TICKET BALLOT CREATED TO MEET OVERWHELMING DEMAND

SIGN UP BEFORE 19^TH JUNE TO BE IN WITH A CHANCE

“Taskmaster is miraculous. It deserves to be carried through the streets in a sedan chair”
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian

“relentlessly good vibes and ludicrous fun”
Phil Harrison, The Observer

“it remains one of television’s most entertaining forms of escapism”
The Telegraph

“The comedy game show, a wonderful hour of nonsense, [its] as vibrant as ever” 
Stuart Pink, The Sun

EMBARGO 10:05am Wednesday 29^th May 2024: London – Wednesday 29^th May 2024 – Supreme Taskmaster Greg Davies and his devoted assistant Little Alex Horne have confirmed that Taskmaster: The Live Experience will launch this Autumn. Taking place at Dock X (which previously was the home of Macbeth starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma), from 18^th September 2024 to 25^th January 2025, Taskmaster: The Live Experience gives fans a chance to complete real tasks and compete against one another as Taskmaster contestants in this brand-new interactive adventure. An overwhelming response from fans was received, so a ticket ballot has been created to allocate tickets to Taskmaster fans in the fairest way possible.

The Taskmaster: The Live Experience ticket ballot will be drawn from 10am on 19^th June, with a general on sale from 21^st June. You can sign up on TaskmasterLiveExperience.com. If already signed up to Taskmaster: The Live Experience mailing list you will automatically be entered into the ballot.

Taskmaster Greg Davies and his assistant Little Alex Horne said: “We were hoping 100,000 people might sign up to the Live Experience mailing list, but when 250,000 did, we were excited and scared respectively. Do you want to compete in ludicrous tasks, just like your favourite comedians? Of course you do! And you can still sign up to Taskmaster: The Live Experience mailing list right now to enter the ticket ballot”.

Taskmaster: The Live Experience gives fans the chance to step into the shoes of their favourite comedians and enter the iconic Taskmaster House. Based on the BAFTA and National Comedy Award winning hit TV show, brand-new ridiculous and infuriating tasks set in the lab, living room, shed and other recognisable locations will get contestants battling for points, culminating in a final in the studio theatre where one player will win the Taskmaster’s seal of approval.

The Live Experience has two unique gameplay experiences to choose from, Melon Buffet and Absolute Casserole, each containing different tasks and challenges. There are bespoke videos throughout from Little Alex Horne who has finally got his own team of assistants (Little Little Alex Hornes) to lead participants through the tasks, with each experience concluding in a final task on-stage. The Experience starts and ends in the Taskmaster Garden, giving guests the chance to explore what’s really in the shed, have a photo with the cow, and discover hidden tasks, along with the Taskmaster Museum, a brand-new Caravan Bar with Taskmaster themed drinks like Bin Juice cocktail and Caskmaster beer, and food available at Little Alex Horne’s Kitchen menu.

Further details about the Taskmaster: The Live Experience will be revealed in due course. You can sign up to the ballot and mailing list here.  

-ends- 

For more information contact:

Avalon 

Florrie Sheehan – FSheehan@avalonuk.com

About Taskmaster:

• Taskmaster is a BAFTA winning and International Emmy nominated comedy entertainment show originally created by Alex Horne. Greg Davies stars as the all-powerful “Taskmaster” who, with the help of his loyal assistant Horne, sets out to test the wiles, wit and wisdom of five comedians through a series of strange and surreal challenges in what is the most hard-fought and ridiculous comedy entertainment format on TV.

• 159 episodes have been produced in the UK so far, as part of a landmark six season deal with Channel 4 in 2020, which has recently been renewed for a further six series by the broadcaster following nine record-breaking series on UKTV’s Dave.

• Over the past year, Taskmaster triumphed as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes, coming in as the channel’s third most streamed title of the year with 2.3 billion viewing minutes recorded across all series watched in 2023. The launch episode of series 15 alone has had 85.4million streaming minutes viewed so far. Previously, the show enjoyed its best performance on record with its Channel 4 launch which reached 3.9 million consolidated views after the first episode, winning the majority share of young viewers 16 – 34’s and making it the best-performing new entertainment show of the year (Broadcast, 2020). Watched by a broad multi-generational audience, it was Channel 4’s youngest skewing series last year, and in terms of audience share of young viewers (16-34) it is in the top three in the coveted 9pm slot, with Gogglebox and Derry Girls. Taskmaster is also hugely popular on All 4, where it is available for free and, since 2021, the average views per episode [0-7Days, O+O] have grown for the title with each series. Since the programme’s initial launch in 2015 on UKTV’s Dave, Taskmaster’s audience has grown by 80% from series one to series nine.

• Taskmaster was crowned Best Comedy Entertainment Show at the National Comedy Awards 2022 and 2023, Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and won Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018, having previously received two more nominations for the Broadcast Awards and recently picking up its third BAFTA nomination for the 2023 ceremony. It has also been nominated for the Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award at the NTA’s 2021 and 2022, Best Comedy Entertainment at Rose d’Or 2023, Studio Entertainment at Rose d’Or 2021, Best Entertainment Programme at the RTS Awards, Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, the Broadcast Digital Awards, Edinburgh TV Award, the TV Choice Awards, and Best Returning Format in the International Format Awards 2020.

• The original Taskmaster programme has been sold to 120 countries and aired on The CW in the U.S. in 2020.

