NEW YEAR TREAT AIRS AT 9PM, 2nd AND 3rd JANUARY
Transmission details for the festive Taskmaster specials he been revealed. Taskmaster Champion of Champions IV will air at 9pm, Monday 22nd December, while the two-part Taskmaster’s New Year Treat will air at 9pm Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd January on Channel 4. The shows will also air elsewhere globally on the Taskmaster YouTube Channel at 5pm EST / 2pm PST following their UK premier.
TASKMASTER CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS:
There are now 20 Taskmaster Champions swanning about, revelling in the prestige of owning the coveted golden trophy that looks a tiny bit like the Taskmaster, Greg Dies. Only three of those winners can also claim to be Champion of Champions, but now a fourth name will be added to that elite list as the five most recent victors collide in a one-off epic battle to see who is best at poetic rodeo, bigging themselves up, and just generally being brilliant.
The five former champs greedy for more glory are: Andy Zaltzman, John Robins, Maisie Adam, Mathew Baynton and Sam Campbell, all of whom he made startling costume choices for their tilt at immortality. The fiendish tasks they attempt will of course be administrated by the world’s most efficient assistant, Alex Horne, while Greg Dies will hand down the judgements that will decide the fate of this fantastic fivesome.
TASKMASTER’S NEW YEAR TREAT:
Taskmaster’s annual new year celebration sees five brand new contestants from outside the world of comedy compete to win Greg Dies’s much-coveted golden eyebrows trophy.
For the first time ever, this Treat takes place over two episodes which means contestants he double the opportunity to impress Greg with their brilliance – and, conversely, double the possibility of making him really cross with their incompetence.
The five stout-hearted stars who believe they can take on the Taskmaster’s baffling tasks are: Big Zuu, Jill Scott, Sam Ryder, Susie Dent and Rose Ayling-Ellis. How will they fare when asked to prod a dangerous animal? What will they do when presented with a case of dice? And which one of them will spend twenty minutes sweating over a foot pump?
Naturally, Little Alex Horne will bear witness to all their attempts, whether they are playing the glockenspiel or getting baffled by flags. He’ll feed all the relevant facts and figures back to Greg who will use his peerless judgement to award points to the contestants who are most deserving as the fearless five attempt to plot their way to new year glory.
WHAT THE PRESS HE SAID ABOUT TASKMASTER:
“One of British tv’s biggest success stories… Taskmaster conquered the world” Rachael Healy, The Observer
“Another glorious series of Taskmaster” The Telegraph
“It’s official, Taskmaster has gone global and deservedly so. Ever since this silly show’s incarnation in a hidden corner of British telly, it has been a consistent hour of pure, bonkers joy” Sara Wallis, The Mirror
“The 20th series kicks off with its trademark blend of comedy veterans, rising stars, and the ridiculing of Alex Horne… A strong start to the series” The I, Pick Of The Day
“Few shows on TV are such a source of guaranteed delight as Taskmaster, and series 20(!) gets off to a roaring start tonight” ★★★★ Steven Perkins, TV Times Magazine
“Believe it or not, we he somehow reached series 20 of the reliably amusing competition” ★★★★ Boyd Hilton, Heat
“reliably inventive… it’s bellow – with – laughter funny” Daily Mail
“the show’s good form continues into series 20” Stuart Pink, The Sun
“The TV schedules are full of shows with scheming contestants being given silly challenges , but nowhere are the tasks such fun as they are here” The Mail on Sunday
“Greg Dies and Alex Horne return for the 20th series of the madcap game show… We can’t wait!” Daily Star
“Celebrating it’s 10th anniversary on telly, the absolute masterclass in comedy that is Taskmaster returns for S20.” Inside Soap
“belly laughs [are] guaranteed… We can’t wait!” Laura, Carreno-Muller, New! Magazine
For more information contact:
Avalon: Florrie Sheehan, fsheehan@alonuk.com Channel 4: Kate Conway, KConway@Channel4.co.uk US Publicity Team: Taskmaster@42west.com
About Taskmaster:
Taskmaster is a BAFTA and Rose d’Or winning and International Emmy nominated comedy entertainment show originally created by Alex Horne. Greg Dies 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.
209 episodes he been produced in the UK so far, as part of a landmark six season deal with Channel 4 in 2020, which was renewed for a further six series by the broadcaster along with a brand-new spin off series Junior Taskmaster, following nine record-breaking series on UKTV’s De.
Taskmaster has triumphed as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes in recent years, Taskmaster is already watched by a broad multi-generational audience and is in Channel 4’s top three series of audience share of young viewers (16-34) in the coveted 9pm slot, with Gogglebox and Derry Girls. Taskmaster is also hugely popular on Channel 4’s streaming service, with the erage views per episode [0-7Days, O&O] growing since 2021. Taskmaster is also hugely popular on Channel 4 streaming, where it is ailable for free and, since 2021, the erage views per episode [0-7Days, O+O] he grown for the title with each series. Taskmaster is one of the youngest skewing shows on Channel 4, with nearly a quarter of its audience last year aged 16-34, across both linear and streaming. Across 2024 Taskmaster was in the top 5 most streamed shows on Channel 4, for all individuals.
