Channel 4 orders six more seasons of Taskmaster, commissions junior spin-off

Greg Davies and Alex Horne host Channel 4 gameshow Taskmaster

UK pubcaster Channel 4 is launching a children’s version of gameshow Taskmaster and has renewed the original series for a further six seasons.

Junior Taskmaster will be produced by Avalon, the prodco behind the adult version, and will feature kids aged 9 to 11. The hosts of the kids’ spin-off will be announced soon.

Created by Avalon’s Alex Horne, Taskmaster sees a group of comedians compete against each other in a series of humorous tasks.

Channel 4 said the format was its youngest-skewing series last year, while its family-friendly (censored) version has grown in popularity with younger views and also been recreated by schools in the classroom.

Taskmaster’s 15th season will premiere on Channel 4 at the end of this month. The show originally aired on UKTV’s comedy channel Dave from 2015 to 2019, before moving to Channel 4 for its 10th season.

Horne, who acts as host Greg Davies’ assistant on the original Taskmaster, said: “I’ve watched many, many comedians flounder when given simple instructions over the past few years and I fully expect the competitors in Junior Taskmaster to be both more competent and just as funny.

“For that series, I will be handing over my assistant’s clipboard to someone equally as efficient and persistent as myself because I have a lot more admin to do with six further handfuls of supposedly talented adults. I live for bureaucracy so this is all excellent news.”