• Over 88 seasons and 881 episodes have been commissioned outside the UK with local versions now in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Nordics, Croatia and Portugal where it ranked first for most watched entertainment programs on its channel RTP 1. Taskmaster Australia launched on Network Ten where it became the channel’s top new show of the year and received a nomination for Most Outstanding Comedy at the Logies, produced by Avalon Television with Kevin&Co and featuring Tom Gleeson as the Taskmaster with Tom Cashman as the Taskmaster’s Assistant, and and Taskmaster New Zealand series 5 will launch on TVNZ in 2024, while it won Best Entertainment Show at the NZ TV Awards. The first season of Le Maitre du Jeu for Bell Media, which aired in Canada in September 2022, increased Noovo’s performance in the Thursday time slot by 50%, while the UK original won Canada’s film and TV Rockie Awards 2023 for best Comedy and Variety show. Taskmaster Canada is now in production for series 3.

• The format has seen huge success in Europe, with the Swedish version reaching ratings of over a 50% market share in a primetime weekend slot on SVT and series 9 is in production for TV4, produced by Avalon Television with Baluba. Norway’s local version of Taskmaster, Kongen Befaler, won the Norwegian TV Academy Award (Gullruten) for Best Comedy Show in 2024, where a tenth season is in production for Discovery. Finland’s version of Taskmaster, Suurmestari, won Game Show of the Year at the Venla Gaala awards, with a sixth series ordered by MTV3, with the channel also launching the first international version of Junior Taskmaster later this year. Stormester, Denmark’s Taskmaster, which is now in its ninth series, won Best Game Show at the 2022 Vindere Awards, with TV2 launching successful Taskmaster spin off series, ‘Champion of Champions’ in 2023 and ‘One More Chance’ 2024, which achieved an incredible 82% share in the 15-34 demo.

• The Taskmaster YouTube channel has seen huge success internationally, reaching over 9.8 billion impressions since it first launched in October 2019, with just over 736 million views and over 1.5 million subscribers, of which over a third are from North America. The channel has had over 168 million hours’ worth of content viewed with 54% of those hours from North America (85 million hours watched). The show has grown significantly in popularity with American audiences and over the last year there have been a total of 107 million views.

• The Taskmaster book ‘200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People’ was published in 2018, while a second book ‘Bring Me The Head of the Taskmaster’ was published in September 2021 and combined they have sold 180,000 copies to date. Both books featured as Sunday Times Bestsellers at launch. The Swedish version of the book has sold 108,000 copies to date.

• For the first time, Taskmaster is entering the world of virtual reality with the brand new upcoming virtual reality game, Taskmaster VR. Published by Scallywag Arcade, a Draw & Code studio, Taskmaster VR is set to launch in 2024 for Meta Quest 2 and 3.

• The festive season saw the launch of brand-new Taskmaster Crackers which entirely sold out before they hit the shelves at pre-sale. Having currently sold over a quarter of a million crackers to fans across the world, production has gone into overdrive to meet phenomenal demand in time for Christmas. They are currently on sale and can be found on the Taskmaster Store as well as Amazon where they became an official No.1 best-seller and have been ordered by fans across 58 countries around the globe including in North America, Australia, Thailand, South Korea and Iceland among other countries.

• A Taskmaster boardgame was released in Autumn 2019 and entirely sold out a week after it went on sale. It has sold over 250,000 copies to date along with an expansion pack. A second game, Taskmaster The Secret Series Game was released in 2022. Taskmaster The Card Game was released in September 2022 and has sold over 70,000 copies to date. All the games are available to buy from the official Taskmaster shop, www.TaskmasterStore.com.

• Taskmaster Education takes elements of the show and uses them to inspire, engage and teach children and young people. Tasks can be adapted to meet a near infinite range of teacher objectives, whether curriculum-based or more focused on social and emotional development. Taskmaster Club launched in September 2023, offering schools across the country the opportunity to host after school clubs that bring Little Alex Horne and the silly joy of Taskmaster into their classrooms. Over 800 schools in the UK have registered to date on com.

• Taskmaster is working with Homeless Link; the national membership charity for frontline homelessness services, creating a virtual Taskmaster at Home event with all the money raised going to homeless charities across the UK. Having raised over £125,000, more information on the virtual event can be found here.

• The launch of series 13 also saw the unveiling of the brand new Taskmaster App; a show companion where viewers can watch the show on TV and score along at home, taking on the role of the mighty Taskmaster themselves. The app also features the Taskmaster Academy with quizzes from every series of the show, group and solo tasking games, and a Jukebox featuring all of the music from the show.

Taskmaster can be watched on:
TaskmasterSuperMax+
Channel 4 / All 4
Taskmaster YouTube Channel
iTunes
Google
Amazon
Microsoft

About Dock X:

The ultimate blank canvas, Dock X is a former industrial warehouse in the thriving community of London’s Canada Water (10 minutes tube from Waterloo). Set over 3,000 square metres, the space combines the flexibility of ‘black-box’ industrial architecture with the convenience and facilities of a modern venue. The steel-framed building is completely open plan, with a ceiling height of over 6 metres and an abundance of natural light, allowing for a range of spatial environments and transformations. The perfect place to imagine large-scale exhibitions, immersive experiences and cultural pop-ups. Additional uses include car launches, conferences, awards dinners, brand activations, teambuilding and ticketed events for up to 1,500 guests, as well as studio, TV and film shoots with unit base requirements.