Robot Wars


BBC ends Robot Wars for the second time

UK broadcaster BBC Two has killed off its mech-on-mech battle format Robot Wars for the second time. The series, which is from Mentorn Scotland and SPJ Media and counts Passion Distribution as its international vendor, has run for three seasons. The original run came 1998 and 2004, and its revival was greeted with a widely […]

Mentorn appoints Hughes as head of development

Mentorn Media has appointed Paul Hughes as head of development, after the exec joined last year. Hughes will lead the development team to supercharge the producers’ diverse development slate with a focus on returnable factual entertainment and entertainment content for both the UK and the international market. The exec joined Mentorn last year as senior […]

Ex-Sky non-scripted chief to lead Mentorn

Former Sky head of non-scripted Celia Taylor has joined Tinopolis Group-owned UK factual prodco Mentorn Media. Taylor left UK satcaster Sky last year as Phil Edgar-Jones took over all non-scripted programming. She has now been named managing director of Robot Wars producer Mentorn, replacing Jonathan Hewes, who will now solely focus on another Tinopolis prodco, […]

Broadcasters join Robot Wars

UK battling robots series Robot Wars has been acquired by a raft of international broadcasters. The sales come as UK pubcaster the BBC orders a second season of the rebooted series after a successful summer run on BBC Two. Internationally, Viasat World has bought the finished first series for its Explore Channel in the central […]

Spike, Channel 5 win ‘bidding war’ for BattleBots

Viacom networks Spike UK and Channel 5 will broadcast the ABC mech combat format BattleBots in the UK after what its distributor described as a “bidding war”. The show will go head to head in the UK with BBC Two rebooted Robot Wars, which has a similar format as both series were born out of […]

ProSieben to start Robot Wars

German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 has bought the reboot of Robot Wars. The new UK series, in which teams pit their battle robots against one another in a knockout competition, is about to launch on BBC Two in the UK. ProSieben has snagged the free TV rights for Germany in a deal struck with its distributor, Passion […]

10 MIPTV takeaways: #4 eclectic talent on the Croisette

The list of famous faces in Cannes last week reads like a mad hatter’s tea party sat around a TV (or crowded round a mobile phone) watching Game of Thrones. MIPTV takeaways: #1 no Rising Star, but Roots established MIPTV takeaways: #2 VR now a reality? MIPTV takeaways: #3 Vivendi puts Europe in the spotlight MIPTV takeaways: #4 eclectic […]

BBC Two to restart Robot Wars

UK pubcaster BBC Two has brought eccentric machine battle series Robot Wars back 15 years after it stopped broadcasting on the channel. Mentorn Media Scotland, whose parent company Mentorn Media was the original UK show’s producer, will produce the new 6x60mins series. The original BBC Two show ran between 1998 and 2001, before switching to […]

CBBC calls on Robot Wars successor Airmaggedon

UK kids TV channel CBBC has commissioned DHX Media to produce two seasons of a new drone-based battle format, Airmaggedon, which is from the creator of Robot Wars. DHX-owned Canadian channel Family CHRGD has also picked up the show, which is being produced in association with Conceive Media. DHX will also get international distribution rights […]

Mythbusters turns ten

Beyond’s Mythbusters has achieved what very few factual programmes have and become a long-running franchise. TBI speaks to the hosts and executive producer of the hit series. In one sense Mythbusters was actually born out of Robot Wars, the Mentorn show in which rival teams of geeks built robots before seeing which could most successfully […]