Well, he gets an "A" for effort.

That's about the most positive thing I can say about last night's episode of American Gladiators, which featured the first openly gay contestant in the history of the show, Sean Hetherington. In our interview with him, Sean made this lofty statement: "I think it’s going to be kind of a masterpiece in terms of breaking stereotypes for gays and lesbians in athletics."

Yeah ... not so much, Sean. There were moments of the show that were down-right cringeworthy, and unfortunately, Sean was responsible for some of them.

First of all, there was no mention made of the fact that Sean is gay, and if you didn't know beforehand, some of the comments he made would seem a bit ... questionable (if not offensive). Like when he referred to some of the male gladiators as "ladies", and when he said of the gladiator Toa (who was wearing tribal garb), "he's 250 pounds, plus the dress". Not cool, Sean.

The show didn't exactly help him out, though, by pairing him with a competitor twice his size. But Sean talked about James Ruggiero in glowing terms in our interview, so you can't fault James for being, well, a Gladiator-killing machine!

As I said, if you didn't know beforehand that Sean was gay, you certainly didn't get any help from the show, who showed James's wife and kids with the caption "James' Family", and then showed Sean's boyfriend with the caption "Sean's Friends". Not cool, show.

After the break, see how Sean did. (It ain't pretty.)