DOUBLE HELPINGS OF TASKMASTER’S NEW YEAR TREAT, CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS RETURNS AND THE OFFICIAL TASKMASTER ADVENT CALENDAR SELLS OUT ENTIRELY WEEKS BEFORE THE BIG DAY

With plenty of Task-based cheer in store, the annual special Taskmaster’s New Year Treat is confirmed to air two episodes over the festive period, giving fans double helpings for the first time ever. Meanwhile, the next Champion of Champions is also set to return over the Christmas period with a fierce battle for the ultimate title. Audience tickets for the recordings of these new shows are available exclusively via the mailing list with all proceeds going to charity. While the official Taskmaster Store have sold out of its brand-new interactive advent calendars, weeks out from Christmas.

Transmission details for Taskmaster’s New Year Treat and Taskmaster Champion of Champions will be revealed in due course, and tickets to be in the studio audiences will be released soon and can be accessed by signing up to the mailing list.

The Taskmaster is feeling particularly generous this year. The one-off seasonal special, Taskmaster’s New Year Treat, is set to air two episodes over the festive period for the first time ever. Gathering an eclectic mix of well-known faces from all corners of the entertainment world, Alex Horne and Greg Davies will put these five celebs through their paces across two instalments in the name of festive cheer. The five famous faces will be announced soon.

Meanwhile, the ultimate prize of Greg Davies’s buff body forged in gold is up for grabs with a brand-new Champion of Champions tournament. Featuring Sam Campbell, John Robins, Andy Zaltzman, and Mathew Baynton, who will return to the scene of the greatest triumph of their lives and battle once more. They’ll be joined by the winner of Series 20 which is currently being heroically fought every Thursday at 9pm GMT on Channel 4, and 10pm GMT globally via the Official YouTube Channel.

Fans will get the chance to be in the studio audiences of these shows by signing up to the mailing list for first access to audience tickets. In a bid to make studio tickets fairer for fans, Taskmaster are now selling guaranteed entry tickets. All proceeds (excluding ticketing partner’s fees and VAT) will be donated to three charities handpicked by Alex and Greg.

Elsewhere, this year has seen the creation of a brand-new Taskmaster Advent Calendar. Featuring 24 days of tasks, puzzles, festive joy, and a dash of delightful chaos, they entirely sold out shortly after going on sale, with production unable to keep up with the incredible demand. They were so popular that they sold out after only three weeks of being on sale and were purchased by fans everywhere from the U.S.A to The Philippines. The news arrives as a brand-new range of the Taskmaster Christmas Crackers have been released on the Taskmaster Store and can be found at TaskmasterStore.com.

WHAT THE PRESS HAVE SAID ABOUT SERIES 20 OF TASKMASTER SO FAR:

“One of British tv’s biggest success stories… Taskmaster conquered the world”
Rachael Healy, The Observer

“Another glorious series of Taskmaster”
The Telegraph

“It’s official, Taskmaster has gone global and deservedly so. Ever since this silly show’s incarnation in a hidden corner of British telly, it has been a consistent hour of pure, bonkers joy”
Sara Wallis, The Mirror

“The 20^th series kicks off with its trademark blend of comedy veterans, rising stars, and the ridiculing of Alex Horne… A strong start to the series”
The I, Pick Of The Day

“Few shows on TV are such a source of guaranteed delight as Taskmaster, and series 20(!) gets off to a roaring start tonight”
★★★★
Steven Perkins, TV Times Magazine

“Believe it or not, we have somehow reached series 20 of the reliably amusing competition”
★★★★
Boyd Hilton, Heat

“reliably inventive… it’s bellow – with – laughter funny”
Daily Mail

“the show’s good form continues into series 20”
Stuart Pink, The Sun

“The TV schedules are full of shows with scheming contestants being given silly challenges , but nowhere are the tasks such fun as they are here”
The Mail on Sunday

“Greg Davies and Alex Horne return for the 20th series of the madcap game show… We can’t wait!”
Daily Star

“Celebrating it’s 10^th anniversary on telly, the absolute masterclass in comedy that is Taskmaster returns for S20.”
Inside Soap

“belly laughs [are] guaranteed… We can’t wait!”
Laura, Carreno-Muller, New! Magazine

For more information contact:

Avalon: Florrie Sheehan, fsheehan@avalonuk.com
Channel 4: Kate Conway, KConway@Channel4.co.uk

US Publicity Team: Taskmaster@42west.com

About Taskmaster:

• Taskmaster is a BAFTA and Rose d’Or 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.

• 209 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, 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 six launched on TVNZ in 2025, while it previously 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 t is now in production for series four. The UK original won Canada’s film and TV Rockie Awards 2023 for best Comedy and Variety show.

• 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 2 million subscribers. The channel has had over 259 million hours’ worth of content viewed with 57% of those hours from North America (148 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 166 million views from North America so far this year, while there have been 210k 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. An advent calendar for Christmas 2025 went on sale earlier this year before entirely selling out and was purchased by fans across the globe from the U.S.A., to Italy, Brazil and beyond.

• 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