BattleBots has been renewed for a second season after a successful summer revival on ABC. According to TheWrap, the new season will expand the show's field of robot warriors to 32 teams while retaining its single-elimination bracket — think NCAA's March Madness with all of the sweaty undergrads replaced by machines hell-bent on destruction. It'll also retain the revival's renewed emphasis on creators' narratives with a cast that includes "expert roboticists, garage builders, families on a mission, and past winners returning to defend their turf," according to ABC.
ABC's decision to reboot BattleBots after a five-season run on Comedy Central in the early '00s was met with excitement from the show's sizable cult fan base. Judging from its ratings, the show was able to expand beyond that core group of fans: it earned an average of over 5 million viewers per episode through the slow summer months. It seems the appeal of watching people design cool robots for the express purpose of smashing other cool robots to bits is evergreen — who would've thought?
BattleBots' second season doesn't have a premiere date yet, but it'll be back this summer.
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