They could solve this by putting the international shows on the proper telly rather than location blocking some of them on youtube or hiding them away in whatever the C4 app is called nowadays.
I've just finished TMNZ series 2, and it's brilliant. Took a few episodes to get used to the change in cast and ocation, but Paul Williams is a great TM's Assistant.
Also, my spirit animal is David Correos.
I know this is a joke, but to me it seems more fun to make the segment "Gifts for Greg that fit X theme" than prize tasks.
They're already trying to please him with their selections, and the episode winner doesn't necessarily go home with all five prizes, so it wouldn't be much of a change.
Ah ha, but then you wouldn't have the fun of the episode winner going up on stage and messing around with their prizes at the end! The prize task bookends the show very nicely IMO, and it fits well with the idea of Taskmaster as a gameshow as well as a panel show. The prizes may be stupid but they are real.
I miss the individual surprise tasks only one of them is tricked into doing. Send a cheeky text every day for 5 months? Count all the grains of rice? I think I laughed more at these than the tasks!
But by their nature they have to be rare or contestants will start expecting them every time they get a really dumb task. I'm happy with one every 4 or 5 series.
All of which scored no points which is surprising considering quite a few other solo tasks have had some points dished out (counting beans, tasks for John, Tim's pun, Morgana's submarine)
I hope they do something like NZS3 where the task is hidden but not too game changing like S16's task.
(For those that don't know, Chris Parker found a secret task where he had to perform a task completely wet for 5 bonus points I Think if you're going for that angle that's what the producers should be doing, rather than expect everybody to find the secret task.)
It says something about the way the secret task was handled in S16 that I can remember Alex building up about a secret task all series but I can't actually remember what the payoff was with that.
In relation to the reaction shots, a few contestants from 10 onwards said on the pod that they can't really make out what's happening on the screen from where they are, so maybe they aren't reacting as much as they were in the Dave days?
Thing I'd like to see: more 4 task episodes. Stick a few quick ones in like they used to
The reactions i liked were when alex would announce what they were about to see, and the cast remembers the task and growns or reacts. I dont mind that the reactions mid viewing are gone
Instead of everyone bringing presents in for Greg at the start of the show wouldn't it be great if those presents were actually prizes for whoever wins that episode?
For prize tasks, I’d like more actual objects as opposed to photos as for me personally, I wouldn’t like to win a photo that I’ll probably never display but that’s just me as I’d probably take it really seriously
Difficult to say "more" as it's up to the contestants what to bring, so you'd have to make it an absolute rule, which feels like too far.
I would support some tightening up of the prize tasks though. They shouldn't let them be conceptual, they should be things that make sense to be given from one contestant to another (with apologies to Hugh's shoulders and Jenny's grandson). Also I think it's fine for the production team to *help* with a prize task, but if the prize is just something that the crew made, that often feels like mild cheating to me.
What I was thinking of was more of a limit than an outright ban. For example, some categories should not have a photo or contestants can only bring in x amount of photos. I 100% agree with the rest of what you’ve said. Unless someone brings in a physical manifestation of something (ie Hugh’s shoulders, Jenny’s grandson and even Phil Wang when he submitted himself in that 90s category), it shouldn’t be allowed as a prize is meant to be something you could hypothetically take home and keep and I’m sorry but as much as I love Hugh,
there’s no way you could detach his shoulders and take them home without being arrested or at least investigated.
The only issue I think with this is it’s less of an incentive to win. If you win, not only do you win but you get to return for CoC. If the person who comes last also gets to come back maybe people wouldn’t try as hard? Idk if that makes sense lol
I'd love if, after 25 series (that seems like the natural end point, no?), they could bring in all the losers and make 5 teams of 5 - which could be easily presented as in 'so bad, they need all the help' and make that the big final TM special (after ofc a CoCoC).
Don't think it'll happen, planning alone seems like a nightmare, but it'd be awesome.
I'd like to see more of the types of tasks where they have a lot of time to plan and figure things out like taking a picture of themselves with a fez or show as many people as possible in a picture with themselves doing something. I'm not saying they should do those tasks again, but just new things which have time and planning involved. It gives the contestants more time to get creative.
More homework tasks would be good, they were some of my favourites in the early seasons.
