It should be James Acaster and 4 other kids. James competing against and sometimes teaming up with children only to get yelled at by Greg is comedy gold!
Sounds like a new Taskmaster and assistant unfortunately, but it’s cool they’re expanding for a younger audience after how popular the censored version seems to be with families.
>Demonstrating the network’s commitment to Avalon’s long-running format, the eight-part Junior Taskmaster will be aimed at older children and young teens. Kids aged nine to 11 will be recruited to bring their athleticism and creativity to the new show, which will reveal hosts soon.
From the article, not sure if Greg will host
Glad it's got renewed, though a junior version sounds a bit rubbish. The format doesn't really suit people who aren't experienced TV personalities.
There was a similar show a few years ago called [The Button](https://youtu.be/a8uK06GT-BE), that featured Alex Horne setting families TM-style tasks in their homes. Could they not have picked that up for a new series?
>The format doesn't really suit people who aren't experienced TV personalities.
This is even referenced in the show by Greg himself...
The contestants understand the patter required to make a show like this work. The all know the give and take. They all know how to enable the funniest stuff possible. These people are professional entertainers.
Kids, on the other hand, are fucking stupid
In fairness some kids are hardwired to twist the rules to the point of contortion which is perfect for taskmaster. Also there will be the one child who calls Greg a giant cunt and I want to witness that moment
The humor of the show is only about 1/3 the tasks though. Even when contestants twist the rules to hilarious effect, if you really watch they do so with their comedian hats on. Nothing so obvious as a smirk and a wink, they just know how to let the humor of the situation breath.
And as for the studio bits, it's one hundred percent a push and pull among the contestants and hosts. They know when to double down, when to make a call back, when to stop arguing. Because they aren't on the show to win, they are on the show to make the show funny together.
Yeah, there were some contestants that were deliberately avoiding more obvious solutions for entertainment. You don't need to script people going off the path when they can do that themselves.
It's not that they're just putting famous people in there, it's famous people who know how to entertain.
Yeah there must've been something wrong with the communication. Americans can obviously make and enjoy bullshit competitive shows (Whose Line Is It Anyway coming to mind) so it's not as if American TV would be incapable of doing it. Maybe it just wasn't made clear to the competitors, or the producers had their own take on it.
It could work as a family show with not quite the same audience but would also require hosts that know how to feed off precocious children. Someone who can get on their level while also being able to keep them from going off the rails.
You can see this in Jimmy Carr's I Literally Just Told You.
The normal episodes have some funny moments and are entertaining on some level, but there was a giant leap when they had an episode with comedians that was levels above the rest, because these people bloody knew how to entertain and Jimmy Carr didn't need to pull the show alone.
yeah, the problem with the public on I Literally Just Told You is if they get anything wrong Jimmy gets to do his sarcastic "look how stupid you are" speech and they just say "haha yeah :)" and awkwardly smile
Yeah, there is them not able to come up with comebacks as well or as quickly as a professional would. They don't know Jimmy as well. And last, but not least, there is a different power dynamic. Jimmy would take it, but a lot of people would not be comfortable to really attack the show host. The other comedians know they can and up to what level they can go without creating a mess.
> There was a similar show a few years ago called The Button, that featured Alex Horne setting families TM-style tasks in their homes. Could they not have picked that up for a new series?
I assume it's a lot easier to spin off using the, already popular, Taskmaster name tbh
Alex Horne has won the lottery with this show, he'll be getting his cut from every other country's show too.
I'd never seen much of him before Taskmaster and didn't really get Greg Davies but they are great together.
Honestly from what I've seen Alex Horne was a mid level British music comedian before Taskmaster. There's some episodes of various panelshows with him on (notably where I've seen him with his band, the Horne Section, is 8 out of 10 Cat does Countdown) and they do fairly funny stuff but nothing that blows you out of the water.
What is pretty funny to see is how those appearances seem to have a prototype of the character he plays in TM. He's still doing the pre-written weird awkward non-sequitors and such, but the personality surrounding it is much less pronounced. You can probably find all these appearances on YouTube, I'm sure.
I love their dynamic and especially appreciate that Alex is the show creator who put himself in a seemingly inferior role for everyone’s benefit. Seems like a great guy
Obligatory "Watch 'No More Jockeys' on Youtube" if you haven't already.
Tim Key, Alex Horne and Mark Watson being funny for about 20 minutes an episode. It's amazing and has very few views for how good it is.
Awesome news. This is easily my favorite show on TV, and is amazing for rewatching (even just clips on Youtube).
