CHANNEL 4 COMMISSIONS BRAND NEW SERIES, YOUR TIME STARTS NOW, FROM TASKMASTER CREATOR ALEX HORNE
IN WHICH HOUSEHOLDS ACROSS THE UK CAN TACKLE HIS TASKS IN THEIR ACTUAL HOMES
It was announced today (27th August 2026) that, following a successful pilot, Channel 4 have commissioned a series of the new play-at-home gameshow, Your Time Starts Now (w/t). The new 8×60’ series is 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. Each task has a cash reward and the household with the most money at the end of the episode has a choice to leave with their winnings or play for double that amount the following week, meaning someone could win a potential cash prize of millions at the end of the series.
Alex Horne, creator and host, said: “I often hear about friends, families, colleagues and teammates doing our Tasks on holidays or at weddings, scout camps and Christmas dinners, but I seldom hear that these people have sought permission to do so. Now, finally, we will harness the country and be able to set challenges within a rigorous framework so that the rules are properly adhered to, everyone is judged appropriately and the best rightfully rewarded. Also, I think it’s going be very fun for everyone, and that’s got to be a good thing”.
Jon Thoday, Executive Producer at Avalon, said: “Its an absolute delight to have the backing of Channel 4 to realise a new show from Alex Horne and Andy Devonshire and their amazing team”
Tom Beck, Head of Live Events and Commissioning Editor said: “The pilot delivered laughter, warmth, comedy and families arguing over why they’d failed to nail an obviously ludicrous task. It’s joyful! Roll on the series”.
Andy Devonshire, Director and Executive Producer, added: “Time waits for no one, so you may as well be doing tasks. This is a chance for everyone to have a go without leaving the house”.
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.
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 153,053,786 million impressions (16,369,690 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 Series Director. Sallie Clement is Series Editor and Lizzie Gill is Series Producer. 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
Notes to Editors
About Avalon
Avalon is a multi-award-winning talent management, television production and live promotion group with offices in London, Los Angeles and New York. Avalon, Artists Rights Group and The Agency together represent a diverse and distinctive roster of artists including actors, comedians, writers and directors, among them Academy Award, BAFTA, Emmy, Tony and Olivier Award-winners.
Avalon is the UK’s largest independent television production company, with over 40 shows in production in the last year including: hit entertainment format Taskmaster (Channel 4 in the UK, Network 10 in Australia, TV4 in Sweden, TVNorge/Discovery+ in Norway); multi-Emmy award winning Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); Not Going Out (BBC), the UK’s longest running sitcom on air; Tall Tales & Murder (BBC/RTE), a highly anticipated darkly comedic crime drama; upcoming live-action, sketch comedy series The Terrors of Jordan Mendoza (Adult Swim); a brand new series of the iconic satirical puppet show Spitting Image: The Rest is Bulls*!t (YouTube) and Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly (Channel 5 in the UK, Network 10 in Australia). Avalon has produced over 4,000 episodes of programming for audiences in the UK, US and around the world, winning 39 Emmy Awards and BAFTAs from 100+ nominations.
Other landmark Avalon shows include Catastrophe (Amazon/Channel 4), Breeders (FX/Sky), Starstruck (HBO Max/BBC), Flatbush Misdemeanors (Showtime), Workaholics (Comedy Central), The Russell Howard Hour (Sky), TV Burp (ITV) and Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV/Sky). Avalon has also produced over 60 comedy specials for various platforms including Amazon, HBO, Netflix and Sky, as well as numerous podcasts and radio shows, including over 300 episodes of the record-breaking, arena-touring podcast, Shagged. Married. Annoyed. with Chris & Rosie Ramsey. Avalon’s dedicated distribution arm licenses its catalogue of programmes and formats to over 200 territories worldwide.
Avalon also produces and promotes live comedy around the world and has promoted more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company. Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK’s first arena comedy show, Jerry Springer: The Opera, winner of four Olivier Awards, and is currently producing the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical, Operation Mincemeat in the West End and on Broadway.
For Avalon news visit: www.avalonuk.com/press or follow @avalonent
