Presented by Greg Davies and Alex Horne (who also created the programme, originally as a show for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), the first series of Taskmaster was broadcast in 2014 on comedy channel Dave, before expanding its audience after being poached by Channel 4 in 2020.
While there have only been 15 series proper, there have also been special one-off ‘Champion of Champion’ and ‘New Year Treat’ programmes, comprising one or two episodes. All told, there have been 148 episodes of the show so far.
The show sees (mainly) comedians take part in a range of challenges which are then marked by the hosts, usually (but not always) winning a maximum of five points per task.
The person with the highest score wins the series and takes home a trophy modelled on the Taskmaster’s (Davies) head.
Here are 10 facts that even fans of the programme might not know.
9. Record breaker
Series 10 champion Richard Herring holds two impressive Taskmaster records. On his way to victory he became the first and only contestant to win five episodes in a single series, and the only to win three episodes in a row. Photo: Channel 4
10. Total losers
In the history of Taskmaster, on seven contestants didn't win a single episode, namely Aisling Bea, Joe Wilkinson, Judi Love, Nish Kumar, Phil Wang (pictured), Romesh Ranganathan, and Sara Pascoe. Of the seveb Bea and Ranganathan came closest to breaking their duck, only losing out on a tie-break. Photo: Channel 4