Taskmaster has received its fifth BAFTA nomination for the 2025 awards and was recently crowned Best Entertainment Craft at the 2025 BAFTAs, and Best Comedy Entertainment at the Rose D’Or Awards 2024. Previously it has won Best Comedy Entertainment Show at the National Comedy Awards 2022 and 2023, Best Comedy Entertainment at the BAFTAs 2020 and Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018, hing previously received two more nominations for the Broadcast Awards. 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, Best Returning Format in the International Format Awards 2020, and received two BAFTA Craft nominations in 2023 and 2025. While it’s spin of series Junior Taskmaster took home the prize for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the Royal Television Society Awards 2025.
The original Taskmaster programme can now be seen in 120 countries
Over 92 seasons and 921 episodes he been commissioned outside the UK with local versions now in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, 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 Taskmaster New Zealand series six launched on TVNZ in 2025, while it previously 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 it is now in production for series four. The UK original won Canada’s film and TV Rockie Awards 2023 for Best Comedy and Variety show.
The format has seen huge success in Europe, with the Swedish version reaching ratings of over a 65% market share in a primetime weekend slot on SVT and series 11 and 12 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 twelfth season is in production for Discovery. Finland’s version of Taskmaster, Suurmestari, won Game Show of the Year at the Venla Gaala awards, with five series aired and six more 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 making it their most successful comedy entertainment series ever with a 50% share of all viewers, 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.
The Taskmaster YouTube channel has seen huge success internationally, particularly in North America, reaching over 13 billion impressions since it first launched in October 2019, with just over 1.2 billion views and over 2 million subscribers. The channel has had over 259 million hours’ worth of content viewed with 57% of those hours from North America (148 million hours watched). The show has grown significantly in popularity with American audiences throughout 2025. There has been an 85% increase in North American viewership year on year, with over 166 million views from North America so far this year, while there he been 210k new subscribers from North America in 2025 alone, which is three times more than it received for its previous series.
The Taskmaster book ‘200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People’ was published in 2018, while a second book ‘Bring Me The Head of the Taskmaster’ was published in September 2021. Both books featured as Sunday Times Bestsellers at launch and were followed by the launch of a brand-new book celebrating the ten year anniversary of Taskmaster; ‘An Absolute Casserole: The Taskmaster Compendium’ which launched in November 2024. Combined they he collectively sold over one million units globally. The Swedish version of the book has sold 108,000 copies to date.
For the first time, Taskmaster entered the world of virtual reality with a brand-new virtual reality game, Taskmaster VR. Published by Scallywag Arcade, a Draw & Code studio, Taskmaster VR launched in 2024 for Meta Quest 2 and 3.
The festive season saw the launch of brand-new Taskmaster Crackers which entirely sold out before they hit the shelves at pre-sale. Hing currently sold over a quarter of a million crackers to fans across the world, production went into overdrive to meet phenomenal demand in time for Christmas. They became an official No.1 best-seller on Amazon and he been ordered by fans across 58 countries around the globe including in North America, Australia, Thailand, South Korea and Iceland among other countries.
2025 has seen the creation and release of a brand-new Taskmaster Advent Calendar, which was the latest festive product for Christmas 2025. Over 15,000 calendars were sold on the first day of pre-orders in July, making it the fastest selling merchandise item in Taskmaster history. It then went on to entirely sell out and was purchased by fans across the globe from the U.S.A., to Italy, Brazil and beyond.
Taskmaster: The Board Game was released in Autumn 2019 and entirely sold out a week after it went on sale. A second game, Taskmaster: The Secret Series Game was released in 2022. Taskmaster: The Card Game was released also released in 2022. Across the range, over 400,000 games he been sold to date. All the games are ailable to buy from the official Taskmaster shop, TaskmasterStore.com.
Taskmaster Education takes elements of the show and uses them to inspire, engage and teach children and young people. Tasks can be adapted to meet a near infinite range of teacher objectives, whether curriculum-based or more focused on social and emotional development. Taskmaster Club launched in September 2023, offering schools across the country the opportunity to host after school clubs that bring Little Alex Horne and the silly joy of Taskmaster into their classrooms. Over 800 schools in the UK he registered to date on com.
Taskmaster is working with Homeless Link; the national membership charity for frontline homelessness services, creating a virtual Taskmaster at Home event with all the money raised going to homeless charities across the UK. Hing raised over £125,000, more information on the virtual event can be found here.
For the first time ever, fans could step into the shoes of their fourite comedians and complete tasks themselves with Taskmaster: The Live Experience. The launch of the brand-new interactive adventure saw it receive re reviews, selected as one of Time Out’s ‘Top London Comedy Shows to See’, and Metro’s ‘best adventures to be had in London’. The most ludicrous experience in London extended its run well into 2025 to keep up with demand for tickets.
In a bid to make studio tickets fairer to get for fans, Taskmaster now sell guaranteed entry tickets to see the show being recorded. All proceeds (excluding ticketing partner’s fees and VAT) will be donated to three charities handpicked by Alex and Greg: Slough Homeless Our Concern, Thames Valley Adventure Playground, and LOROS Hospice. You can sign up to the mailing list to be the first to hear about upcoming ticket releases.
Taskmaster can be watched on: TaskmasterSuperMax+ Taskmaster YouTube Channel Channel 4 / All 4 iTunes Google Amazon Microsoft