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The US series has been revived after a considerable hiatus, similarly to its British counterpart on BBC Two. BattleBots got there first, however, rebooting last year in America, with Robot

Wars returning to the BBC a year later. And now it's coming to British television, kicking off on Sunday (September 4) on Spike. “BattleBots is Robot Wars on acid,” Gutteridge told

Express.co.uk, speaking from the production offices in Los Angeles. “The carnage is breathtaking. Robots are blown up into thousands of pieces. And the men and women who build the BattleBots

machines are basically professional.” It would appear that the US series gets first dibs of the cream of the crop of robotics technicians, from around the entire planet. “Watching

BattleBots is like watching MasterChef: The Professionals,” Gutteridge explained. “Robot Wars is more Junior MasterChef.” Gutteridge was sure to drive home that he in no way feels badly

towards Robot Wars - he co-created in after all. “The budget is just bigger in America, that’s all,” he elaborated. “This means it can be ten times more violent and dramatic. We’ve got

flying drones that spray fire and drop bombs. It’s so dangerous, actually, that it pushes the bullet-proof arena to the limit. We don’t need things like the house robots, like they have in

Robot Wars. These contestants’ bots have enough to them.” The veteran TV executive first pitched Robot Wars to the BBC in the early 1990s - a pitch that cost him around £95,000. Having

witnessed a robot competition in San Francisco, Gutteridge was adamant that the format was ripe for television, and so flew several of the American bots across to London and staged a Robot

Wars demo for the BBC commissioners. They were dubious at first, but when it smashed TFI Friday in the 6pm Friday evening slot (something no-one saw coming) it morphed into a long-running

series. Both series ended in the 2000s, with Gutteridge going on to work across other programmes and ideas, both sides of the pond. He sensed that robots were due for a comeback, however. “I

knew it was ready to come back,” he said. “I actually tried to propose it four years ago. Resurrecting old titles is a theme now. The difference now that in America [where it airs on

notoriously family friendly network ABC] it’s primetime. It’s now broad family viewing. In the UK, Robot Wars is still in that Sunday BBC Two Top Gear slot. ABC have put it on primetime.”

Robot Wars broadcast its grand finale on Sunday night, with impressive viewing figures stacked up against the likes of The X Factor. But for those now with a thirst of some grizzly robot

blasting, BattleBots kicks off this weekend.  Exclusive to Spike, host Molly McGrath welcomes viewers to Tournament Central and commentators Chris Rose and Kenny Florian lay down the ground

rules for the competition, in which 24 of the best robot builders on Earth put their amazing machines to the ultimate test. _BATTLEBOTS STARTS AT 8PM ON SPIKE THIS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4._