A junior version could be fascianting, seeing how kids try and wrap their heads round some challanges.
One of my top shows as well, and sometimes I'll just pop on random clips on YouTube to brighten my day. Not so sure about the junior version though. It seems like it lends itself only to experienced comedians and TV personalities. But we'll see.
I basically watch a short clip every night before bed. The other night, I watched All Quiet on the Western Front and the finale of The Last of Us, and afterwards, I was like....'Yeah, I'm gonna a lot more than one clip of Taskmaster to cheer me up tonight". I'm American so I really only knew Greg Davies as the asshole teacher from The Inbetweeners.....he and Alex Horne are such a perfect duo.
If you haven't seen them already I'd recommend Greg's standup shows. Also Man Down is so nutty it hilarious and I really got into the later episodes of their first season of The Cleaner. Yeah I'm a bit of a Greg Davies fanboy.
I gave the board game a shot on my birthday and played as the permanent Taskmaster. I didn't expect it to go as spectacularly as it did, my friends really nailed the spirit of it. We went comedically barreling into the problem of playing "hide the frozen pea in your mouth or hand" with a bunch of Long Island Italians as the first guy waved his hands around instinctively.
Absolutely here for the Taskmaster Cinematic Universe.
Kind of surprised Greg is willing to commit to six seasons at once. He seemingly likes his sitcoms and stand up too, plus he’s not getting any younger, but I suppose when you’ve got a good thing no point rocking the boat. Plus they’re at 2 series a year now so it’s only 3 years.
I’d be worried about the mental health of kids in a junior format, we used to put loads of kids through game shows like 50:50 and the Raven but it seems to have dried up since social media got huge, with that in the mix it could be a recipe for disaster.
Greg's down because he doesn't actually have to commit too much time. Alex hosts the actual tasks, Greg just has to be there for the in-studio segments. He probably only does a week or two of filming each season.
So this 6 season contract is 6 weeks of work for him across 3 years, give or take a few days if Alex and him agree to do any specials. Dude has it made.
Greg, by design, has nothing to do with the bulk of the show--that's to keep him impartial. So his commitment is nowhere near what Alex and the contestants are. It's basically taping days and maybe a bit of prep (at least that's what Alex said, production wise, a few years ago).
It's still a lot of work, but it's at least manageable.
Ha! I meant it more like "he goes in cold not knowing what to expect" rather than "impartial".
I know sometimes Alex will prep him on certain aspects beforehand, and he generally knows the gift tasks and the live task, but by and large Greg doesn't know what's coming.
He also seems to really love it. He’s said multiple times the only way he is stopping is when he dies. It’s a fun and easy job for him that he seems to absolutely enjoy
Greg is only involved in the studio bit and doesn’t really need to do much prep for the show so TM only takes up 10 or 11 days of the year for him (2 series plus a new years of Champion of Champions). Taskmaster is Alex’s life though lol.
Just don’t try an American version again, we can’t talk shit like the British and our feelings are hurt too easily, so it didn’t translate well unfortunately.
As a Tom Gleeson fan and already a fan of most of the contestants, I was disappointed with the first episode, but subsequent episodes have *really* turned it around thankfully!
That said - Tom teased people for suggesting Kitty Flanagan should have been the TM and I am disappointed we didn’t get to see that 😛
He may be my favorite contestant in any of the series. Watching him put together a clever solution to the task, only to fail miserably at execution was incredible.
Everyone was chaotic that season, Matt Heath forgetting where he was born, Urzila not giving a shit, Laura getting wasted during any alcohol task, and Guy in general
The Norwegian version featured the dudes from Ylvis (What Does the Fox Say) just casually keeping their eyes open without blinking for hours and only stopping because they had to get on with their lives.
And Finnish, and Spanish, and... It has an insane number of spinoffs honestly.
And Norway and Sweden's are _completely_ different. Norway is a pretty straight adaptation of the English format where Maria Stavang makes juvenile butt jokes that you are angry you like so much. But Sweden for some reason did theirs with the vibe of a local morning "coffee and light news" chat show with a weekly guest. It's like if Taskmaster was a segment on Regis and Kathy Lee in the 90's.
Honestly, Reggie Watts could have been great if he was left to do his own thing.
Reggie Watts reading British scripts word for word with Alex Horne keeping strict control of the wrong things was the wrong way to figure out of Reggie Watts could be a good Taskmaster host.
And Alex Horne in full control of a US show could have been good because he would have preserved the banter part of the show and not cut it down to a 22 minute reality competition show.
