The metallic arm hammer strikes down with enough force to rattle Sub Zero’s foundation. It knocks a few screws loose and sends a few sparks flying. Shatter’s a stick-and-move type of competitor. It shows in how it darts out of danger, at one point even escaping the fury of a flamethrower drone nearby. Everything in this industrial arena is meant to maul you. That’s what makes the hit TV show BattleBots so hair-raisingly exciting to watch.

“It’s three minutes of chaos. You’re laughing at some of the stuff, because it’s inherently funny to watch robots try and kill each other,” says Chris Rose, who hosts the Discovery Channel bot battles with former UFC fighter Kenny Florian. “It’s the perfect scenario for anybody at any age. Who doesn’t like seeing stuff blown up without people getting hurt?”

Rose, who has been a celebrated studio host for NFL Network, MLB Network (Intentional Talk) and The Chris Rose Rotation, joined BattleBots during its 2015 Discovery Channel reboot. “It’s hilarious, because I have the good fortune of working in the NFL, I still cover Major League Baseball and I get asked more about BattleBots than anything else,” the sportscaster says.

Now in its seventh season, BattleBots will return for a live taping of its world championship at Caesars Entertainment Studios from October 18-30, with 50 of the world’s best bots competing for the Giant Nut trophy. Ahead of the carnage, we caught up with Rose about what to expect.

You weren’t familiar with BattleBots before you joined the show. What was your impression after seeing it in action? I thought it was nuts. I was like, wait a second, there’s a pair of 250-pound robots inside of a bulletproof glass cube? Kenny and I looked at each other and were like, this is amazing. As good as it is on television, it’s crazy in person. Just walking around the pit area, seeing all the teams building the bots and the actual fighting, which is way louder than you expect. I felt like a little kid.

Is the competitive energy as fierce backstage as it appears to be? They wanna win. I break them up into sub groups. There are the legends of the sport. They know the ins and outs, but they also know they have to step up their game, because there’s a younger wave of bot builder that’s gonna figure stuff out. They might have been late teenagers at that time, interested in the tech world, love being a part of STEM but hadn’t taken that leap into the BattleBots world. Now they’re the ones who want to take down the legends.

Tombstone and Lockjaw, those are the old guards, those are the people who have won multiple giant nuts before. And they’ve been replaced by this new wave of talent. By the End Games of the world, by Tantrum. These are people in their early to mid 20s, who grew up idolizing these people, and they want to kick their butt.

Then there’s [another] group, some of them are families that decided to take a leap of faith and do something together, even if they don’t have this in their DNA or work as engineers. They are just super-excited to be there. It’s essentially like if they were high school football players and got to play with Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers on a Sunday.

How has your chemistry with your co-host Kenny Florian evolved? Kenny is super intelligent. He’s bright. He’s well-read. He’s funny. But he’s not as tall as I am, so I’ve got something on him.

I realized very early that when there’s somebody whose job it was to literally kill somebody in the ring, it was my job to make sure I stayed on his good side. I think I’ve done that for the better part of seven years. He’s a really likable person. Most people, when they turn on a television show or they listen to a podcast, can tell when chemistry is forced, because then it’s not chemistry. He puts up with my corny dad jokes, and I deal with his screwed up ears from his wrestling and jiu jitsu days.

Can you recall your most memorable BattleBots fight? Several seasons ago, there was an extra fight between Tombstone and Tantrum. Tantrum had these fists on the end of its robot, and Tombstone sliced it off with its blade going near 250 miles an hour. It ended up lodged in the battle box, in the corner where there’s a bit of padding and the glass sheets come together. It had lodged in there, fist out. It was a one in a gazillion shot. So that was a great memory.

One of our first seasons, one of the legendary flipping bots called Bronco flipped another robot called Stinger, which is one that breathes fire. He lifted it, and the thing just cascaded through the air as a 250-pound ball of flame and went out of the arena. It was utterly fantastic.

Local team Vegas Combat Robotics returns with its robot Jackpot for a shot at the championship. What are the survival chances? They’ve done great in their few seasons on the show. I don’t believe they’ve lost a regular-season match. The first year is kind of a blur for these rookie teams, they’re hanging on for dear life. You always get one that will shock everyone. But a team like Jackpot, they’ve been through it, they’ve won a little bit. They know what it’s like to have to get your robot rebuilt in a short time span.

This thing is really won in the back of the pits. It’s not so much won in the box, because even when you win, you lose. You’re going to take so much damage that it’s a question of how much can you get ready for your next fight. I think they’re learning that.

From what you’ve seen, what’s the ultimate key to victory? It’s about a team effort. Kenny always says it, but styles make fights. You could be a great robot, but you could get a bad draw. That makes it so much more difficult. It helps to have a great driver. It helps to have a fast robot. But one little wire off ,and your match is blown. That’s why you have to watch everything. And that’s what makes it so much fun.

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October 18-30, Caesars Entertainment Studios, battlebots.com/tickets

Amber Sampson is a Staff Writer for Las Vegas Weekly. She got her start in journalism as an intern at ...

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