February 7, 2018

It was announced today that BattleBots will once again be returning to television, this time on both Discovery Channel and Science Channel. The reality competition series is slated to make its return with all-new episodes this spring.

The revival marks the third iteration of the franchise, which originated in the year 2000 on Comedy Central. It aired on the cable network for five seasons before being brought to broadcast television by ABC more than a decade later in 2015. Airing as a summer entry, the series lasted just two seasons on ABC, last airing in 2016.

BattleBots is a robot-fighting competition in which contestant teams design, build, and battle their robotic creations with the goal of destroying or disabling their competitors in 1-on-1 bouts. The teams must use their combined smarts in order to create bigger, faster, and stronger armored machines than their opponents.

"In BattleBots, anyone can be the champ, and all are welcome to apply," said BattleBots co-founder Ed Roski in a released statement. "This is a sport for smart people where it’s all about ideas and building something cool. BattleBots is a fight to the death, but no one gets hurt. It’s the place to show-off your imagination, your engineering prowess and art, and your ability to make it survive – and we couldn’t be happier bringing BattleBots to Discovery. In my opinion, Discovery is the TV network where BattleBots has always belonged."