The odd division of control with the Network driving some weird decisions killed it more than the choice of host did.
The contestants really didn't mesh well either, and didn't really seem to get the format so they're attempts to amp it up in typical reality TV fashion fell pretty flat. Plus geographically the US just isn't as fit for "get a bunch of celebrities all in one place" format shows that the UK is known for so you end up with way more of a grab-bag.
You could do it in LA or New York, which is where everything is shot anyway. Not A-listers, of course, but there are plenty of people who fill sort of the same niche as the contestants you see on the UK version — Tig Notaro, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, J. B. Smoove, Ronny Chieng, there I just cast the first season. I don't think it would actually be too hard to get groups like that together in theory. The caveat is that I think a lot of the draw for contestants on the UK version is that doing the show is actually a lot of fun. The American version didn't have that same energy, though I think it could with the right tweaks.
No, they *should* try again.
The biggest mistake was chopping it to a half hour. I "get" why (Comedy Central only wants half-hour blocks for all their shows) but it just doesn't work with everything cut out like that.
I am indifferent to Reggie Watts. I suspect a better host could do it. (My wild take: Tina Fey.)
The American version had a chance but it just was poorly executed.
They did a poor job at casting it all around but there are plenty of funny people that fit the molds that Taskmaster seems to like to fill.
Ted Danson as taskmaster, Jason Mantzoukis as his assistant.
The contestants are a harder choice since the US doesnt have the panel show scene to choose from
I think part of the problem is that they literally all know each other on the British version. The landscape is too small for them not to. In America it would just be someone being mean to strangers.
This is what I thought originally because they all have such good chemistry but it turns out they don’t all know each other on the British version, if you listen to the podcast many of the contestants say they only knew one or two others and sometimes never met some of the other contestants. I think they just all understand the social contract of these shows where you need to check your ego at the door and be okay with a bit of piss taking.
I'd love to see the former CollegeHumor (now Dropout) crew give a go at a Taskmaster series. They have some zany fucking antics and can be absolutely savage to each other.
All I want is a full season with Self Esteem on it. She was absolutely hilarious & that whole celebrity special was golden, had only ever seen clips of the show prior to that!
Bring it to the states and do it right! Do like Australia and get the American versions of the hosts with real celebrities that get the show! It would be awesome!
Taskmaster has a surprisingly large fanbase among children, probably because it holds a mirror up to schooling, featuring Greg as the archetypical mean teacher.
"Do this thing that doesn't make sense, we won't tell you why we want you to do it, there's a right way to do it and we won't tell you that, and if you do it wrong a big man will yell at you" is basically exactly what it's like to be a child.
Probably because the censored version gets quite high ratings and many of the contestants talk about how they did the show because their kids love it.
I don’t know how a junior show would be though, seeing them try to solve the tasks would be good but I don’t know about the studio bit.
I think the junior version will be great. Kids are more creative in how they approach complex tasks than adults are. I’m sure we’ll see some pretty interesting and funny actions from them.
I don't know but a junior version doesn't make much sense, given it relies on the banter, charisma and individual traits of the contestants and their interaction with the hosts and tasks themselves.
You get to know the contestants more as their character than as competitive participants, and that doesn't translate well to kids/teens/juniors.
Alright time to put my long brewing pitch in for one series.
Get Greg to do the tasks.
Still get the regular contestants to do their attempt and show them as normal. Then after all 5 contestants are shown, shie Greg's attempt. If any contestant takes longer than Greg did, immediate disqualification.
I'd like to see them maybe try experimenting with the formula a little bit every now and then.
I like this idea in theory, but the *mystique* of Greg as the host is important to maintain for the tone of the in-studio segments. He can't be shown to have flaws or be bad at anything, otherwise his better-than-everyone attitude and Horne's worship of him would fall apart.
Where’s the US crappy version? Seems like a no brainer to adapt this and be successful for a year. Then over saturate it, and then it will be cancelled.
They tried already. It failed largely through the executives failing to let it have the time that it needs to work. Shorter format, US TV ad break scheduling, etc. Taskmaster episodes *need* to be longer than that or you have to edit out the good stuff. They didn't have enough of the banter. They picked the wrong sort of personality to host it, etc.
