Channel 4 has commissioned a pilot of a brand new game show from Taskmaster‘s Alex Horne.
Currently titled Your Time Starts Now, the show will see UK households compete against one another in a number of tasks without ever leaving their homes.
It’s a similar premise to Horne’s former BBC show The Button, while also building on the popular HomeTasking series that took place online during the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
Channel 4 has confirmed that Your Time Starts Now is “set in the Taskmaster universe” and has been developed by Horne and Taskmaster director/producer Andy Devonshire.
Horne said of the pilot: “I’ve had the pleasure of being in the room while countless comedians have tried and usually failed on Taskmaster and I’ve learnt that for the most part, that lot are sneaky loveable idiots.
“With Your Time Starts Now, I’m now excited and intrigued to see how the rest of the country can cope doing simple things under the pressure of time-constraints, dogged rivals and my own snarky gaze.
“Good luck people of the UK. I shall be watching.”
The show was first rumoured back in April, when a call went out from production company Avalon for applicants to a new entertainment programme that many fans noticed resembled The Button.
The Button aired in 2018 and saw teams of families receive a giant talking button (voiced by Horne) in their living room. Whenever it lit up, they had to complete the subsequent challenge faster than their opponents across the UK.
At the end of the episode, the household that had won the most money could choose to keep it and not appear on the next episode, or roll it over and come back next time – but risk losing the money they had won.
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Channel 4’s head of live events and commissioning editor Tom Beck said: “Wildly inventive, properly funny and rooted in real people being brilliant (and, occasionally, absolutely rubbish), Your Time Starts Now feels perfectly Channel 4.
“It’s an utterly distinctive celebration of British family life in all shapes and sizes, and I can’t wait see how our families get on as they try and tackle Alex and Andy’s ludicrous tasks. Why should comedians get all the fun?”
Elsewhere, Taskmaster show no signs of slowing down, with the cast for season 22 confirmed last month.
Chloe Petts, Isy Suttie, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti and Richard Ayoade are the latest comedians going head-to-head to win Greg Davies’s golden trophy, with episodes due to air later this year.
Find out more about the Taskmaster season 22 line-up here:
Read more:
- Taskmaster’s Alex Horne would “love” international Champion of Champions – but reveals why it’s unlikely
- Taskmaster favourite Greg Davies teases show’s future and reveals the key to its success
Taskmaster is available to watch on catch-up on Channel 4 and YouTube outside the UK.
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