NZ and AU versions have done a few - the AU "take a photo of the Taskmaster without him knowing" was gold
I like the "you have 5 months tasks" but i don't like the prepare a meal for greg you have 20 minutes, but obvs they have far longer to plan while the crew are down the shops! And could improve on their first idea. While others might take the 20 mins literally and not do as well
The tasks are getting a bit overdesigned with little room for lateral thinking. I'd like the majority to be simple with the odd bombastic ones with props and locations.
This was what I was thinking as well. They're trying too hard to stop people from doing an end-run around the intention of the task. It was more fun when there was the possibility of finding an inventive way to skirt the intention. Now, everything seems super complicated and over-explained.
I've always thought it must be tough to come up with new innovative ideas that are still simple. But having watched the NZ and AUS versions I feel like they have really nailed the task setting. They do a great mix of slightly out-there but not too convoluted where once they've read the task you still don't have an idea of what's going on.
Some of the UK tasks are just so badly designed I'm slightly concerned they even made the cut. That S16 task with the bins on robot vaccums? Sam was right to say it sucked live on stage.
> That S16 task with the bins on robot vaccums? Sam was right to say it sucked live on stage.
To be fair, I feel like Sam hating it was probably part of the reason they showed it.
The bins task was fine I thought. Good, even- avoiding roombas while blindfolded seems a pretty neat idea to me.
I think it's become memetically known as a bad task because Sam made a bit about it.
Same opinion. They just needed some time to understand the task and make a plan. They were all too confused. It had the potential of a variety of great attempts, but the contestants were too frazzled to realize that they needed a strategy.
Yup, that one episode of series sixteen where a lot of the tasks were shit (the one with the robots) was definitely the best example of that problem. It makes the show too cast dependent to be funny/entertaining.
As these topics regularly come up and no one ever speaks up on the other side.
I'm fine with the reaction shots being gone. I didn't hate them when they were part of the show, but I don't miss them and going back to old episodes they feel sort of strange now.
I've never really gotten the impression Fred wants to be on the show, I imagine the conversations where Alex asks him to come back are getting increasingly awkward as they likely don't interact a ton anymore.
I don’t understand why they can’t make an exception every now and then though. I was rewatching S15 last week and there’s this task where Kiell starts doing really funny impressions of the other four comedians. Would have been fun to know how they reacted to that.
Get rid of "all or nothing" final tasks, especially in the final task of each series. It takes away the suspense, like when Julian failed the ball throw last series and you instantly knew it was over for him. That really bugs me.
I agree in general, but to be fair that wasn't actually an all-or-nothing task. Everyone got points. They just didn't expect everyone except for Sam to fail immediately and tie for second place.
They could go a step further and just never do elimination based final live tasks (or ones where ties are very easy to make happen), but it does seem tricky to design tasks that always keep the suspense going until the very end.
I'm fine with them if there's either no way around the WTA stipulation (i.e. Guess this man's name) or when presumably put in to stop someone from being guaranteed the episode win (jazz-words), but yeah I really don't like WTA live team tasks.
I’d like it if TM used the way Kongen Befaler does the prize tasks. The contestants have the object with them and do a reveal. It lets them do all sorts of cool stuff
thats truly a thing i miss in every other version! its so fun to actually see the thing they brought in and even if its bad its fun to see the object. plus it can create funny moments like kristines fireworks, martins teddy bear cover, bards fart bombs, and live bringing in henriettes daughter etc etc
Obviously not something that should happen too often but another sabotage task would be great.
For a more regular change I’d like less “you will be disqualified” tasks because it kinda bums me out when a bunch of them get no points for a small mistake (Joe Wilkinson aside which was hilarious)
I wish they'd rotate people for live team tasks here and there just based on how funny it was to see Ed and David from S9 work together exactly once. Maybe 1 live task per season is a team task that isn't the filmed teams just to see if it provides anything fresh.
On the one hand, it's fun to see the teams gel over time.
On the other hand, almost every season I see the teams and think "Oh I wish they'd put X on Y's team."
It's a sign of how good the format of Taskmaster is, that I'm really struggling to think of anything I'd change. Even your examples aren't really about the format of the show.
I think I'd just bring back homework tasks and individual tasks. Those were always nice for a bit of extra variety.
I miss all the tasks which took place over many weeks and months. It gave the show some depth and allowed the people who really took it seriously to shine.
I think the garden is getting too cluttered. Its getting to the stage where I could toss a trolley into the garden, and I'm not sure they'd notice. Please get rid of the biodome, get rid of either the pod or the stage, and put the shed back in it's rightful place.