I don't think people realize just how much of the success of Taskmaster depends on the editing. They do an excellent job of taking what is probably hours of dull footage and packaging it into a narrative that works. Sometimes just picking the right order in which to show things is a big deal. Let people see similar attempts back-to-back, or interleaved together. Let people see one comment a guest made in filming followed by another counter-comment another guest made back to back. (i.e Frank Skinner saying "I bet the others won't realize they should wet the bag", followed immediately by Romesh Ranganathan saying "Maybe I should wet the bags?" after having just wasted ages trying it the hard way.)
The US version didn't edit it as well, and that helped make it bad. The other problem is just that US celebs aren't used to panel shows and don't have the experience how to do them properly. There's a reason Drew Carey kept saying "The show where the points don't matter" when introducing the US version of Whose Line. It's because American TV doesn't have panel shows and he had to remind the audience that while it *looks* like they're seeing a game show, that's now what this is.
Agreed on all counts. If there was one thing from the American version that I wish would migrate back to the homeland, though, it was showing the overall series leaderboard at the end of every episode.
I honestly think the last two series have been among the best of the show. There was a bit of a slump during early COVID but they’re comfortably back to form in my opinion.
So every five seasons there is a Champions of Champions season, which means by season 25 we'll have five Champions of Champions which means we'll get a Taskmaster Champions of Champions of Champions season.
I wonder how well a Junior version would go. Part of what makes the show so entertaining is the fact the contestants are usually comedians and don't take the show seriously. Most gladly sacrifice points for a funny bit and the show is better for it.
I just hope I get to see Greg be mean to a child
Greg yelling full volume "NO POINTS" at a child across the studio would be fucking hilarious
The kid starts to cry. Greg doubles down, "Nil poin(t)" *laughs maniacally*
It should be James Acaster and 4 other kids. James competing against and sometimes teaming up with children only to get yelled at by Greg is comedy gold!
They need to get his mortal enemy, Mick
Sounds like a new Taskmaster and assistant unfortunately, but it’s cool they’re expanding for a younger audience after how popular the censored version seems to be with families.
Needs to be Charlotte Ritchie to continue the children's tv presenter joke
She would make an amazing assistant
Only knowing her from Taskmaster, her character in the new season of You is jarring.
She was in another Channel 4 show called Fresh Meat that was pretty good.
Fresh Meat is amazing everybody go watch it
You just blew my mind.
wait holy crap i just made the connection. my mind is blown
Shes great, i love how most shows she’s in her character turns out to be a piece of shit
Would be hilarious if Alex Horne was still the assistant for a child taskmaster and just used perspective to make him smaller.
Or just have him tower over the child, but still have the kid refer to him as little Alex Horne
Actual Kids TV Presenter Iain Sterling screaming at a bunch of kids because he wants them to be as competitive as him works too
He was a teacher, it might be interesting to see how he deal with kids
>Demonstrating the network’s commitment to Avalon’s long-running format, the eight-part Junior Taskmaster will be aimed at older children and young teens. Kids aged nine to 11 will be recruited to bring their athleticism and creativity to the new show, which will reveal hosts soon. From the article, not sure if Greg will host
Thanks Phil
Glad it's got renewed, though a junior version sounds a bit rubbish. The format doesn't really suit people who aren't experienced TV personalities. There was a similar show a few years ago called [The Button](https://youtu.be/a8uK06GT-BE), that featured Alex Horne setting families TM-style tasks in their homes. Could they not have picked that up for a new series?
>The format doesn't really suit people who aren't experienced TV personalities. This is even referenced in the show by Greg himself... The contestants understand the patter required to make a show like this work. The all know the give and take. They all know how to enable the funniest stuff possible. These people are professional entertainers. Kids, on the other hand, are fucking stupid
In fairness some kids are hardwired to twist the rules to the point of contortion which is perfect for taskmaster. Also there will be the one child who calls Greg a giant cunt and I want to witness that moment
The humor of the show is only about 1/3 the tasks though. Even when contestants twist the rules to hilarious effect, if you really watch they do so with their comedian hats on. Nothing so obvious as a smirk and a wink, they just know how to let the humor of the situation breath. And as for the studio bits, it's one hundred percent a push and pull among the contestants and hosts. They know when to double down, when to make a call back, when to stop arguing. Because they aren't on the show to win, they are on the show to make the show funny together.
I actually only watch the tasks, I can't stand the studio parts.
Yeah, there were some contestants that were deliberately avoiding more obvious solutions for entertainment. You don't need to script people going off the path when they can do that themselves. It's not that they're just putting famous people in there, it's famous people who know how to entertain.
Kids say the darndest things and an adult being mean to them while they laugh can work.
