The American Broadcasting Company, often abbreviated to ABC, is an American commercial broadcasting network which was responsible for airing BattleBots World Championship I and II in the United States following its 2015 revival.
In February 2015, it was announced that ABC had picked up the rights to air BattleBots later that summer, 13 years since it was axed by Comedy Central. The show ran for just six episodes, but was a success on ABC, averaging 4.6 million viewers for its revival series.[1] When scouting potential networks to back their creation, co-founder Greg Munson cited American Ninja Warrior moving from G4 to NBC as inspiration for what BattleBots could become.
- "I mean if you were talking to TV people, they would really say it’s a cable show. BattleBots is in that same vein, but guess what? They jumped to NBC and found some success. So, that opened the door for people to consider BattleBots a show from Comedy Central, to go to ABC. So, I think it was a combination of the zeitgeist and network TV being more open for these types of shows."
- — Greg Munson speaks to Business Insider in 2015[2]
ABC ultimately commissioned a second season in 2016, which ran for a total of ten episodes. However, this become the last season on ABC as BattleBots entered a year-long hiatus in 2017. The Discovery-owned Science Channel picked up the rights to re-run episodes of the first two ABC seasons in July 2017, which foreshadowed the show's eventual shift to Discovery in 2018, from World Championship III until the present day. This change allowed for teams to explore larger sponsorship opportunities, and also aligned with longer seasons, largely thanks to the introduction of the Fight Night format.
Televised Seasons[]
The following seasons of BattleBots have premiered on ABC:
| Season | ABC Premiere |
|---|---|
| World Championship I | 2015 |
| World Championship II | 2016 |
Outside BattleBots[]
ABC was founded in May 1943, replacing the NBC Blue Network and initially launching as radio-only network before expanding to television in April 1948. The company would merge with Capital Cities and become Capital Cities/ABC in 1985. However, it was then sold to The Walt Disney Company ten years later.
Nowadays, the channel provides a multitude of entertainment, including but not limited to talk shows, soap operas and gameshows including Family Feud and The Better Sex.
On occasion, ABC airs mainstream sport. This is usually provided on weekend afternoons and typically concerns American football, with other sports often airing on the sister cable network ESPN instead. It was announced that ABC would air Super Bowl XLI in 2027, having not aired a Super Bowl event since 2006.
ABC currently holds the broadcast rights to multiple awards ceremonies, including the Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, American Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards. ABC was also responsible for broadcasting the annual Miss America competition from 1954 to 1956, 1997 to 2005, and 2011 to 2018.
References[]
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