DARA Ó BRIAIN, FERN BRADY, JOHN KEARNS, MUNYA CHAWAWA, SARAH MILLICAN
The BAFTA and National Comedy Award winning Taskmaster reveals the next line-up of comedy’s best and bravest souls set to feature in the 14th series of the critically-acclaimed global hit. The news arrives after the most absurd show on television enjoyed the one-off special Taskmaster Champion of Champions on Channel 4 where previous winners from series six to ten reunited for the ultimate battle of task titans.
Hoping to follow in their footsteps and become a Taskmaster Champion themselves are: stand-up comedian and television presenter Dara Ó Briain (Mock The Week, BBC Two), stand-up comedian Fern Brady (Live At The Apollo, BBC One), stand-up, writer, and actor John Kearns (the only comedian to have won both the Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Best Show and best Newcomer), comedian, broadcaster and leading digital creator Munya Chawawa (BAFTA Nominated Race Around Britain, YouTube Originals), and award-winning stand-up comedian Sarah Millican. As ever, Greg Davies will be perched on his regal throne as the Taskmaster, while the doting Little Alex Horne scuttles about his master’s feet as they judge and adjudicate the new round of hopefuls in the ultimate quest for victory.
Executive Producers for the series are Alex Horne, Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, James Taylor, Jon Thoday and Andy Devonshire (The Apprentice and The Great British Bake Off), who also acts as Series Director, while Andy Cartwright is Series Producer. Commissioned for Channel 4 by Head of Entertainment, Phil Harris and Head of Live Events, Tom Beck.
Transmission details to be revealed in due course
WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT TASKMASTER SERIES 13
“Taskmaster continues to be one of the most joyfully pure shows on TV, existing in its own world of all-pervasive daftness”
Phil Harrison, The Guardian
“The 13th series of this low-stakes contest has been a corker, channelling all the seriousness of a boozy stag do… all in the name of much-needed daft and delightful escapism”
Daniel Brooks, The Daily Telegraph
“Having recently won Best Comedy Entertainment Show at the National Comedy Awards and launched its own streaming service, Taskmaster Supermax+, this comedy challenge show is unstoppable… The laughs per minute are impossible to keep track of”
★★★★ TV Times Magazine
“Is there anything as dependably joyous as the sublimely silly game show presented by Greg Davies and his studiedly understated sidekick Alex Horne?”
★★★★★ The Mail on Sunday
“such gloriously innocent fun”
★★★★ Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
“Greg Davies and Alex Horne’s celebrity gauntlet Taskmaster has established itself as a telly staple”
Ammar Kalia, The Observer
“bursting at the seams with visual silliness… As ever with Taskmaster, this is tomfoolery at its finest”
Gemma Graham, The Sun
“It’s a typically rollicking edition of the daftest game show on TV”
Keith Watson, Metro
“inexplicably entertaining”
Victoria Segal, The Sunday Times
“it’s hard to beat”
David Butcher, Radio Times
“hugely entertaining”
★★★★ Jason Arnopp, Heat
“the comic chemistry of the contestants once again judged to perfection”
Gabriel Tate, The Sunday Telegraph
“Yet another cracking line-up of funny people assemble for the 13th series of the comedy world’s equivalent of National Service”
Joe Clay, The Times
“It’s always a joy to welcome another series of the show with some of the daftest but most entertaining challenges on TV”
Total TV Guide
“It may be 13 series in, but the daftest game show on the box has lost none of its might as a monstrously good line-up takes on the chaotic challenges”
Lynn Gibson, Inside Soap
“If it were a professional comedian, I’d call my agent to try and get on this show, because its great exposure”
Gerrard Gilbert, The I
“the ever inventive Little Alex Horne has been dreaming up loads more barmy challenges to set”
Mike Ward, The Daily Star
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Florrie Sheehan at Avalon: [email protected]
Kate Conway at Channel 4: [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.
- 138 episodes have been produced in the UK so far, with a further 11 ordered by Channel 4 as part of a landmark six season deal in 2020. Series 10 – 15 air on Channel 4 from Autumn 2020, following nine record-breaking series on UKTV’s Dave.
- 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 this year (Broadcast, 2020). 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 2021, Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and won Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018, having previously received two more nominations for both awards. It has also been nominated for the Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award at the NTA’s 2021, 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 94 countries and aired on The CW in the U.S. in 2020.
- Over 300 episodes have been produced outside the UK with local versions now on air across the Nordics, in New Zealand, Croatia and Portugal where it ranked third for most watched entertainment programs on its channel RTP.
- The format has seen huge success in Europe, with the Swedish version winning Programme of the Year at the Kristallen in 2020 and 2019 (Sweden’s TV Academy Awards) and its fifth series for SVT reaching ratings of over a 50% market share in a primetime weekend slot. Norway’s original version of Taskmaster, ‘Kongen Befaler’’s won Best Entertainment Show at the prestigious Golden Screen Awards 2020 and won the Norwegian TV Academy Award (Gullruten) for Best Entertainment in 2020, where a fourth has been commissioned by Discovery. Two new series have been ordered for MTV in Finland after its first episode ranked in the top ten most watched shows in the country, and a fifth series for TV2 in Denmark.
- The Taskmaster YouTube channel has seen huge success internationally, reaching just over 5.2 billion impressions since it first launched in October 2019, with just under half of the channel’s views and over a third of its subscribers originating from the U.S. The channel has had over 76 million hours worth of content viewed with 42% of those hours from the US (31 million hours watched). The show has grown significantly in popularity with U.S. audiences and over the last year there have been total of 56 million views in the last 12 months, while the channel audience has increased by 438% in the USA.
- #HomeTasking had over 100 million impressions across all content on YouTube. Viewing grew by 42%, while subscribers grew by 85% since it launched on the Taskmaster YouTube channel. It was watched in 125 countries with viewers ranging from the US to the UK and from Moldova to Mongolia.
- The Taskmaster Book 200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People has sold over 136,251 copies, while a second book ‘Bring Me The Head of the Taskmaster’ published in September 2021 and has sold almost 30,000 to date. Both books featured as Sunday Times Bestsellers at launch. The Swedish version of the book has sold 108,000 copies to date.
- A Taskmaster boardgame was released in Autumn 2019 and entirely sold out a week after it went on sale. It has sold almost 180,000 copies to date along with an expansion pack. Both are available to buy on the official Taskmaster shop, TaskmasterStore.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 £115,000, 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.