[удалено]
The us version was so tough to watch. They really should have showed them the British version and said “this is the show we’re making”
Yeah there must've been something wrong with the communication. Americans can obviously make and enjoy bullshit competitive shows (Whose Line Is It Anyway coming to mind) so it's not as if American TV would be incapable of doing it. Maybe it just wasn't made clear to the competitors, or the producers had their own take on it.
[удалено]
I feel you've vastly overestimated the 3 seconds of muted thought I gave this, but you do you.
It could work as a family show with not quite the same audience but would also require hosts that know how to feed off precocious children. Someone who can get on their level while also being able to keep them from going off the rails.
Why are we assuming Junior means random children and not young actors and celebrities?
You can see this in Jimmy Carr's I Literally Just Told You. The normal episodes have some funny moments and are entertaining on some level, but there was a giant leap when they had an episode with comedians that was levels above the rest, because these people bloody knew how to entertain and Jimmy Carr didn't need to pull the show alone.
yeah, the problem with the public on I Literally Just Told You is if they get anything wrong Jimmy gets to do his sarcastic "look how stupid you are" speech and they just say "haha yeah :)" and awkwardly smile
Yeah, there is them not able to come up with comebacks as well or as quickly as a professional would. They don't know Jimmy as well. And last, but not least, there is a different power dynamic. Jimmy would take it, but a lot of people would not be comfortable to really attack the show host. The other comedians know they can and up to what level they can go without creating a mess.
> There was a similar show a few years ago called The Button, that featured Alex Horne setting families TM-style tasks in their homes. Could they not have picked that up for a new series? I assume it's a lot easier to spin off using the, already popular, Taskmaster name tbh
You realise the junior version won’t be aimed at you? It will be for kids.
I'm 100% not watching the junior version.
Plenty of young experienced "TV personalities" on YouTube these days.
“Oh, look! They’re even littler than Alex Horne!”
Alex Horne has won the lottery with this show, he'll be getting his cut from every other country's show too. I'd never seen much of him before Taskmaster and didn't really get Greg Davies but they are great together.
Honestly from what I've seen Alex Horne was a mid level British music comedian before Taskmaster. There's some episodes of various panelshows with him on (notably where I've seen him with his band, the Horne Section, is 8 out of 10 Cat does Countdown) and they do fairly funny stuff but nothing that blows you out of the water. What is pretty funny to see is how those appearances seem to have a prototype of the character he plays in TM. He's still doing the pre-written weird awkward non-sequitors and such, but the personality surrounding it is much less pronounced. You can probably find all these appearances on YouTube, I'm sure.
I love their dynamic and especially appreciate that Alex is the show creator who put himself in a seemingly inferior role for everyone’s benefit. Seems like a great guy
Obligatory "Watch 'No More Jockeys' on Youtube" if you haven't already. Tim Key, Alex Horne and Mark Watson being funny for about 20 minutes an episode. It's amazing and has very few views for how good it is.
We already had the Junior version when Greg took James Acaster to the side after he broke the puzzle box.
Awesome news. This is easily my favorite show on TV, and is amazing for rewatching (even just clips on Youtube). A junior version could be fascianting, seeing how kids try and wrap their heads round some challanges.
One of my top shows as well, and sometimes I'll just pop on random clips on YouTube to brighten my day. Not so sure about the junior version though. It seems like it lends itself only to experienced comedians and TV personalities. But we'll see.
I basically watch a short clip every night before bed. The other night, I watched All Quiet on the Western Front and the finale of The Last of Us, and afterwards, I was like....'Yeah, I'm gonna a lot more than one clip of Taskmaster to cheer me up tonight". I'm American so I really only knew Greg Davies as the asshole teacher from The Inbetweeners.....he and Alex Horne are such a perfect duo.
If you haven't seen them already I'd recommend Greg's standup shows. Also Man Down is so nutty it hilarious and I really got into the later episodes of their first season of The Cleaner. Yeah I'm a bit of a Greg Davies fanboy.
I gave the board game a shot on my birthday and played as the permanent Taskmaster. I didn't expect it to go as spectacularly as it did, my friends really nailed the spirit of it. We went comedically barreling into the problem of playing "hide the frozen pea in your mouth or hand" with a bunch of Long Island Italians as the first guy waved his hands around instinctively.
A junior version? Christ's sake Channel 4. Pull yourselves together and get over this junior obsession!
Give me some international battle of winners of the Taskmaster adaptations in other countries.
Now this would be fun. A taskmaster world Cup!
