CCTV Spring Festival Gala 2026: humanoids take center stage

2026-02-16 · Publisher : CCTV · Domain : Robotics

A year after the Unitree H1s of the 2025 gala, robots from four Chinese companies (Unitree, Noetix, MagicLab, Galbot) take over China's most-watched TV night: martial arts, acrobatics and sketches.

### Background On February 16, 2026, the eve of the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival Gala of public broadcaster CCTV made humanoids one of its main attractions. More than a dozen robots from four Chinese companies appeared on air, a year after the Unitree H1s danced the Yangge at the 2025 edition. ### Specifications | Company | Performance | |---|---| | Unitree | martial arts routine with nunchaku, "duels" with performers, formation changes while running | | Noetix | four humanoids as home assistants in an elderly-care sketch | | MagicLab | acrobatic spin in the opening act, then a song about smart manufacturing | | Galbot | short film: wheeled robots folding laundry, sorting goods and cooking | According to Sixth Tone, companies reportedly spent millions of yuan to win a slot, and the hashtag "robots are fully invading the Gala" climbed to second place on Weibo. Unitree described its segment as the first demonstration of highly dynamic, coordinated swarm control among humanoids: a company claim. ### Why it matters The gala, watched every year by hundreds of millions of viewers, is a political and industrial showcase. Putting four manufacturers live on air confirms that humanoid robotics has become a national symbol of Chinese technological power, for the general public as much as for investors. ### Key takeaways In one year, robots went from a single act to a presence throughout the evening: the humanoid is settling into Chinese popular culture.

Tags : Humanoïde, Chine, Grand public, Spectacle