BattleBots

BattleBots is an American robot combat television series and company. BattleBots is a series of competitions in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled armed and armored machines designed to fight in an arena combat elimination tournament. As a show, BattleBots aired for five seasons on Comedy Central (2000–2002), returning with two seasons on ABC (2015–2016) and five more on Discovery Channel (2018–2023), in addition to several spin-offs.

BattleBots was inspired by untelevised American Robot Wars competitions (1994–1997), created by Marc Thorpe. Thorpe's competitions also inspired the British TV program Robot Wars (1998–2004, 2016–2018), which acquired the name's television rights in 1995. Starting in 1997, Marc Thorpe's ability to continue his Robot Wars competitions came under legal threat from his former sponsor. In response, competitors Greg Munson and Trey Roski put together a new company, BattleBots, as an unofficial continuation of the American competitions. 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.