BattleBots

For the current season, see BattleBots (season 12).
BattleBots
Also known asComedy Central Sports Presents: BattleBots (seasons 1-5)
GenreRobot competition
Created by
  • Greg Munson
  • Trey Roski
Directed by
  • Dan McDowell
  • Ryan Polito
Presented by
Starring
Narrated by
ComposerVanacore Music
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons12
No. of episodes191 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Mack Anderson
  • Bradley Anderson
  • Debbie Liebling
  • Lloyd Braun
  • Chris Cowan
  • Trey Roski
  • Greg Munson
  • Aaron Catling
EditorJonathan Siegel
Running time30–60 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
ReleaseAugust 23, 2000 (2000-08-23) –
May 25, 2023 (2023-05-25)
Related
BattleBots: Bounty Hunters
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

BattleBots is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled armed and armored machines designed to fight in an arena combat elimination tournament. The same competitions inspired the British TV program Robot Wars, which acquired the name in 1995.

Legally barred from the name "Robot Wars", American robot combat aficionados created a new company, BattleBots, under the ownership of Greg Munson and Trey Roski. The first official BattleBots event was hosted at the Long Beach Pyramid in Long Beach, California in August 1999, while a second event in Las Vegas was used to pitch the competition to television networks. For five seasons, BattleBots aired on the American Comedy Central and was hosted by Bil Dwyer, Sean Salisbury, and Tim Green. Comedy Central's first season premiered on August 23, 2000, and its fifth and last season ended on December 21, 2002. While small untelevised competitions continued to be run under the BattleBots name, the show was on hiatus until it was revived on ABC in 2015.

A six-episode revival series premiered on ABC on June 21, 2015, to generally favorable reviews and ratings. Additionally, ABC renewed BattleBots for a seventh season, which premiered on June 23, 2016. In February 2018, Discovery Channel and Science picked up the show for an eighth season, which premiered on May 11, 2018.[1] A ninth season of BattleBots premiered on Discovery Channel on June 7, 2019,[2] the tenth season premiered on December 3, 2020,[3] the eleventh season on January 6, 2022, and the twelfth season on January 5, 2023.

Two spin-off competitions have debuted on Discovery+. The first spin-off, BattleBots: Bounty Hunters, premiered on January 4, 2021 on Discovery+.[4][5] A second spin-off premiered on August 5, 2022, under the name BattleBots: Champions.

  1. ^ Durkan, Deirdre (February 7, 2018). "'BattleBots' Revived on Discovery and Science Channels (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  2. ^ "BATTLEBOTS Returns For Second Season This June On Discovery". BroadwayWorld. BWW News Desk. May 20, 2019. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  3. ^ "The Ultimate Robot Combat Series, "BattleBots" Returns for an All-Out Battle Royale, Premiering December 3 on Discovery Channel". The Futon Critic. November 12, 2020.
  4. ^ "discovery+ Announces Exclusive Original Series Debuting in January 2021". The Futon Critic. December 3, 2020.
  5. ^ ""BattleBots: Bounty Hunters" to Launch on Discovery+ with the Top Robot Competitors Smashing It Out". The Futon Critic. December 7, 2020.