WITH A WORLD PREMIERE OF TASKMASTER SEASON 19
THE TOWN HALL, NEW YORK – TUESDAY 21ST JANUARY 2025
“Every episode is funny and surprising. This is the show I have recommended most often and most insistently to my friends and family”
Margaret Lyons, The New York Times
“One of the most consistently entertaining comedy game shows on air these days”
Clare Martin, Paste Magazine
“there’s never been a better time for Taskmaster, one of Great Britain’s many hidden television gems, to finally make its way to the United States”
Lauren Coates, Vulture
“It has become a huge success in the States, gaining 130,000 US subscribers in the last 12 months and reaching 200 million views and 60 million hours watched on YouTube”
Simon Thompson, Forbes
After making their American debut earlier this year with an event that sold out in minutes and saw fans travelling from far and wide to attend, the almighty Taskmaster Greg Davies and his diligent Assistant (and show creator) Alex Horne have announced they will return to New York to host the world premiere of the first episode of the brand-new Taskmaster season 19. Taking place at The Town Hall in New York on Tuesday 21st January 2025, this will be the very first time audiences anywhere will have a chance to watch the latest season of the International Emmy nominated, BAFTA and National Comedy Award winning show.
Tickets are on sale now and can be found online here
As well as the first ever screening of the latest season, the event will include an on-stage interview with Alex Horne and Greg Davies, and an exclusive task for the audience to take part in, giving a lucky few people the chance to compete in a real Taskmaster task and be judged and scored by the Taskmaster and his Little Assistant themselves.
Transmission details for Taskmaster Season 19 will be revealed in due course. The season will be available to watch on Channel 4 in the UK, and on the Official Taskmaster YouTube Channel, and streaming platform Taskmaster SuperMax+ globally
RECENT CRITICAL PRAISE FOR TASKMASTER IN THE U.S.:
“[The show’s] simple premise has achieved immense popularity… This, in all of its weirdness, is the magic of Taskmaster”
Chris Karnadi, The Atlantic
“Taskmaster has risen from a strange little British comedy show to becoming a global cult phenomenon”
Jeremy Fuster, The Wrap
“Television’s most joyful celebration of silliness and lateral thinking has had a great 2023”
William Hughes, A.V. Club
Effortlessly charming… The show exists in its own kind of universe… Taskmaster has become beloved the world over
Maggie Boccella, Collider
“Among the thriving ecosystem of panel shows in the United Kingdom, one reigns supreme across the pond: Taskmaster. The uproariously silly and witheringly hilarious show… The program has exploded in popularity in the U.S. over the past few years, thanks to a strong YouTube presence, even stronger word-of-mouth support, and the sheer quality of the comedy”
Pete Volk, Polygon
Over the past few years, the British comedy game series Taskmaster has risen from very specific Anglophile favorite to what’s arguably the internet’s favorite casual watch. It’s a show that’s proven so infectious among its fans that we’re often dying to get other people into it, sharing clips around and doing our best to turn as many people as possible on to its zaniness.
Matthew Jackson, Vulture
There’s a lot to love about Taskmaster, the U.K.’s most unhinged panel show
Tara Ariano, Cracked
“The delightful British comedy show”
Lauren Piester, The Messenger
“Greg Davies and Alex Horne have made the UK’s Taskmaster into an addictive cultural phenomenon”
Brittany Frederick, CBR
“The show is absurd, the tasks are pointless, and currently, its YouTube channel is buttressing a significant portion of my emotional well-being… Watching Taskmaster feels like watching your funniest friends do stupid shit outside a bar after several beers — ridiculous, endearing, and sometimes genuinely impressive”
Magdeleine Aggeler, The Cut
“widely entertaining series…It’s a clever take on the classic British panel show format that doubles as a devious way to torture its celebrity guests — with hilarious, and occasionally genius, results.”
Lauren Messman, The New York Times
“Taskmaster is a weird show where weirdos thrive, and series 16 has been an all-timer in terms of eccentric contestants… it is the kind of thing that makes Taskmaster so special”
Jen Lennon, The A.V. Club
“there is perhaps no better show for American audiences to discover right now…Every episode is funny and silly and exciting”
Lea Palmieri, The Decider
“you’re going to need to tune in… Prepare yourselves for the giggle of a lifetime… and if you haven’t yet set your eyes upon this feast of comedy, you are in for a treat.”
Lauren Piester, E!
“Taskmaster” is the funniest show on TV you’re not watching, and it has been since 2015. It’s probably the funniest show on TV, period. And there are 16 seasons, all streaming for free on YouTube, to brighten your life.”
Kelly Lawler, USA Today
“Taskmaster is arguably one of the better things to ever come out of England”
Sam Barsanti, AV Club
Start your viewing pleasure now… you’ll have a blast
Matthew Schuchman, Clutch Points
“It’s the gift from across the pond that keeps on giving”
Allegra Rosenberg, Polygon
RECENT CRITICAL PRAISE FOR TASKMASTER IN THE UK:
“Taskmaster is miraculous. It deserves to be carried through the streets in a sedan chair”
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian
“the world’s hottest comedy show”
Liam Kelly, The Telegraph
“Another series full of relentlessly good vibes and ludicrous fun”
Phil Harrison, The Observer
“the king of celebrity reality TV… If you want to watch mildly famous people complete inessential tasks, there’s only one real winner. No one does that task better than Taskmaster.”
