Raven: The Way of the Warrior

Raven: The Way of the Warrior is a Scottish-American children's adventure game show that served as an American version of the UK children's game show Raven. The series was hosted by professional wrestler, with in the role of Raven. The second season introduced the villain character Nevar, played by Norman Gannis. The series aired on from September 1, 2005 to November 10, 2007, with re-runs continuing to air until September 2009. The series was briefly re-ran in 2011-2012 in early morning and weekday timeslots on Discovery Kids' successor The Hub.

The series was filmed on the grounds of on the west coast of, the same filming location as the original UK series. The show featured American and Canadian contestants flown to Scotland for filming. The first season was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of "Outstanding Children's Series".

Format
This format of the show features three groups of six warriors who compete in various challenges over the course of three (broadcast) weeks. Each group features for five days, and after the second day, the warrior with the fewest lives and rings must face the titular Way of the Warrior, an elimination challenge deciding whether they would continue to the next day or not. Only two warriors in each week go through to compete in the final week of the quest, where one becomes the Greatest Warrior.

Production
In 2004, executives were interested in adapting a popular format from a non-U.S. market for the  network. Originally, executives were interested in producing a U.S. version of the British TV show Brainiac: Science Abuse, but passed on the opportunity after deeming an episode of the show to be "not fit for children." They then negotiated with El Kadsreian game show producer Takahiro Koizumi for an adaptation of his game show Escape from Island 1, but were unsuccessful as Koizumi opted to ink a deal with instead. Eventually, after viewing an episode of the game show Raven, they decided Raven would be perfect for Discovery Kids, as it would act as a complement to Discovery Kids' already-successful Endurance series. A deal was therefore signed with to commission a debut season of 20 episodes for an Americanized version of Raven.

WWE writer Clive Axmann was hired by the BBC to "fine-tune" the format for American audiences. Axmann wanted to entice fans of the WWE, so WWE star was hired to host wrap-around segments that played at the beginning and end of episodes. Booker T filmed nearly all of his wrap-around segments for season 1 in six days. To create a "sports entertainment" atmosphere, contestants were asked to "playfully yell at each other" during interviews.

Contestants were chosen during the spring prior to each season's filming from five-minute audition tapes sent in by more than 12,000 children to the show's production team. Selected contestants would be flown to by  to compete. BBC Worldwide provided all arrangements for international flights, along with associated costs for travel and accommodation.