Syfy Debuts “Robot Combat League” February 26th
Entertainment Weekly exclusively revealed this morning that Syfy has greenlit a new show where robots will fight to the mechanical death. Titled Robot Combat League, the series is essentially a real life version of last year’s action movie Real Steel. Humans will control fighting robots, at a distance, using remote control, until one ends up a pile of scrap. RCL will be hosted by WWE star, musician, author, and former Downfall (ABC) host Chris Jericho. Syfy has scheduled the series to launch February 26th.
If you remember the old Comedy Central show BattleBots, or even BBC’s Robot Wars, you can guess what type of action will be going on. The difference is, again, instead of robots the size of Xbox’s fighting each other, it will be thousand pound giant robots in a large cage. Reality producer Craig Plestis teamed with robotics expert Mark Setrakian to pitch the show to Syfy. Syfy president Mark Stern told EW, “It has always been our desire — and it’s really come around perennially — to update and do BattleBots for the new century. Can we do Real Steel? Are we at a place where you can do real bipedal robots? Every time we tried to to do it [the project] was stymied by the technology.” They promise these robots will mimic human action and movements.
The League will have 12 teams each consisting of a fighter and an engineer from all backgrounds. Each fight consists of three rounds and the winner will move on to the next competition. The ultimate winning team will take home $100,000. Chris Jericho will provide play-by-play commentary. The first season wrapped production last week.
I’m guessing many people here were fans of BattleBots. I know I was, so this news is tough to be more exciting than it is. I don’t think I’m looking forward to a new show in the next few months more than this one. Take a look at the photos from EW below. Hard not to get excited about that.
Image courtesy Entertainment Weekly
Image courtesy Entertainment Weekly
Image courtesy Entertainment Weekly
Source : Entertainment Weekly
I’m gonna have to see footage. If the move like 1,000-pound slabs of metal (ie, slowly), I don’t know how exciting it’s going to be.
I saw James Cameron and Mark Burnett are going to come out with another robot competition series on Discovery next year called Robogeddon. That sounded more like the Battlebots on Comedy Central. But I’ll definitely be tuning in for both shows
Is this the result of Moore’s Law applied to Battlebots?
Every result is on the table for this show – anything from awesome entertainment from the bleeding edge of robotics to slow clumsy unwatchable cringefest.
On a side note, good to see Chris Jericho get back into the genre. I thought he did a great job on Downfall a couple of years ago.
Chris did a good job hosting Downfall. It was sad that it didn’t last more than the 5 episodes though, especially since he originally tweeted that the show wasn’t cancelled.
It feels like it was just yesterday that I was watching Robot Wars and BattleBots… can’t believe it has already been 14 years…
Looks like everything comes full circle every decade or two… I’ll definitely tune in for these.
The idea is creative and fresh! and I think Chris will be an amazing host based on his past experience! Looking forward to see the bots battle it out to the death!!
Hey Guys,
Listen, this is really great and all, but it’s an unoriginal idea. I came up with this many moons ago whole partying with my friends. One of my friends, Chris Jones (really good looking, massive hog) said it was a bad idea and proceeded to poop all over it. My other friend Pete aka The Bruiser, liked the idea then wondered what it would be like if you could create one of those cyborgs for adult relations without the hassle of a girl friend… i think he referred to it as cumpster (come dumpster?) My third and most rational friend Dave, just sat there and smiled. So, with that said, if anyone wants an agent for one of these big metal SOB’s, I’m your guy.
PS – I love dudes. Gosh, if feels good to finally come clean and free my soul!
Xoxo,
CSM the Third
What I’m trying to say is, I’M GAY! I really am. So gay, and so happy. Do you think Pete is gay too? I always wondered. Seems kinda gay. Anyways, thanks for reading my blog. And seriously, I’M GAY.
Dude? Seriously. What does you being gay has to do with the thread? Unless you mean you’re happy about this.