Seven has surprised some people by announcing it is unleashing the Australian Spartan Arena on Sunday nights on Seven, starting in just one week.
There had been some speculation Spartan might start after the Commonwealth Games.
By rushing the new family series to air before then, the series manages to qualify for consideration in the next TV Week Logie Awards.
MORE: Logies shock! Date announced, eligibility changes categories slashed
The first episode will premiere on Sunday February 25 at 7pm.
The series hosts Edwina Bartholomew and Hamish McLachlan have been hosting primetime coverage of the Winter Olympics for Seven.
Australian Spartan format:
Teams race across a series of specially designed obstacles engineered to challenge their ability to work together as a group and challenge their physical and mental toughness.
In the end, only one team will rise to become the ultimate Australian Spartan champions.
After a series of heats and one semifinal, 10 grand finalists compete in an extended Spartan course. From there, the two teams left standing race head-to-head in a spectacularly designed grand final course with the winning team taking home $150,000.
Production
Australian Spartan is a Matchbox Pictures and Eureka Productions co-production for Seven.
The format rights for Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge are held by NBCUniversal International Formats and are distributed worldwide by NBCUniversal International Distribution.
Matchbox Pictures credits include multiple series of The Real Housewives franchise, as well as many unscripted productions in Australian, Asia and New Zealand. Matchbox Pictures scripted output includes Seven Types of Ambiguity, Glitch, Barracuda, Secret City and Deadline Gallipoli and the International Emmy-nominated series Wanted for Seven.
Australian Spartan is produced in partnership with Eureka Productions, which produced over 70 hours of programming in 2017. Eureka produces multiple series in Australia, the United States and Canada including The Chefs’ Line, Behave Yourself, The Launch and co-producing The Voice.