Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Brand new Taskmaster contestants announced

18/02/2019

The double BAFTA nominated and Broadcast Award winning UKTV Original series Taskmaster returns to Dave and welcomes a new group of candidates placing themselves at the mercy of Taskmaster tyrant Greg Davies, and the scrutiny of stats keeper and skivvy Little Alex Horne. Daves eighth series of the most competitive and fierce comedy game show on television will air in May.

Risking life, limb, and dignity in the hope of making the Taskmaster proud are: BAFTA winning comedian Iain Stirling (Love Island, Host of Dog Ate My Homework), actor and writer Joe Thomas (Inbetweeners, Fresh Meat), acclaimed stand-up Lou Sanders (8 Out of 10 Cats, Sick of It), comedian and champion quizzer Paul Sinha (The Chase, Tonight At The Palladium), and BAFTA winning actor Sian Gibson (Peter Kays Car Share, Murder On the Blackpool Express). Unaware of what awaits them in each wax sealed envelope, only one competitor can become the victorious owner of His Royal Task-ness golden head and be crowned the next Taskmaster Champion.

Produced by Avalon, Taskmasters viewing figures have increased series on series. The seventh series of the Dave show starring James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman, Phil Wang, and Rhod Gilbert was the most successful to date with an average of 1.5 million viewers per episode, increasing by 7% compared to the last series and remains the most watched show on UKTV Play with over 7.4 million views.

__

Taskmaster was crowned Best Entertainment Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2018 (beating Strictly Come Dancing, Im A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, Love Island, The Voice UK, and All Round To Mrs. Browns). Nominations for the show include an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment, two BAFTA nominations for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme, RTS Award, Broadcasting Press Guild Award, and two further nominations at the Broadcast Awards 2019 for Best Entertainment Programme and Best Multichannel Programme.

An international hit, Taskmaster has been sold into 17 countries including original versions of the show being developed for Comedy Central in the U.S. (starring Reggie Watts as the Taskmaster), TV 2 in Denmark, VTM in Belgium, TVE in Spain, and two series on Swedens SVT channel.

Away from the screen, the launch of the Taskmaster Book 200 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People was met with huge popularity, sold over 57K copies following publication, and swiftly rose to join top 20 bestselling hardback books in the UK four days after its release during the competitive Autumn/Winter sales period.

The eighth series of Taskmaster will air on Dave in May, catch up on series 1-7 on UKTV Play #Taskmaster

WHAT THE PRESS HAS SAID ABOUT TASKMASTER Funny, revealing, and glorious...Caitlin Moran once wrote that the comedy panel game is one of the glories of British TV. A new one shone bright last night

*****

Andrew Billen, The Times

The kind of Dave thing that shouldnt quite work but is actually wildly stupid fun. Mainly thanks to Alex Horne, late of so much splendid radio, and Greg Davies...a winner

Euan Ferguson, The Observer

Its glorious mayhem and stupidly funny

David Butcher, Radio Times

Were up to series 7 and its as winning as ever

Sharon Lougher, Metro

Brilliantly madcap comedy game show

****

Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

One of the funniest game shows on TV

****

Natasha Holt, TV Times Magazine

The keynote themes are ludicrous absurdity and moderately cruel sadism. Somehow, however, it all works brilliantly, with the presence of Horne adding the barest modicum of civility to proceedings...prepare for tears of laughter

Mark Wareham, Mail on Sunday, Event Magazine

Taskmaster is an unashamed celebration of the bizarre and the mediocre

Sam Wollaston, G2 Guardian

Never before has anything so absurd, so stupid, so utterly pointless, made such good television

Sara Wallis, Daily Mirror

Inventive

Mike Ward, Saturday Magazine, Daily Express

The funniest show on telly

The Sun, TV Magazine

Creative Chaos

Emma Messenger, TV Choice

This seems to be a series that really brings families together

Bruce Dessau, Beyond the Joke

Splendidly silly

Sunday Times, Culture

Clever

David Stephenson, Sunday Express, S Magazine

The show routinely delivers the funniest, most unexpected comedy of the TV week...The cleverest spin on the panel show format in years, its must-watch TV

Wesley Mead, Den of Geek

For more information and press tickets, please contact: Gem Pinkney gem.pinkney@uktv.co.uk

About Dave

@davechannel

Sky 155, Freeview 17, BT & TalkTalk 17, Freesat 160 On demand on Sky and UKTV Play

Since bursting onto TV sets in 2007, Dave has been putting in hours at the gym and is now a beefed-up powerhouse of brand new and original commissions from some of the biggest stars and production companies in entertainment. Romesh Ranganthan, Jon Richardson and YouTube sensation Yianni Charalambous are just some of the latest additions to the channels ever-increasing slate.

Whether its innovative comedy entertainment like the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated Taskmaster, Unspun with Matt Forde, and Dara o Briains Go 8 Bit or scripted sitcoms including the worldwide hit Red Dwarf, Zapped, and Porters, Daves guaranteed to work your funny bone like never before.