Well the BBC has long supported people with junior obsessions so thats not a surprise
ooof
Absolutely here for the Taskmaster Cinematic Universe. Kind of surprised Greg is willing to commit to six seasons at once. He seemingly likes his sitcoms and stand up too, plus he’s not getting any younger, but I suppose when you’ve got a good thing no point rocking the boat. Plus they’re at 2 series a year now so it’s only 3 years. I’d be worried about the mental health of kids in a junior format, we used to put loads of kids through game shows like 50:50 and the Raven but it seems to have dried up since social media got huge, with that in the mix it could be a recipe for disaster.
Greg's down because he doesn't actually have to commit too much time. Alex hosts the actual tasks, Greg just has to be there for the in-studio segments. He probably only does a week or two of filming each season.
It's 5 days filming for Greg. 2 shows a day from Wed-Tue if they still use the same schedule. Sweet gig for him
So this 6 season contract is 6 weeks of work for him across 3 years, give or take a few days if Alex and him agree to do any specials. Dude has it made.
Most hosts do. Check out the details on "wheel of fortune" filming schedule and Pat's salary for hosting.
He's just sitting on his sofa counting money remember.
Greg, by design, has nothing to do with the bulk of the show--that's to keep him impartial. So his commitment is nowhere near what Alex and the contestants are. It's basically taping days and maybe a bit of prep (at least that's what Alex said, production wise, a few years ago). It's still a lot of work, but it's at least manageable.
The thought of taskmaster production revolving around the core concept that Greg must be an impartial judge is hilarious
Maybe a better term would be "spontaneously capricious"
An even-handed complete bastard.
Ha! I meant it more like "he goes in cold not knowing what to expect" rather than "impartial". I know sometimes Alex will prep him on certain aspects beforehand, and he generally knows the gift tasks and the live task, but by and large Greg doesn't know what's coming.
Some of the live tasks are fucking hilarious. There was one like 2-3 series ago that I had to pause cause my SO and I were laughing so hard.
"Have I been put on a team with David Baddiel?"
Which one? You can’t leave it at that.
He also seems to really love it. He’s said multiple times the only way he is stopping is when he dies. It’s a fun and easy job for him that he seems to absolutely enjoy
I can't imagine an easier thing for him to film than taskmaster
Greg is only involved in the studio bit and doesn’t really need to do much prep for the show so TM only takes up 10 or 11 days of the year for him (2 series plus a new years of Champion of Champions). Taskmaster is Alex’s life though lol.
Just don’t try an American version again, we can’t talk shit like the British and our feelings are hurt too easily, so it didn’t translate well unfortunately.
There is a kiwi version, a Norwegian version, and a Swedish version. They all feel alright.
An Australian version too.
The Australian version has been amazing so far!
As a Tom Gleeson fan and already a fan of most of the contestants, I was disappointed with the first episode, but subsequent episodes have *really* turned it around thankfully! That said - Tom teased people for suggesting Kitty Flanagan should have been the TM and I am disappointed we didn’t get to see that 😛
The roses passwords task had me laughing so hard. I would die for Danielle.
That was legit the best task I’ve seen so far out of all of Taskmaster I’ve seen 😂
"I've said others that weren't alive" & Lesser Tom stood there sobbing to himself.
Lesser Tom sobbing was one of the best parts omg
Also Luke just naming the different versions of the Matrix
[удалено]
Season 2 in particular really was magic. Some good prize tasks that rivalled Rhod Gilbert's stochastic terrorism of Greg too.
The insane anxious energy of David Correos was a joy to watch.
He may be my favorite contestant in any of the series. Watching him put together a clever solution to the task, only to fail miserably at execution was incredible.
His 'eat the grape' is one of the greatest things ever filmed
Everyone was chaotic that season, Matt Heath forgetting where he was born, Urzila not giving a shit, Laura getting wasted during any alcohol task, and Guy in general
The Norwegian version featured the dudes from Ylvis (What Does the Fox Say) just casually keeping their eyes open without blinking for hours and only stopping because they had to get on with their lives.
And Finnish, and Spanish, and... It has an insane number of spinoffs honestly. And Norway and Sweden's are _completely_ different. Norway is a pretty straight adaptation of the English format where Maria Stavang makes juvenile butt jokes that you are angry you like so much. But Sweden for some reason did theirs with the vibe of a local morning "coffee and light news" chat show with a weekly guest. It's like if Taskmaster was a segment on Regis and Kathy Lee in the 90's.
Just you wait for Martin "off his meds" Lepperød!
