Taskmaster’s New Year Treat line-up revealed

30 November 2020

 

John Hannah, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Nicola Coughlan, Rylan Clark-Neal, Shirley Ballas.

For the first time ever, the Taskmaster’s doors will be flung open to ring in the new year with a brand new, one-off special, ‘Taskmaster’s New Year Treat’ on Channel 4. The almighty Greg Davies will welcome five famous faces from radically different specialities and set ludicrous challenges supervised by his Little Assistant Alex Horne. The news arrives as series ten of the hit comedy entertainment show enjoyed its best performance on record with its premiere in its brand-new primetime slot.

Competing to win the coveted Taskmaster trophy are: acclaimed film actor John Hannah (Four Weddings and Funeral), journalist and leading Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy (Ways to Change the World Podcast, Channel 4), actress Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls, Channel 4, Bridgerton, Netflix), television and radio presenter Rylan Clark-Neal, and internationally renowned dancer, three time British Open to the World Latin American Champion and TV Head Judge Shirley Ballas (Strictly Come Dancing, BBC One). Our well-known contestants are experts in their respective fields, but how will they compare in the most hard fought, high stakes, ridiculous game show on television?

 

Transmission details will be confirmed in due course.

 

Notes to Editors:

About Taskmaster

• Taskmaster is a BAFTA winning and International Emmy nominated comedy game 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.

 

• 84 episodes have been produced in the UK so far, with a further 51 ordered by Channel 4 as part of a landmark six season deal in 2020. Series 10 – 15 will be aired on Channel 4 from Autumn 2020, following nine record-breaking series on UKTV’s Dave.

 

• Since the programme’s launch in 2015 on UKTV’s Dave, Taskmaster’s audience has grown by 80% from series one to series nine, averaging an audience of 1.8 million viewers at its peak.

 

• Taskmaster was crowned Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and won Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018, having previously received two more nominations for both awards. It has also been nominated for Best Entertainment Programme at the RTS Awards, Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, the Broadcast Digital Awards, and the TV Choice Awards.

 

• The original Taskmaster programme and format combined has been sold into 106 countries, with 140 episodes of the format being made outside the UK including local versions of the show produced for VTM in Belgium, TVE in Spain, and TVNZ in New Zealand. While the original will air on The CW in the U.S. this August.

 

• The format has seen huge success in Europe, with the Swedish version winning Programme of the Year at the Kristallen 2019 (Sweden’s TV Academy Awards) and its fourth series for SVT reaching ratings of over a 50% market share in a primetime weekend slot. Two new series have been ordered for MTV in Finland after its first episode ranked in the top ten most watched shows in the country, and there are returning series for Discovery in Norway and TV2 in Denmark.

 

• The Taskmaster YouTube channel has received over 85 million views and has 428,000 subscribers.

 

• #HomeTasking had over 76 million impressions across all content on YouTube. Viewing grew by 42%, while subscribers grew by 85% since it launched on the Taskmaster YouTube channel. It was watched in 125 countries with viewers ranging from the US to the UK and from Moldova to Mongolia.

 

• The Taskmaster Podcast hosted by Ed Gamble, went to No.1 in the iTunes podcast charts immediately following release of it’s first episode.

 

• The Taskmaster Book 200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People has sold over 110,000 copies.

 

• A Taskmaster boardgame was released in Autumn 2019 and entirely sold out a week after it went on sale. It has sold over 50,000 copies to date. An expansion pack was released this year along with the launch of the official Taskmaster shop.

 

• Taskmaster is working with Homeless Link, the national membership charity for frontline homelessness services, creating a virtual Taskmaster event available to purchase through the Store with all the money raised going to homeless charities across the UK. Further information can be found here.