For the years that followed, low-profile BattleBots competitions still took place in the same BattleBox, notably the 2004 RFL Open and BattleBots IQ events which set the precedent for modern era competitors such as Andrea Gellatly and Will Bales. Regardless, MTV bought out Comedy Central and after Season 5.0 ended, MTV did not want Battlebots as part of their lineup, so ended their contract. BattleBots sued for copyright infringement but was struck down in court. Most of the prominent BattleBots builders were still unhappy with Robot Wars and declined the invitation, however, a healthy contingent of lesser-known teams showed up to take part.ĭuring the 2001 Super Bowl, a Bud Light commercial aired featuring a fictional competition called "Robotbash" and a robot made by Bob and Chuck Pitzer which was essentially Tripulta Raptor with special effects. They tried to entice BattleBots builders with an all-expense-paid trip to London, provided they changed their robot's name and paintjob if it appeared on BattleBots. Robot Wars meanwhile, held two American competitions in the UK. The popularity of BattleBots contained to grow, drawing over 400 entrants in Season 5.0. Jay Leno endorsed BattleBots several times on The Tonight Show, and commissioned a robot called Chin-Killa, built in his name to fight in exhibition matches. Subsequently, BattleBots was picked up by Comedy Central. The second event was made available on Pay-Per-View, and proved explosively popular there too. The events proved hugely popular with the local crowd, each one pulling in a nearly-full house. They decided upon the name "BattleBots" for their competitions. Trey Roski and Greg Munson, the builders of La Machine, decided to organize their own event to end the two-year drought and give their fellow builders an outlet for battling their robots. A large contingent of US Robot Wars regulars sympathized with Thorpe, and refused to have any more dealings with Robot Wars, leading to the 19 Robot Wars US events being cancelled. In 1997, legal disputes between Thorpe and his principle sponsor Profile Records reached critical mass, resulting in Profile licensing Robot Wars to the BBC in the United Kingdom without Thorpe on board. The brainchild of Lucasfilms toy designer Marc Thorpe, Robot Wars attracted builders from all over the United States, and as far away as France, to build fighting robots and battle them in a San Francisco warehouse.
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BattleBots has aired on Discovery ever since, with a spin-off series BattleBots: Bounty Hunters also airing on their subscription service, Discovery+, in 2021.īattleBots stemmed from the original robot combat franchise Robot Wars. The rights to produce future seasons shifted to Discovery in that time, starting with the 2018 season. On July 5 2017, the Science Channel picked up the rights to re-run ABC Battlebots episodes, though 2017 would not have its own season. Following its success, BattleBots was renewed for a second season that ran for ten episodes. The season aired on ABC during the summer of that year and was referred as Season 1.
The show was revived in 2015 as a six-episode television series, and it was filmed in San Francisco. The second was held in Las Vegas, Nevada and was made available on pay-per-view, but this was later available on DVD as well. The latter five competitions were televised and aired on Comedy Central, and colloquially referred to as "Season 1.0" through "5.0." Prior to that were two unaired competitions, the first held in Long Beach, California, which was recorded for the "BattleBots Beginnings" VHS tape/DVD.
BattleBots' is an American television show which originally ran from 1999 to 2002.