Testing Their Mettle

Sparks fly during the hot and heavy action in the "BattleBots" arena.

Randy, left, and Jason Sklar of MTV's "Apartment 2F" are among the broadcast crew for Comedy Central's "BattleBots" show.

Mark Setrakian's Mechadon, weighing in at 472 pounds, has steel claws to tear through opponents' armor.

Who would have thought a show that features homemade radio-controlled robots slicing, dicing, pounding, slamming and crunching each other in an arena would draw a large TV audience and rabid followers?

Not Trey Roski, co-creator of "BattleBots" on Comedy Central.

"I don't know, it's a funny thing," Roski said when asked in a recent phone interview about the show's appeal. He was in preproduction for the taping this weekend of the show's second season at All-American SportPark.

"It's a true sport. People build a robot and just show up (for the competition)," said Roski, son of Los Angeles real estate and sports magnate Ed Roski Jr., a co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Lakers. He is also owner of the Silverton and is in the process of buying the Las Vegas Hilton.

One of those scheduled to show up for the competition is Jay Leno, host of "The Tonight Show," who with the help of NBC special-effects experts built a robot called "Chin-killa." He'll be going up against Trey Roski's robot "Ginsu," which has six 20-inch saw blades for wheels.

Roski came up with the idea for the show several years ago after competing in a European game show that featured homemade robots competing against each other.

But Roski didn't like the show's format -- the competitions were choreographed like professional wrestling -- and teamed up with his cousin, Greg Munson, to stage their own shows.

That led to the Comedy Central series, which has none of the fakery, he said.

"On television, everything is fake, everything is (bull)," Roski said. "They tell you who to vote for, what to buy. But `BattleBots' is real."

Roski acknowledges that the show has a good deal of violence, but that's not the point, he said.

"It's very violent, but it's not about violence," he said. "It's about survival. I know people watch car races to see crashes, football for the injuries. People watch `BattleBots' for that, but no one gets hurt. It's about education. It's about art. You have these 488-pound pieces of art whose job is to survive. It's terrific fun without hurting anyone."

While it features technology, or as Roski puts it, "the survival of technology," contestants don't have to be engineers to make a robot, he said, pointing out that he graduated with a degree in real estate from California State University, Long Beach in 1994.

Roski said the show's appeal leans toward males by about 60 percent to 40 percent.

But "the women kind of like it more than the men," he said. "It's something that doesn't have blood or the chance of blood. It's something they can like. We're getting more and more women builders."

Leno is one of the show's biggest fans, but Roski gave "Chin-killa" a mixed review.

"There's this learning curve, like everything in life," Roski said. "Jay's special-effects people have never competed, but that said, it's a pretty cool robot. It has a lot of metal, but it's weaponry is easy to take out."

Today, elimination rounds in the four weight classes -- super heavyweight, heavyweight, middleweight and lightweight -- will be held from 6 to 10 p.m.

Elimination rounds continue Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m.

Quarterfinals will be held Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. with the finals to be held from 6 to 10 p.m.

There also will be a free-for-all rumble that night.

Doors open an hour before competition begins.

All will be taped for broadcast starting Dec. 12 on Comedy Central. "BattleBots" airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. and repeats Saturdays at 5 and 11 p.m.

The metallic robots fight to the death in a large "Thunderdome-like" arena made of 20-feet high shatter-proof glass.

Called the "BattleBox," the arena features traps, bumpers, sledgehammers and surprise weapons such as tungsten-tipped buzz saws and spikes that pop up from the floor.

Winners in the super heavyweight and heavyweight divisions will receive $6,000, while the middleweight and lightweight victors will get $3,000. Second-place finishers will take home half that of the winners.

Rumble winners in super and heavyweight divisions will get $1,500, and middle and lightweight winners get $750.

The age range and technical level of competitors is wide, from 9 years old to middle-aged NASA scientists. The super heavyweight and heavyweight classes are for the older, more experienced robot builders, while younger people compete in the lightweight and middleweight divisions.

Two-thirds of the money from the program's sponsors goes to schools and the contestants. The show gets the remainder.

Every sporting event needs announcers, and "Battlebots" includes color commentator Bill Dwyer, play-by-play announcer Sean Salisbury, technical expert Bill Nye, comedic twins Randy and Jason Sklar of MTV's "Apartment 2F," and ringside commentator Donna D'Errico of "Baywatch" fame.