Taskmaster Series 18 Contestants Announced

31 May 2024

ANDY ZALTZMAN – BABATUNDE ALÉSHÉ - EMMA SIDI – JACK DEE – ROSIE JONES

As another series of epic tasking closes, the almighty Greg Davies and his Little Alex Horne are already excited to welcome the next batch of bright-eyed hopefuls to their BAFTA and National Comedy Award-winning, international hit show. Taskmaster series 18 is set to air later this year on Channel 4. The news arrives shortly after Taskmaster: The Live Experience has been confirmed to go ahead this September.

Hoping to pass muster and be the best are: comedian, host of The Bugle Podcast and cricket statistician Andy Zaltzman (The News Quiz, BBC Radio 4), comedian, actor and podcaster Babatunde Aléshé (Celebrity Gogglebox, C4), actor, comedian and writer Emma Sidi (Starstruck, BBC Three/HBO Max), legendary stand-up and writer Jack Dee (I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, BBC Radio 4), and stand-up, presenter, actor and author Rosie Jones (Trip Hazard, C4).

Executive Producers for Taskmaster series 18 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 Live Events, Tom Beck and Head of Reality & Entertainment, Steve Handley.

 

Taskmaster Fact Sheet:

• 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.
• 159 episodes have been produced in the UK so far, as part of a landmark six season deal with Channel 4 in 2020, which has recently been renewed for a further six series by the broadcaster following nine record-breaking series on UKTV’s Dave.
• Over the past year, Taskmaster triumphed as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes, coming in as the channel’s third most streamed title of the year with 2.3 billion viewing minutes recorded across all series watched in 2023. The launch episode of series 15 alone has had 85.4million streaming minutes viewed so far. Previously, 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 the year (Broadcast, 2020). Watched by a broad multi-generational audience, it was Channel 4’s youngest skewing series last year, and in terms of audience share of young viewers (16-34) it is in the top three in the coveted 9pm slot, with Gogglebox and Derry Girls. Taskmaster is also hugely popular on All 4, 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. 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 2022 and 2023, Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and won Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018, having previously received two more nominations for the Broadcast Awards and recently picking up its third BAFTA nomination for the 2023 ceremony. 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, 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 120 countries and aired on The CW in the U.S. in 2020.
• Over 88 seasons and 881 episodes have been commissioned outside the UK with local versions now in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Nordics, Croatia 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 and Taskmaster New Zealand series 5 will launch on TVNZ in 2024, while it 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 the UK original won Canada’s film and TV Rockie Awards 2023 for best Comedy and Variety show. Taskmaster Canada is now in production for series 3.
• The format has seen huge success in Europe, with the Swedish version reaching ratings of over a 50% market share in a primetime weekend slot on SVT and series 9 is in production for TV4, produced by Avalon Television with Baluba. Norway’s local version of Taskmaster, Kongen Befaler, won the Norwegian TV Academy Award (Gullruten) for Best Comedy Show in 2024, where a tenth season is in production for Discovery. Finland's version of Taskmaster, Suurmestari, won Game Show of the Year at the Venla Gaala awards, with a sixth series 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 ninth series, won Best Game Show at the 2022 Vindere Awards, 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.