Taskmaster (also known as Taskmaster United Kingdom or Taskmaster UK) is a British comedy panel game show created by comedian Alex Horne. It is presented by Greg Davies, as the Taskmaster, and Horne, as the Taskmaster's assistant. In each series of the programme, a group of five celebrities (mainly comedians) attempt to complete a series of challenges, referred to as "tasks". The Taskmaster then reviews the contestants' attempts and awards points based on performance, interpretation or other arbitrary, comedic factors. A winner is determined in each episode and for the series overall.
The concept for the programme was first created by Horne for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010; he later secured a deal with Dave to adapt it for television with the first episode premiering in 2015. After the ninth series in 2019, the programme was acquired by Channel4. The programme has completed 21 series, as well as five Champion of Champions episodes and seven New Year Treat episodes , and is commissioned to continue up to series 27 in 2029 as well as more Champion of Champions and New Year Treat episodes.
Taskmasters success on British television led to international versions in Australia, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Canada (Quebec), Sweden, Spain and the United States, the last of which featured Horne reprising his role as the Taskmaster's assistant.
The show's 22nd series, featuring Chloe Petts, Isy Suttie, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti, and Richard Ayoade, began airing in September 2026.
A British spin-off series, Junior Taskmaster, with children as competitors, aired on Channel4 in November and December 2024, with Rose Matafeo as Taskmaster and Mike Wozniak as the assistant (both former contestants on Taskmaster). Additionally, a tie-in board game, two books, and a VRgame have been released, as well as a live experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Horne hosted #HomeTasking, a series of tasks for people to film in their own homes; for each task, a montage of attempts was posted on YouTube that featured Davies awarding points to his favourite entries.
History
Origin Taskmaster was created by comedian Alex Horne, whose idea was inspired by The Crystal Maze, his work on Big Brother, and his envy of his close friend Tim Key winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2009. The original concept of the programme took place over the course of two years.
2010 and 2011 Fringe shows Starting in September 2009, Horne sent 20 comedians monthly tasks by email over the course of a year. He then presented their efforts as part of a two-hour show at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe titled The Task Master, which focused on demonstrating the differing attempts by the contestants before revealing who won based on their performances.
The original 20 contestants in the 2010 Fringe show were: Dan Atkinson, Tom Basden, Jarred Christmas, James Dowdeswell, Rick Edwards, Tim FitzHigham, Stuart Goldsmith, Steve Hall, Tim Key, Lloyd Langford, Josie Long, Guy Morgan, Al Pitcher, Mark Olver, Mark Watson, Henning Wehn, Joe Wilkinson, Lloyd Woolf, Mike Wozniak, and Tom Wrigglesworth.
Wozniak was announced as the winner of The Task Master. Six participants in the original Edinburgh show have gone on to appear in a televised version of Taskmaster as of 2024: Key in series 1; Wilkinson in series 2; Watson in series 5; Wozniak in series 11; Langford in series 2 of the Australian version; and Al Pitcher as a guest contestant in series 2 of the Swedish version.
For the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Horne conducted another stage show titled TaskmasterII at the Gilded Balloon with a similar format. This time there were ten contestants: nine comedians returning from the previous year (Atkinson, Wehn, Wilkinson, Long, Langford, Watson, Hall, Goldsmith, and Key), and critic Bruce Dessau. Josie Long was announced as the winner of TaskmasterII.
Both stage shows proved a success with their audiences, leading Horne to recruit the production company Avalon (which was also his agency at the time) to help produce an adaptation of his concept for television, before pitching his idea to several broadcasters. Channel 4 reportedly paid for the production of a pilot episode, marking the first use of the house in Chiswick which became the Taskmaster House, but chose not to commission it at the time.
Broadcast history
Dave British television channel Dave took interest in the idea and bought the rights to it, with comedian Greg Davies recruited to help present the programme alongside Horne. However, the channel's Deputy Director of Commissioning at the time, Hilary Rosen, was concerned with the structure of the show. Horne assured Rosen that the programme was not like a traditional panel show but "more like a sitcom", to account for the involvement of the same group of contestants who would appear across a series. Another problem with the format of Horne's concept was that shooting a traditional pilot became implausible; however, the aspects of the show filmed before a studio audience were tested in a pilot.
A series of six hour-long episodes was commissioned by Dave in September 2014 with Davies and Horne attached, initially with the episodes intended to be shown in any order. Rosen later determined the show should be arranged in an order, pointing out that "this was a show you record and transmit in the same order". In February 2015, the first cast of five contestants for the first series was announced, and the studio-based segments of the programme — where footage of the contestants' attempts at completing tasks at the Taskmaster House was screened, and prize tasks and live tasks were conducted, in front of a studio audience — began filming. The involvement of veteran comedian Frank Skinner, who agreed to join after meeting Horne for lunch, helped to entice the other contestants to take part in the programme.