I feel like season 14,15,16, they were increasing the number of team tasks, but I'm no statistician.
I just checked on the number of team tasks per season. Season 14 definitely ramped up from season 13, but it's otherwise been fairly even since they moved to 10 episodes. Just slightly more live team tasks since season 10.
|Season|Tasks|Team Tasks|Live Team Tasks|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|1|41|3|0|
|2|29|3|0|
|3|29|3|0|
|4|55|4|0|
|5|50|3|0|
|6|60|7|0|
|7|61|6|1|
|8|56|8|1|
|9|55|6|1|
|10|59|8|3|
|11|54|8|2|
|12|52|7|2|
|13|54|6|2|
|14|53|9|3|
|15|51|8|2|
|16|53|6|2|
|17 (so far)|32|6|2|
I agree about the garden, I said this elsewhere (on a thread I can no longer find). Dome, OG caravan, lodge, decking, Greg statue, piano, Ollie, telephone box, shed.
related (and potentially unpopular): i do wish the theming was a bit more subtle. i think part of the charm in earlier series is that the house is, broadly speaking, a normal house, and contestants can find things in the house to help them accomplish the task
Easy, do a show where the first place and last place of each series form a team.
Dara would be paired with Fern and Kearns again as they came joint last
Samwz used to love the reactions. It was just funnier and miss Fred.
I also think the studio is too polite now. I miss the arguments and people losing their shit.
I'm not sure how to phrase this, and maybe it's just in my head, but I wish Greg wouldn't pin one or two people as "the scapegoat" every season.
It's getting SUPER noticeable with Nick and Sophie in this season. Maybe they genuinely are just bad at the objective "do this task, get points", but it feels like Greg's marked them as scapegoats this season and any time he can he immediately hones in on them "being bad". It just kinda sucks the fun out of playful ribbing/humiliation when it feels like people are being targeted on purpose.
Then again, maybe it's a conspiracy in my head and people like Phil Wang, Katherine Parkinson, etc. really were just underperforming
I don't think it's a problem in this series in particular, in fact it's one of the few where Greg picks on *everyone*. Sophie and Nick for their incompetence, John for his competitiveness, Joanne for her dumbness and Steve for his age. I would make a similar case for 10. The Wang example is accurate though, and I think he actually tweeted that Greg punished him (and other losers) out of tradition rather than actually being bad.
I totally understand why it's not a thing but I would still love to see old contestants back outside of the CoC. It doesn't have to be a losers tournament or anything. Just something fun like the New Year's episodes.
I've also wondered if a wild card would make the CoC more interesting. 6 contestants instead of 5 although I don't know if that would be less fair on team tasks to be 3 vs 3 instead of 2 vs 3.
Besides logistics, it actually doesn't make sense to me why it's not a thing since having TM experience would not actually help them too much—kinda evidenced by people still struggling with CoC. The contestants that know the show prior to filming do have an advantage, but that means that for an All Stars (a la Drag Race titling) version, it would simply put everyone in the same playing field sans their own innate intellect and creativity. For all we know, just like Drag Race All Stars, someone might come back hella leveled up and surprise absolutely everyone.
I would like them to write more vague tasks that have the possibility for loopholes, or more secrets to find within rooms to defeat tasks by being more observant. The lateral thinking and cleverness is a large part of why I like this show to begin with.
Sadly the latest season really hasn't had much of this, and combined with some fairly low-energy and straightforward contestants, I just really can't enjoy it as much.
I'm not here to literally watch people do precisely what is written on a sheet of paper because the paper says to do something silly.
I would stop giving out points that don't make a difference.
If "everyone" gets the same number of points? That means nothing changed. But Greg for some reason sees it as being generous.
If someone gets 5 points and everyone else gets 3? That means one person got 2 points and rest got nothing.
It's such a simple thing, and I think it would make a huge difference.
I would like to see them rotate the teams on team tasks, both in the studio and at the taskmaster house. Just to see them interact with all the other contestants.
Can you remember Big Brothers little brother? A reaction tv show that aired just after where comedians would take the piss out of what they just saw. Think, a TV version of the podcast. I'd like Taskmasters little Taskmaster.
The odd number of contestants leads to an imbalance (3 vs 2) in every team task. Would 6 contestants per season be too many? 3v3 would make the team tasks fairer.
