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NBC

Victor Cruz: 'Titan Games' Is Nothing Like 'American Gladiators' Reboot

With The Rock’s brand on the line, NBC series “has no choice but to be top notch,” former NFL star tells TheWrap

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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “The Titan Games” debuts its second season Monday, an installment that features former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz among the six pro-athlete competitors that the show’s “everyday” contestants go head-to-head with in hopes of winning the “Titan Champion” title and a $100,000 prize.

Fans could smell the new level of intensity The Rock was cooking up for Season 2 of his NBC competition series when he announced the addition of elite athletes — including Cruz, Claressa Shields, Joe Thomas, Cruz, Hannah Teter, Jessie Graff and Tyron Woodley — as an obstacle for “The Titan Games'” amateur contestants. And if the everyday people vs. pros aspect, a pro-wrestling legend as host, and a humongous set piece for the final challenge made you draw a comparison between The Rock’s series and the network’s short-lived Hulk Hogan-hosted “American Gladiators” reboot, Cruz is here to vouch for how different the two are.

“I remember [the ‘Gladiators’ reboot] being awful. I remember that. I remember not having the same feeling that I had as a kid watching ‘American Gladiators,'” Cruz told TheWrap. “I think the difference in this is that The Rock has a certain brand about him. His brand is always about toughness, hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Those are all the things that he embodies. And I think when you put a show together like “Titan Games”…it has no choice but to be top-notch and above and beyond.”

The original “American Gladiators” was a syndicated series that aired from 1989-1996 and matched amateurs against each other, as well as against the show’s “gladiators.” NBC’s Hogan and Laila Ali-hosted remake, which aired in 2008, had the same premise but was not comparable to the original in Cruz’s eyes.

The Super Bowl champ says that when you see the Mount Olympus obstacle course on “The Titan Games,” you “understand the difference” between The Rock’s show — which is inspired by his own intensive workout regimen — and the “Gladiators” reboot “almost immediately.”

“This is newer, fresher, a whole new vibe,” Cruz continued, with “renewed, refreshed energy.” Whereas the “American Gladiators” remake “felt stale” and couldn’t live up to the original, he said.

As for Cruz’s brand, we asked the former NFL star how much his famous salsa end zone celebration dance raised his profile, paving the way for an ESPN stint and now an E! News gig.

“I’d be lying to you if I told you the salsa didn’t raise awareness to Latino fans and bring more Latino fans to the sport and start watching the game because of what I was doing,” he said. “Not just having the salsa dance be my thing, but the salsa dance being so organic and so true to my actual heritage and my actual background, that it made it all just come full circle. And I think that’s what people gravitated to, along with the dance.”

“First it was like, ‘Who’s the guy doing this dance?’ Then they’re like, ‘Tell me more about him,'” Cruz continued. “‘Oh, he’s actually Spanish, he actually learned it from his grandmother, he actually lives 15 minutes away from Giants Stadium. Oh OK, then it makes sense, let’s show him the love and the credit he deserves for what he does on the football field.'”

The Season 2 of “The Titan Games” premieres tonight, Monday, at 8/7c on NBC.

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There are two nights left to count until the 2019-2020 television season is in the books and, as usual, some shows had a better year than others. This time around, broadcast's lowest-rated entertainment series among adults 18-49, which is the demographic beloved by advertisers, was the Melissa McCarthy-hosted kids' talent show "Little Big Shots," with several series tying for second-to-last place. Click through TheWrap's gallery to see this season's 22 lowest-rated broadcast TV shows rank by their "most current" Nielsen ratings, which include a week's worth of delayed viewing where available. For the purposes of this story, we elected not to count shows on The CW and newsmagazines like "20/20," "48 Hours" and "Dateline," which would have gobbled up several slots. The list goes highest-rated to lowest-rated -- and yes, there are ties. You can find TheWrap's rankings of this season's highest-rated shows here.CBS/Fox/NBC/ABC
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Rank: 17 (tie) Show: "Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.8
The hunt for viewers on a Friday night is not an easy one.
NBC
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Rank: 17 (tie) Show: "God Friended Me" Net: CBS 18-49 Rating: 0.8
CBS unfriended drama after two seasons.
CBS
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Rank: 17 (tie) Show: "Undercover Boss" Net: CBS 18-49 Rating: 0.8
Unscripted series will remain undercover with these ratings.
CBS
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Rank: 17 (tie) Show: "mixed-ish" Net: ABC 18-49 Rating: 0.8
Nielsen results are a little worse than mixed-ish.
ABC
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Rank: 17 (tie) Show: "Bob's Burgers" Net: Fox 18-49 Rating: 0.8
Well done, but the numbers are hard to digest.
Fox
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Rank: 17 (tie) Show: "Outmatched" Net: Fox 18-49 Rating: 0.8
It's right there in the title.
Fox
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Rank: 11 (tie) Show: "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.7
Everything short of extraordinary.
NBC
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Rank: 11 (tie) Show: "Madam Secretary" Net: CBS 18-49 Rating: 0.7
File "Secretary" away, this season was preplanned to be its last.
CBS
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Rank: 11 (tie) Show: "Tommy" Net: CBS 18-49 Rating: 0.7
It was no "Sopranos" or "Nurse Jackie."
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Rank: 11 (tie) Show: "The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart" Net: ABC 18-49 Rating: 0.7
Heartbreaking installment of the highly successful "Bachelor" franchise.
ABC
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Rank: 11 (tie) Show: "Great American Baking Show" Net: ABC 18-49 Rating: 0.7
Maybe just "American Baking Show."
ABC
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Rank: 11 (tie) Show: "Almost Family" Net: Fox 18-49 Rating: 0.7
With a logline like this -- A woman who grew up as an only child discovers that her dad fathered many other children as a sperm donor -- what could go wrong?
Fox
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Rank: 5 (tie) Show: "Perfect Harmony" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.6
The puns just write themselves.
NBC
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Rank: 5 (tie) Show: "The Wall" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.6
Plug and play doesn't mean it plays well.
NBC
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Rank: 5 (tie) Show: "The Baker and the Beauty" Net: ABC 18-49 Rating: 0.6
ABC series whips up some poor ratings.
ABC
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Rank: 5 (tie) Show: "Fresh Off the Boat" Net: ABC 18-49 Rating: 0.6
And you think Constance Wu didn't want a Season 6...
ABC
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Rank: 5 (tie) Show: "Kids Say the Darndest Things" Net: ABC 18-49 Rating: 0.6
Damned.
ABC
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Rank: 5 (tie) Show: "Flirty Dancing" Net: Fox 18-49 Rating: 0.6
Not every silly Fox premise ends up being "The Masked Singer."
Fox
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Rank: 2 (tie) Show: "Indebted" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.5
We have no jokes on this show, other than to say there were no good jokes on this show.
NBC
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Rank: 2 (tie) Show: "Sunnyside" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.5
There is no bright side.
NBC
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Rank: 2 (tie) Show: "Duncanville" Net: Fox 18-49 Rating: 0.5
"Duncanville" was renewed, if you can believe it. Only in 2020.
Fox
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Rank: 1 Show: "Little Big Shots" Net: NBC 18-49 Rating: 0.4
"Blindspot," "Celebrity Watch Party" and "Council of Dads" would be here too if it weren't for timing.
NBC
22 Lowest-Rated Broadcast Shows of 2019-20 TV Season, From 'Almost Family' to 'Sunnyside' (Photos)
Somehow these aren’t ALL canceled
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