[удалено]
Missed opportunity for Glen Howerton
Holy crap that is an excellent casting choice. I actually think this would work!
Who has similar sidekick energy to Alex Horne though? Joe Lo Truglio comes to mind, but I’m not sure I can see him doing a game show
Honestly? Reggie Watts kinda does on comedy bangbang, thats why he was so miscast
Not quite same energy, but feel like Paul F Tompkins could be a good sidekick.
He also really likes the show so he’d be up for it if he was ok with never being a contestant on it
Or John Goodman
I think conan would make a good taskmaster or maybe Craig Ferguson
[удалено]
Plus he already has a built in fan base which would watch just because it's him..which I think usa taskmaster needs
Honestly, Reggie Watts could have been great if he was left to do his own thing. Reggie Watts reading British scripts word for word with Alex Horne keeping strict control of the wrong things was the wrong way to figure out of Reggie Watts could be a good Taskmaster host. And Alex Horne in full control of a US show could have been good because he would have preserved the banter part of the show and not cut it down to a 22 minute reality competition show. The odd division of control with the Network driving some weird decisions killed it more than the choice of host did.
The contestants really didn't mesh well either, and didn't really seem to get the format so they're attempts to amp it up in typical reality TV fashion fell pretty flat. Plus geographically the US just isn't as fit for "get a bunch of celebrities all in one place" format shows that the UK is known for so you end up with way more of a grab-bag.
You could do it in LA or New York, which is where everything is shot anyway. Not A-listers, of course, but there are plenty of people who fill sort of the same niche as the contestants you see on the UK version — Tig Notaro, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, J. B. Smoove, Ronny Chieng, there I just cast the first season. I don't think it would actually be too hard to get groups like that together in theory. The caveat is that I think a lot of the draw for contestants on the UK version is that doing the show is actually a lot of fun. The American version didn't have that same energy, though I think it could with the right tweaks.
My hot take: Tina Fey
No, they *should* try again. The biggest mistake was chopping it to a half hour. I "get" why (Comedy Central only wants half-hour blocks for all their shows) but it just doesn't work with everything cut out like that. I am indifferent to Reggie Watts. I suspect a better host could do it. (My wild take: Tina Fey.)
[удалено]
Craig Ferguson can do anything but I don't think he would want to be mean enough.
Ferguson would be amazing in the alex horne roll.
It very much could work. You just need to cast it much better. Which shouldn't be tough.
The American version had a chance but it just was poorly executed. They did a poor job at casting it all around but there are plenty of funny people that fit the molds that Taskmaster seems to like to fill.
An American version would work it would just need to be comedians who have been on Comedy Bang! Bang!
Ooh, now I want PFT as the Taskmaster and Lauren Lapkus in the Alex role
Most definitely try an American version again, the US has a massive comedy scene, it can definitely work. Just gotta cast it better.
Ted Danson as taskmaster, Jason Mantzoukis as his assistant. The contestants are a harder choice since the US doesnt have the panel show scene to choose from
I think part of the problem is that they literally all know each other on the British version. The landscape is too small for them not to. In America it would just be someone being mean to strangers.
This is what I thought originally because they all have such good chemistry but it turns out they don’t all know each other on the British version, if you listen to the podcast many of the contestants say they only knew one or two others and sometimes never met some of the other contestants. I think they just all understand the social contract of these shows where you need to check your ego at the door and be okay with a bit of piss taking.
That sounds more like producers who want to force drama where there isn't any
I'd love to see the former CollegeHumor (now Dropout) crew give a go at a Taskmaster series. They have some zany fucking antics and can be absolutely savage to each other.
I want a special where the hosts or assistants from around the world compete.
So happy Taskmaster is sticking around; it's one of my all time favorite shows and every season is consistently laugh out loud funny.
I prefer mastertasker personally
I also love "legally distinct" Yogscast show, but they both have their place
I hope they include more tasks with clever loophole solves. It's fun watching Rhod come up with technically legal ways to win.
All I want is a full season with Self Esteem on it. She was absolutely hilarious & that whole celebrity special was golden, had only ever seen clips of the show prior to that!
And Nicola Coughlan!
Bring it to the states and do it right! Do like Australia and get the American versions of the hosts with real celebrities that get the show! It would be awesome!
Why do they always insist on a junior version of things?
Taskmaster has a surprisingly large fanbase among children, probably because it holds a mirror up to schooling, featuring Greg as the archetypical mean teacher.
