Robot Wars (TV series)

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Robot Wars
Also known as	Robot Wars Extreme
Genre	Robot competition
Created by	Tom Gutteridge Stephen Carsey
Presented by	Jeremy Clarkson Craig Charles Dara Ó Briain Angela Scanlon
Starring	Philippa Forrester Julia Reed Jayne Middlemiss
Judges	Noel Sharkey Eric Dickinson Adam Harper Martin Smith Myra Wilson Mat Irvine Sethu Vijayakumar Lucy Rogers
Narrated by	Jonathan Pearce
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	9 (Original) 3 (Revival) 12 (Overall)
No. of episodes	155 (Original) 22 (Revival) 177 (Overall)
Production
Production locations	London Docklands (1998–99) Elstree Studios (1999–2000; 2001–02) Park Street Studios (2000–01) RAF Newton (2002–04) Westway Park (2016–18)
Running time	30 minutes (1998–99) 45 minutes (1999–2003) 60 minutes (2003–18)
Production companies	TV21 (1998–2001) Mentorn International (2001–02) Mentorn (2002–18)
Original release
Network	BBC Two BBC One (2000, one episode)
Release	20 February 1998 (1998-02-20) – 28 March 2004 (2004-03-28)
Release	24 July 2016 (2016-07-24) – 7 January 2018 (2018-01-07)
Network	BBC Choice
Release	8 October 2001 (2001-10-08) – 7 February 2003 (2003-02-07)
Network	Five
Release	2 November 2002 (2002-11-02) – 28 March 2004 (2004-03-28)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Robot Wars is a British robot combat television series created by Tom Gutteridge and Stephen Carsey which aired from 1998 to 2004 and from 2016 to 2018. The series involves teams of amateur and professional roboteers operating remote controlled robots to fight against each other in an arena, which features hazards and the heavier "House Robots" which are hostile to all combatants. The first two series also included assault and trial courses.

The original run of the show consisted of six series broadcast on BBC Two from 20 February 1998 to 4 October 2002 (though the fifth and sixth series originally aired on BBC Choice), followed by a seventh series broadcast on Channel 5 from 2 November 2003 to 7 March 2004. A celebrity special aired on BBC One in 2000, and the spin-off Robot Wars Extreme originally aired on BBC Choice for two series in 2001 and 2003, before also airing on BBC Two.

Jeremy Clarkson presented the first series, before being replaced by Craig Charles for the rest of the original run, with co-hosting duties taken by Philippa Forrester (1998–2000, 2002–2003), Julia Reed (2000–2001) and Jayne Middlemiss (2003–2004). The revival aired three series and five specials on BBC Two from 11 July 2016 to 7 January 2018, presented by Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon. The announcer for the entirety of the series' run was Jonathan Pearce.

The series received six million viewers in the UK during its peak in the late 1990s, and the format went on to become a worldwide success which has aired in 45 countries. Its merchandising was commercially successful, being one of the best-selling toy ranges of 2002.^[1]

In 2003, roboteers from the series formed The Fighting Robot Association in order to organize live events. In 2013, Roaming Robots purchased the rights to the Robot Wars brand from Robot Wars LLC and operated their travelling robotic combat show under that name.^[2] The use of the name Robot Wars for live shows ceased in early 2017, being renamed Extreme Robots.^[3]