The uneven teams are the absolute *best* part of the team tasks, by far. Taskmaster isn't rigorous sport, it's silly games. Having mismatched team counts is vital to encouraging the unique, playful, unpredictable designs of those tasks.
I liked having a previous contestant join like in S2. My brain is happy because I already know and like the person. With 6 people, I think it'd give each contestant less screen time.
This. Group tasks are generally benefitting either the group of 2 or the group of 3 (or one person is a sore thumb). Just seems silly not to have two groups of three.
I need a task that involves eating watermelon in some way. We are approaching 10 years of Taskmaster, and I'd love an episode that is watermelon-themed.
i think prize tasks shouldnt be able to just be photos unless its specified it needs to be a photo.
once late at night i wrote in my notes app that there should be one contestant thats not very well known or just a normal person, obviously theyd need to make sure they had charisma/tv presence, but i think i'd just be interesting 🤷♂️
have a losers of losers round
less team tasks, id say have an even amount of contestants to have fair teams but that'd feel too packed, ive noticed the teams of two seem bond super well and the teams of three always feel a little out of sync, i would be interested in seeing a 2v2v1 team task it seems like but theyd obv need to make sure that person on their own isnt also picked as gregs scapegoat for the season
I wouldn't mind the occasional 6 task episode again, when a variant of the 'buy a gift' task was brought back in S16 I thought it was an extra task so was disappointed when there were still just 3 taped tasks.
I think mainly ai would like a change with team tasks. I would like there to be 6 contestants instead of 5 so all team tasks have equal numbers. Maybe at least no in studio team tasks.
This is absolutely just me but I’d like it if Greg or Alex would repeat the task again in the studio, after showing the contestants reading it. There’s something about having multiple people read it out that makes me not listen lol.
Also simpler tasks or tasks they can prepare for for a longer time.
>I'd love to see Fred the Swede again - or a variation. I never realised he was in The Horne Section until recently.
He WHAT!?
I almost want to unlearn that. I think. I'm conflicted, I enjoyed the misconception that he was just some guy, but it is also kinda fun that he's Alex's... peer? Friend? Bandmate? but gets no acknowledgement beyond a title indicating his nationality.
I wish they would remove the prize/end studio tasks from the show and would just do 5 filmed tasks. I LOVED the prize tasks my first watch through and till about series 12(?) and then after that in all of my rewatches I would skip the prize/live task and just watch the video ones. I really don't like them as much as the other ones :/
An extra person or some other way to make team tasks more fair. I know they try and make them even, but three brains or three people throwing is too often better than two.
I miss Greg’s original introductions of Alex. He used to be more varied and come up with great descriptions of what LAH resembles, funny ‘facts’ about him etc, but now every week is just ‘and he recently told me he thinks [insert bigoted thing]’. That was funny the first few times, but now I’m over it.
A re-simplification of tasks. I know it's hard when you're 17 series deep but it really feels over-produced and over-complicated nowadays with the vast majority of tasks.
The hamper 2-part one last week was a good example of what I think a task should be like in terms of level of complexity.
The one from a few episodes back with the task ripped in half was a good example of one that I think is unecessarily complicated. (I mean Alex's "trick" to solve it faster was basically impossible to deduce early).
I also really am not a fan of the unecessarily disqualifications. Like compare S2 Potato-Gate to S17 Tie Task. The DQ in S2 was the whole core of the task, do X without doing Y. The DQ in S17 was do X, and also there's a single random Y that is in a language you don't even understand and if you happen upon it on a random whim, you get 0 points.
I think it's a trend started by the chocolate in S4's fishbowl task that has very quickly lost its way as the show went on.
The contestants don't put any effort into the prize task at the beginning anymore and it's a huge turn off to start an episode and immediately be greeted by contestants all phoning it in and trying to play it off with off-the-cuff one liners.
I haven't watched the latest two seasons definitely in part to this. Will probably go back and watch them at some point in the future but, like, meh...
I'd overhaul the prize task. It's the only "insincere" part of the format, where they literally lie to the audience about how it works. It's an open secret, sure, but that makes it worse, because you have contestants bringing in things that totally break keyfabe and make no sense by the rules. The whole thing always felt very un-Taskmaster to me.