Killian Faith-Kelly, GQ
“genuinely beloved Channel 4 gameshow Taskmaster… one of comedy’s most cuddly and likeable programmes”
Marc Burrows, The New Statesman
“the most imaginative thing on TV”
Isobel Lewis, The i
“One of the most effortless and reliable pleasures TV has to offer.”
Phil Harrison, The Guardian
“Has there ever been a comedy show as consistently brilliant as Taskmaster? Each instalment is dripping with quality”
Stuart Pink, The Sun
“TV’s most beloved if pointless celebrity competitions”
Hollie Richardson, The Observer
“nearly five years on it’s a veritable TV empire… [and] it’s clear that success hasn’t diluted Taskmaster’s inventiveness and verve”
Huw Fullerton, Radio Times
“The absurdist comedy competition has not yet encountered a shortage of willing victims and as the latest gang settles in”
Helen Stuart, The Sunday Times
“Once a hidden gem watched by only a cult few, now big star comedians queue up for a place on this bonkers game show”
Sara Wallis, The Mirror
“It’s testament to the razor-sharp wit and ingenuity of Greg Davies and ‘Little’ Alex Horne that, 18 series in, Taskmaster remains the most wildly hilarious hour on television” ★★★★★
Steven Perkins, TV Times Magazine
“Returning for an 18th series – with no sign yet of its exceptionally enthusiastic fan base crumbling – omnipotent Taskmaster Greg Davies and his grovelling general factotum Alex Horne subject another handful of humiliation-loving comedians to degradation and impossibly silly tasks in pursuit of one of TV’s great prizes.”
Gerard O’Donovan, The Sunday Telegraph
“It’s not every panel show that can broadcast two series a year and feel fresh each episode, but Taskmaster is a cut above.” ★★★★
Nicola Tucker, TV Times Magazine
“this much-loved show. As always, the ridiculous tasks result in a lot of laugher… the competition gets off to a cracking start – literally… brilliant fun”
Gemma Graham, The Sun
“The Taskmaster format seems to be unbreakable… it’s hilariously funny… and it never repeats itself either, so always feels fresh as a daisy”
Daily Star
“Quite possibly the best show in the telly is back for its 18th season and, amazingly, it manages to be as funny and entertaining as the very first episode”
Love It!
“a global sensation”
Bruce Dessau, What To Watch
“this television masterpiece… still as funny as ever. Just watch it – it’s brilliant”
Love It!
“Praise be, Taskmaster is back… In an uncertain world, it’s good to know there are some things you can rely on. The sun rising in the morning… And, of course, Taskmaster, the endlessly inventive task-based comedy game show that serves up reliably bonkers entertainment series after series.”
Chris Miller, Virgin Media
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Venue: The Town Hall, New York
Address: 123 West 43rd St, New York, NY 10036, United States
Date: Tuesday 21st January 2025
Tickets: link here
For more information contact:
Avalon:
Florrie Sheehan
Email:[email protected]
42West:
Britney Ross | Tara Fitzpatrick | Justin Solar | Lauren Denker | Lexi Krzycki
Email: [email protected]
Notes to Editors:
- 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.
- 170 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.
- Taskmaster has triumphed as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes in recent years, coming in as the channel’s third most streamed title of year of 2023 with 2.3 billion viewing minutes recorded across all series watched in the year. The launch episode of the latest series [S17] averaged an audience of 3.2m, with 40% of viewing coming from streaming [0-28days, all platforms]. Watched by a broad multi-generational audience, Taskmaster was Channel 4’s youngest skewing series last year, and in terms of audience share of young viewers (16-34) across last year’s series on the channel it was second only to Gogglebox in the coveted 9pm slot. Taskmaster is also hugely popular on Channel 4 streaming, 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 recently crowned Best Comedy Entertainment at the Rose D’Or Awards 2024, and has previously won Best Comedy Entertainment Show at the National Comedy Awards 2022 and 2023, Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018, having previously received two more nominations for the Broadcast Awards and recently picking up its fourth 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 can now be seen in 120 countries
- Over 92 seasons and 921 episodes have been commissioned outside the UK with local versions now in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Croatia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, 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 10.9 billion impressions since it first launched in October 2019, with just over 870 million views and over 1.6 million subscribers, of which over a third are from North America. The channel has had over 196 million hours’ worth of content viewed with 56% of those hours from North America (108 million hours watched). The show has grown significantly in popularity with American audiences and over the last year there have been a total of 123 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. This Autumn saw the launch of a brand-new book celebrating the ten year anniversary of Taskmaster; ‘An Absolute Casserole: The Taskmaster Compendium’ which launched in November 2024.
- 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 launched 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.
- Taskmaster: The Board Game was released in Autumn 2019 and entirely sold out a week after it went on sale. A second game, Taskmaster: The Secret Series Game was released in 2022. Taskmaster: The Card Game was released also released in 2022. Across the range, over 400,000 games have been sold to date. All the games are available to buy from the official Taskmaster shop, 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.
- For the first time ever, fans can step into the shoes of their favourite comedians and complete tasks themselves with Taskmaster: The Live Experience. The launch of the brand-new interactive adventure saw it receive rave reviews, selected as one of Time Out’s ‘Top London Comedy Shows to See’, and Metro’s ‘best adventures to be had in London’. The most ludicrous experience in London extended its run and will now run up to Sunday 23rd February 2025. Tickets can be found at com.
Taskmaster can be watched on:
TaskmasterSuperMax+
Taskmaster YouTube Channel
Channel 4 / All 4
iTunes
Google
Amazon
Microsoft
