CHANNEL 4 COMMISSIONS PILOT FROM ALEX HORNE

It was announced today, 9th June 2026, that Channel 4 are piloting a new play-at-home gameshow, Your Time Starts Now (w/t), devised and developed by Alex Horne, creator and host of BAFTA and Rose D’Or winning Taskmaster and Andy Devonshire, founding Series Director on shows including The Apprentice, The Great British Bake Off and Taskmaster.

Set in the Taskmaster universe, the new show builds on the at-home ingenuity of earlier incarnation The Button, which Horne devised and narrated in 2018, and HomeTasking that saw Horne on a mission to entertain a world stuck in 2020’s lockdown.  Your Time Starts Now will see UK households compete against one another while tackling a host of his typically devious tasks without ever leaving their homes. Five teams of friends and families across the UK will need to display creativity, lateral thinking, speed, knowledge and teamwork if they want to win.

The Button, which aired for one series on the BBC, received wide critical acclaim: with The Radio Times saying, “Genuinely interesting new game show concepts are a rare breed – but luckily, this is one of them… the show is surprisingly simple and effective.”; Digital Spy commenting, “Taskmaster’s creators have come up with another addictive triumph”; The i Newspaper noted “Alex Horne, who also created Dave’s Taskmaster, is obviously some kind of game-show genius. I’m becoming slightly addicted to his new creation”; with The Times adding “by taking place in living rooms rather than in a shiny studio, finds a bit of originality within the format (compared with the recently exhumed Generation Game)”.  HomeTasking, had over 6 million views across YouTube. It was watched in 125 countries with viewers ranging from the US to the UK and from Moldova to Mongolia.

Alex Horne, creator and host, said: “I’ve had the pleasure of being in the room while countless comedians have tried and usually failed on Taskmaster and I’ve learnt that for the most part, that lot are sneaky loveable idiots. With Your Time Starts Now, I’m now excited and intrigued to see how the rest of the country can cope doing simple things under the pressure of time-constraints, dogged rivals and my own snarky gaze. Good luck people of the UK. I shall be watching.”

Jon Thoday, Executive Producer at Avalon, said: “After years of being asked by fans about a little-known show we produced nearly 10 years ago called The Button and following the success of HomeTasking in lockdown, we are delighted Channel 4 has given us the opportunity of seeing if combining the spirit of those shows may bring more comedy gold from the brilliant minds of Alex Horne and Andy Devonshire.”

Tom Beck, Head of Live Events and Commissioning Editor said: “Wildly inventive, properly funny and rooted in real people being brilliant (and, occasionally, absolutely rubbish), Your Time Starts Now feels perfectly Channel 4. It’s an utterly distinctive celebration of British family life in all shapes and sizes, and I can’t wait see how our families get on as they try and tackle Alex and Andy’s ludicrous tasks.   Why should comedians get all the fun?”

Andy Devonshire, Director and Executive Producer, added: “It’s a beautiful gift to have the chance to bring the joy and mischief of Taskmaster into homes and see how families cope with a direct dose of Alex Horne’s invention.”

Meanwhile, the Taskmaster brand continues its stratospheric growth across the globe.  The show continues to triumph as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes in recent years, sitting 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. More countries than ever are creating their own versions as Poland joins the thirteen other countries who air local versions of the format, while the UK original is attracting its highest ever global audience as the recent series 21 reached a 28% audience growth compared to previous series with 123,246,467 million impressions  (13,115,498 views) and counting on the official Taskmaster YouTube channel. Taskmaster: The Live Experience was a critically-acclaimed sell-out hit that was extended to meet demand for tickets from fans who travelled from as far as Brisbane, San Franscisco, Toronto, and South Africa to take part. Last year also saw a successful collaboration with English Heritage which invited families across the UK to take on bespoke tasks set in their iconic historical locations, while the growing success of Taskmaster Education and School Tasking is being used by an increasing number of schools bringing the ethos of Taskmaster to the classroom, taking elements of the show and using them to inspire, engage and teach children and young people.

Executive Producers for Your Times Starts Now are Alex Horne, Richard Allen-Turner, Jon Thoday, James Taylor, and Andy Devonshire (The Apprentice and The Great British Bake Off), who also acts as Director.  The show was commissioned for Channel 4 by Head of Live Events, Tom Beck.

Further critical praise for The Button in 2018…

“Nobody could pretend The Button is sophisticated, multi-layered television.  It’s just a blast, stupidly good fun to watch.  (As it is, by the looks of it, to compete in.)  For week two, the five families once again take on challenges set by the friendly Button device in their front room, competing to finish them in the fastest time, often amid joyously frantic scenes of slapstick.”
David Butcher, The Radio Times

“I absolutely loved it… I found it really joyful… I love it for all the same reasons I love Gogglebox:  I love getting to know the families, I love seeing the way they interact with each other and the family banter… seeing them bicker, it brings me a deep joy I find hard to articulate “
Caroline Crampton, The New Statesman

“it’s silly, it’s fun… it’s imaginative with the challenges, it’s fun to play along and I liked it”
Emma Bullimore (BBC Radio 5 Live Afternoon Edition’s TV Club)

“I absolutely loved The Button.  It was dream TV… Really silly, really good fun”
Anna Leszkiewicz (BBC Radio 5 Live Afternoon Edition’s TV Club)

“Forget the rebooted Generation Game, this new game show from Taskmaster’s Alex Horne is much more fun as families compete against each other from their own homes”
Gerrard Gilbert, The I newspaper

“Frothy family fun”
The Sun

“Looks can be deceptive – this new game show appears to be perfect Saturday-night entertainment, but instead has a Friday slot. No matter as the entertainment is tiptop.”
Mark Wareham, The Mail on Sunday

“lots of fun”
The Mirror

“Truly something for everyone.”
Steven Perkins, Inside Soap

“It’s a genius idea”
The Sunday Mirror

“You could say this show hits exactly the right buttons”
TV Choice

Ends

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