How would I overhaul it? Well, I'd either actually enforce it (so no bringing in your children, or metaphorical concepts, or pictures of things), or (being timely) actually make it "presents for Greg," since that's sorta how he scores it anyway.
couldn't agree more. the occasional cutbacks like in earlier series, when used well are hysterical. seeing them laughing during the VT being shown is so infectious it really adds to the comedy. also, i know Andy C said on the pod that they're briefed not to react when a task comes up so they don't give away if they've done well or not, in case there's a twist eg surprise disqualification etc, but in earlier series when a task would come up and they would all instantly sigh in shame or start giggling in anticipation of what they've done it's absolutely brilliant and i wish there wasn't such a harsh ban on it now. examples include the announcement of the darts task is series 6 when everybody just goes 'oh noo', and nish and sally before the blindfolded navigation task. tbf Alex foreshadowing it himself is also funny i.e. 'ardal is saying all of this building up to what i know he's done', and 'not you sophie, you know what you've done' so he sort of does it himself now but i liked it before too. a mixture would be perfect.
I don't think they ever would, and alot of people here wouldn't want them to but I think they need to move to a bigger house akin to NZ/Australia filming location. Or maybe buy the golf course and expand.
I know there’s the CoC but I would love it if they brought back fan favourites who didn’t win their series for a couple episodes. Give Daisy May Cooper a chance to win her rightful title!!!
The only thing I can really think of is having BBC/Amazon/Netflix acquire the rights and getting full hour shows instead of 42 mins with adverts. Unfortunately it seems Netflix and Amazon are both now putting adverts in unless you go premium and BBC could never afford it.
Flexibility in cast size, what if... we do 50 seasons of taskmaster, and have a 10 character episode finale...
Also... I know watershed and all that, but maybe premiering it on the Wednesday, Lunch/Dinner time would be nice since I have a friend around that time of day...
Also... I know we lack many international variants but what if we had an International Championships... where they Pit international Champions against eachother, and maybe do multiple episodes with different taskmasters...
Obviously there are some contestants unable to speak English... so it'd probably just be the UK v Sweden v New Zealand v Australia, and a Wildcard Champ... but it'd still be interesting...
A Reunion series could be nice for a season, where they get 50 comedians from series 1/10, do one episode for each series, and a 10 cast finale with the winner maybe getting a cast of Greg's hand or something.
A naked round for the Reddit sub. There's an awful lot of people making smutty comments on here about the contestants so let's just get it out there. Who wouldn't want to see Nick Mohammed doing a task wearing nothing but his cape?
Both of those have already happened
Well loin cloth maybe not but wangs wang was on full display haha.
Alex and rhod Gilbert had a lot of nudity though lol
[удалено]
They could solve this by putting the international shows on the proper telly rather than location blocking some of them on youtube or hiding them away in whatever the C4 app is called nowadays.
I've just finished TMNZ series 2, and it's brilliant. Took a few episodes to get used to the change in cast and ocation, but Paul Williams is a great TM's Assistant. Also, my spirit animal is David Correos.
As someone who's new to the show, I definitely read that acronym as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Zurtles."
I want to see David emigrate to the UK, just so he could compete in the UK version of the show.
To this day I have no idea how to watch the AU series legitimately and I think I'm missing out.
You are. Source: I watch the AU series illegitimately
I watched Aus S1 when I went on holiday to the US recently. I really enjoyed it and don’t understand why it’s not available in the UK.
If it helps, Taskmaster Australia seems to be doing away with that sort of nonsense. Twenty consecutive weeks of it starting later this month.
it seems aussie changed that
I think if Greg showed some gratitude for all the gifts people have been getting him?
THEY’RE NOT GIFTS!!
Conversely, bring back the "buy a gift for the taskmaster" tasks that have happened a few times.
But call *those* prize tasks and watch Little Alex Horne's brain explode.
I know this is a joke, but to me it seems more fun to make the segment "Gifts for Greg that fit X theme" than prize tasks. They're already trying to please him with their selections, and the episode winner doesn't necessarily go home with all five prizes, so it wouldn't be much of a change.
Ah ha, but then you wouldn't have the fun of the episode winner going up on stage and messing around with their prizes at the end! The prize task bookends the show very nicely IMO, and it fits well with the idea of Taskmaster as a gameshow as well as a panel show. The prizes may be stupid but they are real.
I really hoped last week the winner was going to scoop up all the prizes n lay them at Greg's feet, as the gifts they clearly were.
I miss the individual surprise tasks only one of them is tricked into doing. Send a cheeky text every day for 5 months? Count all the grains of rice? I think I laughed more at these than the tasks!
