McDonald wants to put his feet up. But the Glasgow fitness coach has not only signed up for another go on the famous Eliminator challenge - he fancies becoming one of the Lycra-clad stars. The 29-year-old triumphed in the third season of the popular programme, which was filmed in Sheffield last year.
He is now getting the chance to go again on games like Duel, Gauntlet and The Wall as part of a live tour across the country. More stories from Glasgow & West Scotland Several new Gladiators have joined the show for the new season, including three-time World's Strongest Man champion Tom Stoltman. And Josh admitted he wouldn't mind "turning to the dark side" and joining the likes of Viper, Legend and Scotland's own Sabre.
He said: "I'd love to be a Gladiator and I think I'd be fantastic at it, with the message I bring, the personality I've got and the athletic ability I have. "The problem is that while the gladiators are the pinnacle, they can't actually win the show - only the contenders can do that, and I'm really competitive. "So you're better off being a contender than a Gladiator in some ways, as I don't think you would get the emotional rollercoaster that a contender will get from it.
"But if the opportunity to be a Gladiator came up, then I'd be there." Josh was actually edged out in the first round of the show, but returned in the next stage after an injury to another contestant. He did not let his second chance slip away, storming through to the final and taking the trophy after beating Tyler Spence, a teacher from Wigan, in a closely-fought contest. However while Josh was jubilant to win the competition, the victory also brought with it a mixture of emotions.
He first watched the show growing up alongside his mother Clare, a single parent who raised him and his two younger brothers. But in 2024, a few months before he got the offer to appear on the programme, his mother died after a long illness. Josh then became the guardian of his younger brother Max, who was 14 at the time.
"I used to watch the show growing up with my mum," he recalls. "She loved Wolf [from the 90s version] and it was something you'd sit on the couch going 'oh I could do that, I'd love that' and then the opportunity came up. "Just before the show [was filmed] I wasn't taking care of myself as much, as I had lost my mum and was taking guardianship of Max and having that extra responsibility.
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