For over a decade Greg Davies and his assistant Little Alex Horne have been entertaining UK audiences on Taskmaster, and more recently the comedy show has even found huge success abroad.
Now in its 21st season on Channel 4, the series is showing no signs of slowing down, having just been renewed for a further six editions.
Season 19, which aired in 2025, saw the show reach new heights in its popularity, with clips from the series accumulating 165 million global views across its social platforms.
The show has also surpassed 1.4 billion global views on its official YouTube channel.
But what is the recipe to such great success? According to Davies, it largely stems from “a bloody good format that Alex came up with”.
Davies told The Times: “Even though my character is a horrible dictator it’s got no malice in it. It’s no surprise that the contestants always form WhatsApp groups and stay in touch. They become an instant weird family.”
Another key element of the show’s popularity is the niggling between Davies and Horne, with the show’s host noting: “He’s a really good friend of mine but he genuinely irritates me.”
And as for the future of the Taskmaster franchise, Davies noted there are other international versions “in the pipeline”, joking of the show’s significant success: “It seems to be catching on.”
The 19th season included comics Fatiha El-Ghorri, Jason Mantzoukas, Mathew Baynton, Rosie Ramsey and Stevie Martin, all of whom recently reunited, much to the delight of Taskmaster fans.
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Meanwhile, Horne has teased that the team behind Taskmaster have got ideas for a tweaked series in the “near-ish future” that would somewhat change the format of the show.
While he was careful to not reveal too much, when asked about what the team have got planned, Horne told Radio Times: “ People ask us about adding a Champion of Champion of Champions.
“I think, instead of that, we have got something up our sleeves in the near-ish future, of doing a slightly interesting series. It’s just some tweaks, but I can’t say any more than that. So [we have got] something. We’ve got something up our sleeve.”
Taskmaster is available to watch on Channel 4.
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