Daves also committed to bringing live sport back to free-to-air and has an ongoing deal to show fights from David Hayes Hayemaker Ringstar venture. Theres also Red Bull Soapbox, Cop Car Workshop, Sin City Motors and a whole host of much loved programming, all shot with Daves unique personality thats led to the channel reaching 20million adults a month.

About UKTV

UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching nearly 40m viewers every month.

The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Go
LINK: https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/brand-new-taskmaster-contest...
See more stories from uktv

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

09/10/2026

ATSC Members Approve B2X Candidate Standard

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/10/2026

Davicom Has a New Owner

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/10/2026

Clear-Com Scales Up Communications for Rock in Rio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/10/2026

Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026

September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026 New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...

08/10/2026

Life Safety, Part 2: From Noise to Nice: The Evolution of Speech Intelligibility in Stadium Sound

Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...

08/10/2026

ESPN's First Super Bowl Adds Disney+ to U.S. Distribution Mix

ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...

08/10/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Addison McGhee, Auburn University

From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments The future of live sports produ...

08/10/2026

Prime Video to Become Exclusive Global Home of Emmy Awards Beginning in 2027

The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...

08/10/2026

Techex to Demonstrate Hybrid Satellite and IP Delivery Platform at NAB Show New York

Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...

08/10/2026

X Games Appoints Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer

X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...

08/10/2026

Fonn Group Appoints Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director, DACH

Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...

08/10/2026

Perfect Game Introduces New Studio Show on the Road With Launch of PG Central

The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms Perfect Game is bringin...

08/10/2026

Uplynk White Paper: The IP Convergence Framework for Distribution

Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...

08/10/2026

Gravity Media Op-Ed: Gravity Media's Next Act - From Service Provider to Strategic Content Partner

For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...

08/10/2026

Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley Publish Satellite-to-IP Distribution Framework

Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...

08/10/2026

NFL Announces Ninth Annual Big Data Bowl Powered by AWS

The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...

08/10/2026

Eutelsat Renews Partnership with Tldiffusion dAlgrie on EUTELSAT 7 West A

Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...

08/10/2026

Disney+ to Stream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027

Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...

08/10/2026

RHStv to Stream Clemson vs. Coastal Carolina Baseball at Myrtle Beach Fall Showdown

RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...

08/10/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 15 Timberwolves Games Free Over-the-Air in Minnesota and Wisconsin

Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...

08/10/2026

SMPTE Media Technology Summit Returns to Pasadena Nov. 16-19; Get 10% Off With SVG Promo Code

SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...

08/10/2026

PROTON Camera Innovations Named Recipient of 2026 Technology and Engineering Emmy for FPV Drone Systems

PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...

08/10/2026

Silver Lining: Sharing Tales From the Trenches of Cloud-Based Production with NBC Sports, MLB, NHL, and Warner Bros. Discovery

Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...

08/10/2026

Dolby Atmos Coming to Formula 1 on Apple TV Beginning with 2026 U.S. Grand Prix

The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...

08/10/2026

Free Leonard Peltier Proves That the Fight for Justice Is Just Beginning

David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...

08/10/2026

Sound Particles update Energy Panner 2 & Brightness Panner 2

Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...

08/10/2026

The DMNO ON from UDO Audio

New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...

08/10/2026

ADAM Audio introduce the Sub8 PRO & Sub10 PRO

Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...

08/10/2026

Clear-Com Powers Critical Communications at Rock in Rio 2026

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

08/10/2026

NAB New York 2026 Preview

Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October. Cal...

08/10/2026

ESPN Unveils First Studio W Refresh

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Pay-TV Operators Ask FCC to Pause TV Station Ownership Cap Rules

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Calrec Brings New Consoles, Software to NAB Show New York

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Mediagenix Bows AI Content-Aware Scheduling

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Ikegami to Unveil UHK-X700VN Camera at NAB Show New York

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Ed McGivern Joins USSI Global as Chief Revenue Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Globecast Brings Media Orchestration and C-Band Transitio...

Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...

08/10/2026

Clear-Com Powers Critical Communications at Rock in Rio 2...

Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...

08/10/2026

Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Creative Executives

Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...

08/10/2026

NAB Show New York Returns to Javits

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

FCC to Vote on Restrictions for Device Testing, Spectrum for D2D and Drones

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

World First' as DTM Deploys Riedel Private 5G for On-Track Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

LiveU Cranks Up Connectivity Across Tour de France

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Ikegami to Introduce New UHK-X700VN Camera at NAB New Yor...

Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...

08/10/2026

Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show...

Calrec will be located at Booth 444. Freedom to choose The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...

08/10/2026

LiveU LU900Q with LIQ Brings Unprecedented Connectivity t...

LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...

08/10/2026

Disney+ to Stream Super Bowl LXI Live

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/10/2026

Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix to Be Carried in Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision on Apple TV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...