BBC scraps Robot Wars after three seasons
David Farnor | On 17, Mar 2018
The BBC has cancelled Robot Wars after three seasons.
The competitive engineering game show, which first premiered back in 1998, was that rare thing: a TV show that allowed members of the public to build gigantic mechanical weapons on wheels and fight them against each other on national TV. The robots battled both contestants’ creations and House Robots, including Sir Killalot, Sergeant Bash, Deadmetal and Matilda.
Initially presented by Jeremy Clarkson and Philippa Forrester, then Craig Charles and Jayne Middlemiss, it was brought back by BBC Two in 2016, with Dara O Briain and Angela Scanlon hosting events inside a purpose-built, bullet-proof arena in Glasgow. After three seasons of renewed carnage, though, Matilda and Sir Killalot are officially headed to the scrap yard.
The official @UKRobotWars Twitter account announced the cancellation on Twitter on Friday, saying they were “sad to confirm the BBC’s decision to de-activate our House Robots”. “A huge thank you to Dara & Angela, our brilliant judges Noel, Lucy & Sethu, all of the amazing teams and most of all…you for joining us on this amazing robot smashing adventure,” they added.
The BBC press office confirmed the decision in a statement, saying they were “very proud” of the series and that the show was being cancelled to “create room for new shows”.