Gladiators 2026 winners revealed after thrilling finale

Naomi Church and Emily Bell went up against each other for the women’s title, while Josh McDonald and Tyler Spence competed for the men’s title.

Each duo competed across five events as well as the Eliminator challenge in order to be crowned champion.

Once again, father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh took viewers through the action, with Guy Mowbray providing commentary.

Ahead of the final airing, a synopsis for the episode shared: “In the final, Viper leaves the Gladiators gobsmacked, Bradley races Electro on the track, and much to Guy Mowbray’s surprise, Legend tries his hand at commentary.”

Who won Gladiators 2026?

In the end, Emily emerged victorious in the women’s event, and Josh secured the win in the men’s event.

Emily was the youngest woman to compete in Gladiators this series, and celebrated her 23rd birthday on the day of the final’s filming.

In a twist of fate, she ended up competing against the oldest contestant in this series, Naomi, who is 40 years old.

The business consultant and former England U16 hockey captain started strongly, gaining an advantage over Emily in the ‘Destruction’ challenge, but lost a bit of ground in ‘The Edge’ and ‘Duel’.

It meant Emily had a six-and-a-half-second head start in the final ‘Eliminator’ challenge, which she used to her advantage to get over the finish line first.

Meanwhile, Josh, who is a former Royal Marine Commando trainee and now an Area Sales Manager, managed to beat Tyler in the men’s event.

Josh gained an advantage over Tyler in the opening ‘Unleash’ challenge and never looked back from there.

He had a three-second head start in the final ‘Eliminator’ challenge, but it was tense all the way until Josh got up the travelator first and got over the finish line.

What does the winner of Gladiators get?

Winners of the rebooted BBC series Gladiators get a trophy shaped like the “G” logo.

This differs from the 1990s ITV series, which gave out a cash prize, as well as a new car.

In total, 12 cars and prizes totalling more than £45,000 were won over seven series of UK Gladiators on ITV.

What did you think of the Gladiators 2026 final? Let us know in the comments.