TASKMASTER ANNOUNCES BRAND NEW CONTESTANTS

THE UPCOMING SERIES WILL STAR:

CHLOE PETTS – ISY SUTTIE – MATT LUCAS – NINA CONTI – RICHARD AYOADE

 

As another triumphant task tournament comes to a close, the almighty Greg Davies and his efficient assistant Alex Horne announce a brand-new five-piece set of distinguished comedians that they are set to score and mark with the utmost scrutiny to determine who will emerge victorious and become the next front-runner to hold aloft that remarkably shiny representation of Greg’s incomparable head and become a Taskmaster Champion.

 

The quintet of comics who have willingly submitted themselves to the toughest physical and mental examination on television are: critically-acclaimed comedian and Edinburgh Fringe favorite Chloe Petts (Have I Got News For You, BBC One); award-winning comedian, writer, songwriter and actor Isy Suttie (Peep Show, C4); BAFTA winning actor, author, comedian, presenter, Matt Lucas (Gladiator II); actor, comedian, and ventriloquist Nina Conti (director of comedy feature Sunlight); and multi-award-winning comedian, actor, writer and director Richard Ayoade (Photographer at wedding in The Life & Death of Peter Sellers). Like so many before them, they all believe they can impress the Taskmaster, but only one can take home the glory.

 

Series 21 of the hit show saw an increase in viewership internationally which saw a 39% increase in impressions from North America compared to the previous series, with 4.2 million hours watched so far on the official YouTube channel, contributing to the 308 million hours viewed and 2.2 million subscribers and counting on the channel.

 

RECENT CRITICAL PRAISE FOR TASKMASTER:


#1 in the 10 BEST SHOWS TO WATCH, STREAM & LISTEN TO “This may be its 21st series, but there’s no sign of Taskmaster slowing down. In fact, this might be its most confident, muscular series yet – literally….”
Huw Fullerton, Radio Times

 

“Twenty one series in and it feels like Taskmaster (and Greg Davies’s ego) is only getting bigger. Quite how Alex Horne, the show’s creator and puzzle setter and Davies’s little helpmeet, keeps the ideas coming is a thing of great mystery, but the quality has yet to dim as the stars grow ever brighter”
Helen Stewart, The Sunday Times

 

PICKS OF THE DAY “It’s rare for a TV show to reach its 21st series, but Taskmaster has managed to do exactly that and, remarkably, it’s as funny and creative as ever… Amusing, chaotic, and very silly viewing”
★★★★
The Sun

 

“Once again, five comics subject themselves to the whims of Taskmaster Greg Davies and his loyal assistant ‘Little’ Alex Horne – and what a line-up! Taskmaster’s charm lies in its laser-focused ability to humiliate its participants while ensuring everybody is in on the joke – and that’s on show as the contenders hunt worms, launch T-shirts and try to feed a statue…”
★★★★★
Steven Perkins, TV Times

 

PICK OF THE WEEK “The International Emmy-nominated and BAFTA winning show is back for series 21. Our witty Taskmaster, Greg Davies, and the vigilant Little Alex Horne (who actually created the show) have a fantastic line up”
★★★★
The Daily Mail

 

“The 21st competition boasts an appropriately stellar line-up”
The Daily Telegraph

 

“one of the planet’s most consistently funny TV shows”
William Hughes, AV Club

 

TEN TO WATCH “a hearty dose of humour”
Lara Kilner, The I

 

PICK OF THE BEST TELLY THIS WEEK “Five more brave celebrities let go of their inhibitions and unleash their creativity to make TV comedy gold”
The Sun

 

“If you want proof that Taskmaster is an international hit, just look at the contestants in the 21st (yes, really) series”
Evening News / Sunday Life

 

“Taskmaster has succeeded through its delightfully silly premise that makes for the perfect comfort watch for anyone in need of a hearty laugh”
Ryan O’Rourke, Collider

 

“Taskmaster has seen its popularity surge in recent years, going from a cult hit in the UK to a genuine global sensation… What began as a niche British panel show, Taskmaster has evolved into one of the most consistently inventive comedy formats in television.”
Grace Leeder, Parade

 

“Taskmaster has long been the best television programme most Americas don’t know about… deliriously madcap… this is a show that is so much more than you can expect in all the best ways”
Michael Walsh, Nerdist

 

“telly’s silliest show kicks off”
Lynn Gibson, Inside Soap

 

“for us as the audience, there are few funnier things on TV”
★★★★
TV Times Magazine

 

“hilarious comedy antics”
★★★★
Kay Ribeiro, Heat Mag

 

WHAT TO WATCH TV PICK
Closer

 

“if there’s one thing guaranteed, it’s glorious, unfiltered chaos… it’s the perfect mix of silliness and sharp humour”
Take A Break

 

“an addictive British comedy favorite”
Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence

 

-ends-

 

For more information contact:

 

Channel 4

Kate Conway – kconway@channel4.co.uk

 

Avalon

Florrie Sheehan – FSheehan@avalonuk.com

 

Taskmaster Fact Sheet:

 

  • 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.

 

  • 224 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 recently received its second nomination for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the RTS Awards 2026, following a fifth BAFTA nomination for the 2025 awards and was 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, 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 it 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 with series 14 and 15 in production for TV4, produced by Avalon Television with Fremantle. 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 Warner Bros Discovery. Finland’s version of Taskmaster, Suurmestari, won Game Show of the Year at the Venla Gala 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 tenth 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 15 billion impressions since it first launched in October 2019, with just over 1.5 billion views and over 2.2 million subscribers. The channel has had over 308 million hours’ worth of content viewed with 57% of those hours from North America (180 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 95 million views from North America so far this year, while there were 270k new subscribers from North America in 2025 alone, which is three times more than it received for its previous series, while Season 21, which is airing now, is only mid-way through the season and has already seen a 39% increase in impressions from North America compared to the previous series, with 4.2 millions hours watched so far.
  • 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 a brand-new 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 was the latest festive product 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. It then went on to entirely sell out and was purchased by fans across the globe from the U.S.A., to Italy, Brazil and beyond.
  • 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 now sell 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. 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

 

 

 

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