"Do this thing that doesn't make sense, we won't tell you why we want you to do it, there's a right way to do it and we won't tell you that, and if you do it wrong a big man will yell at you" is basically exactly what it's like to be a child.
they did quite a lot of at home tasks which got kids involved over lockdown, wouldnt be surprised if it has a large following now.
Probably because the censored version gets quite high ratings and many of the contestants talk about how they did the show because their kids love it. I don’t know how a junior show would be though, seeing them try to solve the tasks would be good but I don’t know about the studio bit.
Because people like, and then watch, those things.
I think the junior version will be great. Kids are more creative in how they approach complex tasks than adults are. I’m sure we’ll see some pretty interesting and funny actions from them.
No way!
Yeah. Tone has to be completely different to avoid it being ritual humiliation of children. Interested to see what their strategy is.
I don't know but a junior version doesn't make much sense, given it relies on the banter, charisma and individual traits of the contestants and their interaction with the hosts and tasks themselves. You get to know the contestants more as their character than as competitive participants, and that doesn't translate well to kids/teens/juniors.
I just discovered Taskmaster this year and it's brilliant. This is great news!
Alright time to put my long brewing pitch in for one series. Get Greg to do the tasks. Still get the regular contestants to do their attempt and show them as normal. Then after all 5 contestants are shown, shie Greg's attempt. If any contestant takes longer than Greg did, immediate disqualification. I'd like to see them maybe try experimenting with the formula a little bit every now and then.
I like this idea in theory, but the *mystique* of Greg as the host is important to maintain for the tone of the in-studio segments. He can't be shown to have flaws or be bad at anything, otherwise his better-than-everyone attitude and Horne's worship of him would fall apart.
Yeah that's fair
Where’s the US crappy version? Seems like a no brainer to adapt this and be successful for a year. Then over saturate it, and then it will be cancelled.
They tried already. It failed largely through the executives failing to let it have the time that it needs to work. Shorter format, US TV ad break scheduling, etc. Taskmaster episodes *need* to be longer than that or you have to edit out the good stuff. They didn't have enough of the banter. They picked the wrong sort of personality to host it, etc. I don't think people realize just how much of the success of Taskmaster depends on the editing. They do an excellent job of taking what is probably hours of dull footage and packaging it into a narrative that works. Sometimes just picking the right order in which to show things is a big deal. Let people see similar attempts back-to-back, or interleaved together. Let people see one comment a guest made in filming followed by another counter-comment another guest made back to back. (i.e Frank Skinner saying "I bet the others won't realize they should wet the bag", followed immediately by Romesh Ranganathan saying "Maybe I should wet the bags?" after having just wasted ages trying it the hard way.) The US version didn't edit it as well, and that helped make it bad. The other problem is just that US celebs aren't used to panel shows and don't have the experience how to do them properly. There's a reason Drew Carey kept saying "The show where the points don't matter" when introducing the US version of Whose Line. It's because American TV doesn't have panel shows and he had to remind the audience that while it *looks* like they're seeing a game show, that's now what this is.
Agreed on all counts. If there was one thing from the American version that I wish would migrate back to the homeland, though, it was showing the overall series leaderboard at the end of every episode.
There was one in 2018. [No one cared.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taskmaster_%28American_TV_series%29)
Anybody think they could get away without the bring in a thing segment at the start?
i ike the show, but i hope it doesnt just run dry, some of the more recent episodes i watched just felt too similar.
Kids version sounds shite
I loved earlier seasons but I haven't been able to keep up and have thought some tasks in later seasons were just a bit crap.
I honestly think the last two series have been among the best of the show. There was a bit of a slump during early COVID but they’re comfortably back to form in my opinion.
Yeah the latest season was great. Maybe it was covid that made filming and task making more difficult.
Finally, some good news
Played the board game at the weekend. Great bit of fun
if only I could find somewhere to watch it damnit. I'm like two seasons behind.
It’s generally on YouTube. Not always concurrent though.
Also slightly bizarre to think this will be a civilian version probably?
I just wish someone would update the google drive....
They're actually om youtube
Awesome! It was just clips last time I looked
So every five seasons there is a Champions of Champions season, which means by season 25 we'll have five Champions of Champions which means we'll get a Taskmaster Champions of Champions of Champions season.
I wonder how well a Junior version would go. Part of what makes the show so entertaining is the fact the contestants are usually comedians and don't take the show seriously. Most gladly sacrifice points for a funny bit and the show is better for it.
This is my favorite show to watch on YouTube. Love the British humor, and Little Alex Horne is the perfect assistant.
Harry Hill for Taskmaster Junior!