CONTINUING ITS RISE AS THE NEW SEASON PREMIERES SIMULTANEOUSLY IN UK AND U.S. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER
LONDON / LOS ANGELES – Wednesday 27th August 2025: As the official Taskmaster YouTube channel hits over one billion views and 1.94 million subscribers worldwide – making it the biggest British comedy show on YouTube – it has been announced that the upcoming 20th season of the BAFTA and Rose d’Or winning show will air online simultaneously in the UK and U.S. for the first time ever. The growing global audience for Taskmaster will be able to watch brand-new episodes on the same day as they launch in the U.K. on Thursday 11th September at 9pm to watch or stream on Channel 4, and then from 10pm BST / 5pm EST / 2pm PST on YouTube.
Season 20 will premier on Channel 4 and then air worldwide on Thursday 11th September at 10pm BST / 5pm EST / 2pm PST on the Taskmaster YouTube Channel
Airing full episodes for free in multiple territories across the globe, The Taskmaster YouTube channel has vastly grown in popularity since embarking on its pioneering release strategy in 2019. It has seen huge success internationally, particularly in North America, reaching over 13 billion impressions since it first launched, with just over 1.2 billion views and over 1.9 million subscribers.
The popularity and success of the show on YouTube has seen it generate a loyal audience with the U.S. public and significant U.S. TV critics, including seeing the show’s stars Alex Horne and Greg Davies be invited to appear multiple times on late night chat shows, even though they had never been on American television before. Their first appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers became their second most streamed interview online (second only to his interview with Barack Obama), while a recent guest on the latest season, Jason Mantzoukas, was also invited to appear on Late Night with Seth Meyers to talk about Taskmaster. The growing audience in North America has meant that Alex & Greg hosted in person screenings of the show across two live appearances in New York which completely sold out within one hour after going on sale.
The most recent season of Taskmaster saw the show grow significantly in popularity with American audiences throughout 2025 with over 123 million views from North America so far this year, while there have been 200k new subscribers from North America in 2025 alone. The season-on-season growth has seen the previous season 19 recently deliver 19 million views and 175 million impressions, which is three times more than what the show received for its previous season.
The brand-new season 20 sees the latest five-piece super group of stellar comics: Ania Magliano, Maisie Adam, Phil Ellis, Reece Shearsmith and Sanjeev Bhaskar go head-to-head in a series of bizarre tasks designed to display the greatest wit, skill and, above all, common sense. Greg Davies’s role as the almighty Taskmaster is to watch his five new contestants obediently perform for his amusement as he sorts wheat from chaff to award points to those who deserve them while his doting assistant and sidekick Little Alex Horne expertly administers proceedings. Who will emerge victorious and hold aloft that remarkable 24 carat representation of Greg’s incomparable head and win the coveted title of Taskmaster Champion?
WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT TASKMASTER:
“Taskmaster” has long been one of my favorite shows… In addition to being silly and enchanting, “Taskmaster” is breathtakingly novel: I’m amazed by its capacity to remain unpredictable to both its viewers and its participants… Season 19 (19!) — is among the best of the best, and it’s an ideal entree for new viewers”
Margaret Lyons, The New York Times
“[The show’s] simple premise has achieved immense popularity… This, in all of its weirdness, is the magic of Taskmaster”
Chris Karnadi, The Atlantic
“Imagine “The Great British Bake Off” with fangs. That’s the appeal of “Taskmaster,” a truly singular British comedy competition series”
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times
“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
“It has become a huge success in the States”
Simon Thompson, Forbes
“One of the most consistently entertaining comedy game shows on air these days”
Clare Martin, Paste Magazine
“Taskmaster is arguably one of the better things to ever come out of England”
Sam Barsanti, AV 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
“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
For more information contact:
Avalon: Florrie Sheehan, fsheehan@avalonuk.com
Channel 4: Kate Conway, KConway@Channel4.co.uk
US Publicity Team: Taskmaster@42west.com
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.
- 214 episodes have been produced in the UK so far, as part of a landmark six season deal with Channel 4 in 2020, which was renewed for a further six series by the broadcaster along with a brand-new spin off series Junior Taskmaster, following nine record-breaking series on UKTV’s Dave.
- Taskmaster has triumphed as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes in recent years, Taskmaster is already watched by a broad multi-generational audience and is in Channel 4’s top three series of audience share of young viewers (16-34) in the coveted 9pm slot, with Gogglebox and Derry Girls. Taskmaster is also hugely popular on Channel 4’s streaming service, with the average views per episode [0-7Days, O&O] growing since 2021. 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. Taskmaster is one of the youngest skewing shows on Channel 4, with nearly a quarter of its audience last year aged 16-34, across both linear and streaming. Across 2024 Taskmaster was in the top 5 most streamed shows on Channel 4, for all individuals.
- Taskmaster has received its fifth BAFTA nomination for the 2025 awards and was recently crowned Best Entertainment Craft at the 2025 BAFTAs, and Best Comedy Entertainment at the Rose D’Or Awards 2024. Previously it has 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. 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, Best Returning Format in the International Format Awards 2020, and received two BAFTA Craft nominations in 2023 and 2025. While it’s spin of series Junior Taskmaster took home the prize for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the Royal Television Society Awards 2025.
- 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 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 four.
- The format has seen huge success in Europe, with the Swedish version reaching ratings of over a 65% market share in a primetime weekend slot on SVT and series 11 and 12 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 twelfth season is in production for Discovery. Finland’s version of Taskmaster, Suurmestari, won Game Show of the Year at the Venla Gaala awards, with five series aired and six more 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 making it their most successful comedy entertainment series ever with a 50% share of all viewers, 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, particularly in North America, reaching over 13 billion impressions since it first launched in October 2019, with just over 1.2 billion views and over 1.9 million subscribers. The channel has had over 248 million hours’ worth of content viewed with 57% of those hours from North America (133 million hours watched). The show has grown significantly in popularity with American audiences throughout 2025. There has been an 85% increase in North American viewership year on year, with over 123 million views from North America so far this year, while there have been 200k new subscribers from North America in 2025 alone, which is three times more than it received for its previous series.
- 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. Both books featured as Sunday Times Bestsellers at launch and were followed by 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. Combined they have collectively sold over one million units globally. The Swedish version of the book has sold 108,000 copies to date.
- For the first time, Taskmaster entered 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 went into overdrive to meet phenomenal demand in time for Christmas. They became an official No.1 best-seller on Amazon 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.
- 2025 has seen the creation and release of a brand-new Taskmaster Advent Calendar, which is the latest festive product hitting the shelves for Christmas 2025. Over 15,000 calendars were sold on the first day of pre-orders in July, making it the fastest selling merchandise item in Taskmaster history. Pre-orders are available from the official merchandise store here.
- 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.
- For the first time ever, fans could 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 well into 2025 to keep up with demand for tickets.
- In a bid to make studio tickets fairer to get for fans, Taskmaster are now selling guaranteed entry tickets to see the show being recorded. All proceeds (excluding ticketing partner’s fees and VAT) will be donated to three charities handpicked by Alex and Greg: Slough Homeless Our Concern, Thames Valley Adventure Playground, and LOROS Hospice. Studio tickets for Series 21 have sold out, however you can sign up to the mailing list to be the first to hear about upcoming ticket releases.
Taskmaster can be watched on:
TaskmasterSuperMax+
Taskmaster YouTube Channel
Channel 4 / All 4
iTunes
Google
Amazon
Microsoft