The first series, which started airing in July 2015, proved a success; an additional eight series were commissioned on Dave, which aired until November 2019.
Channel 4 After the ninth series, Channel4 had secured the rights to the programme, repeatedly commissioning it for 18 series up to the 27th series in 2029. Filming for the 22nd series had almost wrapped by March 2026.
Channel4 also announced a spin-off called Junior Taskmaster with contestants aged between 9 and 11, consisting of eight episodes with 9th-series contestant Rose Matafeo as the Taskmaster and 11th-series contestant Mike Wozniak as her assistant, which aired between November and December 2024. Junior Taskmaster follows similar children-oriented spin-off programmes on Channel4 such as Junior Bake Off and Teen First Dates. Another spin-off of Taskmaster, titled Foodmaster, is centred around food. Former contestant Ed Gamble hosted a non-broadcast pilot in July 2023.
Tasks
Taskmaster is a comedic game show, in which a group of five contestants—mainly comedians, but sometimes including other well-known television personalities—compete against each other by completing tasks assigned to them. In each episode, contestants are shown tackling a series of tasks, supervised and sometimes assisted by Horne. Davies then judges each contestant's performance in each task to determine how many points they receive, generally ranking them from one to five points. The contestant with the highest score in each episode wins a collection of prizes submitted by the contestants themselves as one of the tasks; the one with the highest cumulative score at the end of a series wins a trophy. In the main series, the trophy is a golden bust of Davies.
Tasks are typically given to the contestants by Horne in his role as the Taskmaster's assistant, who hands them a tri-folded page sealed with red wax and the "TM" branding. The contestants must read the task out loud. Tasks given to contestants range from simple physical challenges, such as "eat as much watermelon as you can in one minute", to more complex or artistic tasks, such as "make a stop-motion video featuring a potato". Some tasks may consist of multiple stages or mini-tasks. In some cases, contestants conduct tasks as a team with one or two other contestants; in most such cases, all members of a team receive the same score. To complete tasks, contestants often have to apply a level of logic, creativity, or lateral thinking in order to achieve the end goal. Contestants can be disqualified and awarded no points for a task if they fail to achieve the task's objective, inadvertently break one of the task's rules, or cheat. Conversely, they can be given bonus points, either at Davies's discretion or based on criteria described in a task's instructions. Occasionally, prank tasks are given to one contestant alone, who is led to believe the others are performing the same task; Davies may award bonus points for these. Tasks are mostly pre-recorded months in advance and then screened in-studio with the contestants and presenters present, during which Davies assigns scores.
Two tasks are usually conducted during studio segments: an introductory Prize task, in which each contestant supplies an object they possess that conforms to a set theme, all of which will be awarded to the winner of the episode; and a final "Live" task, which the contestants perform onstage in the studio. In the event of a tie in the top score at the end of the episode or series, either a pre-recorded tiebreaker task between the tied contestants is shown, or a quick live task is performed to determine the winner.
Task locations Most tasks are conducted in or around the Taskmaster house, a three-room former groundskeepers' cottage located on the outskirts of a golf course in Dukes Meadows, Chiswick. Each series is assigned a theme that influences the design of the house, most notably the portrait of Greg Davies in the living room, as well as the music that plays during tasks. Themes for various series have included Japanese, western, art deco, Victorian, and steampunk.
Other pre-recorded tasks are filmed at a specific location that changes each series, with previous locations including Dukes Meadows Bandstand, Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Chesham United F.C.'s stadium, Gatwick Airport's South Terminal, and Frogmore Paper Mill.
Special episodes
A series of "New Year Treat" episodes, featuring celebrities other than comedians in single-episode competitions, has a golden statue of Davies' eyebrows as its trophy.
Series winners qualify for future "Champion of Champions" episodes, where the trophy is the golden statue of the rest of Davies' body. The first Champion of Champions was a two-part special; however, the rest all had only one episode. There have currently been four Champion of Champions (winners in bold):
Champion of Champions 1: Bob Mortimer (series 5), Josh Widdicombe (series 1), Katherine Ryan (series 2), Noel Fielding (series 4), Rob Beckett (series 3) — two episodes: episode 1, 13 December 2017 / episode 2, 20 December 2017 Champion of Champions 2: Ed Gamble (series 9), Kerry Godliman (series 7), Liza Tarbuck (series 6), Lou Sanders (series 8), Richard Herring (series 10) — one episode: 23 June 2022 Champion of Champions 3: Dara Ó Briain (series 14), Kiell Smith-Bynoe (series 15 runner-up, stepping in for Mae Martin), Morgana Robinson (series 12), Sarah Kendall (series 11), Sophie Duker (series 13) — one episode: 14 January 2024 Champion of Champions 4: Andy Zaltzman (series 18), John Robins (series 17), Maisie Adam (series 20), Mathew Baynton (series 19), Sam Campbell (series 16) — one episode: 22 December 2025
Production