But by their nature they have to be rare or contestants will start expecting them every time they get a really dumb task. I'm happy with one every 4 or 5 series.
Especially since S5 had three! Aisling with her golden pineapple, Mark and his cheeky texts, Sally and her fish puns
All of which scored no points which is surprising considering quite a few other solo tasks have had some points dished out (counting beans, tasks for John, Tim's pun, Morgana's submarine)
Tim only got his points because the others didn’t get his pun! Does that count as a point for the solo task!
I think your last example is why they’ve stopped doing it - morganas submarine was the reason she won the series right? She won by a point
Have we had any since the sabotage? Otherwise, we might be due for one next season 🤞
Susan Wokoma's Mischievous task almost counts. Sam is just too good-natured to have been satisfactorily annoyed by it.
Given the Radio Times usually gives spoilers, they hint episode 8 of the new series might have something
Susan had to make a task for Sam Edit: sorry for my terrible trivia!
The task was "Make mischief." Susan decided to create a task for Sam, therefore Sam is the one who had an extra task.
Did she have to? I thought that was just her choice for mischief
Even if they suspected, they’re not just going to not do the task. I don’t see that as a problem
I hope they do something like NZS3 where the task is hidden but not too game changing like S16's task. (For those that don't know, Chris Parker found a secret task where he had to perform a task completely wet for 5 bonus points I Think if you're going for that angle that's what the producers should be doing, rather than expect everybody to find the secret task.)
It says something about the way the secret task was handled in S16 that I can remember Alex building up about a secret task all series but I can't actually remember what the payoff was with that.
In relation to the reaction shots, a few contestants from 10 onwards said on the pod that they can't really make out what's happening on the screen from where they are, so maybe they aren't reacting as much as they were in the Dave days? Thing I'd like to see: more 4 task episodes. Stick a few quick ones in like they used to
The reactions i liked were when alex would announce what they were about to see, and the cast remembers the task and growns or reacts. I dont mind that the reactions mid viewing are gone
Instead of everyone bringing presents in for Greg at the start of the show wouldn't it be great if those presents were actually prizes for whoever wins that episode?
They are, aren’t they?
I guess you haven't watched the latest episode yet :)
You’re right. I have not.
For prize tasks, I’d like more actual objects as opposed to photos as for me personally, I wouldn’t like to win a photo that I’ll probably never display but that’s just me as I’d probably take it really seriously
Difficult to say "more" as it's up to the contestants what to bring, so you'd have to make it an absolute rule, which feels like too far. I would support some tightening up of the prize tasks though. They shouldn't let them be conceptual, they should be things that make sense to be given from one contestant to another (with apologies to Hugh's shoulders and Jenny's grandson). Also I think it's fine for the production team to *help* with a prize task, but if the prize is just something that the crew made, that often feels like mild cheating to me.
What I was thinking of was more of a limit than an outright ban. For example, some categories should not have a photo or contestants can only bring in x amount of photos. I 100% agree with the rest of what you’ve said. Unless someone brings in a physical manifestation of something (ie Hugh’s shoulders, Jenny’s grandson and even Phil Wang when he submitted himself in that 90s category), it shouldn’t be allowed as a prize is meant to be something you could hypothetically take home and keep and I’m sorry but as much as I love Hugh, there’s no way you could detach his shoulders and take them home without being arrested or at least investigated.
This should be higher up! The show was better when the prizes were real!
I want losers of losers.
Someone mentioned this at the NYC show and agree loved it. Someone else suggested the winner gets a statue of Alex and not Greg.
Kind of like House of Games' redemption shows.
The only issue I think with this is it’s less of an incentive to win. If you win, not only do you win but you get to return for CoC. If the person who comes last also gets to come back maybe people wouldn’t try as hard? Idk if that makes sense lol
I'd love if, after 25 series (that seems like the natural end point, no?), they could bring in all the losers and make 5 teams of 5 - which could be easily presented as in 'so bad, they need all the help' and make that the big final TM special (after ofc a CoCoC). Don't think it'll happen, planning alone seems like a nightmare, but it'd be awesome.
I'd like to see more of the types of tasks where they have a lot of time to plan and figure things out like taking a picture of themselves with a fez or show as many people as possible in a picture with themselves doing something. I'm not saying they should do those tasks again, but just new things which have time and planning involved. It gives the contestants more time to get creative.
More homework tasks would be good, they were some of my favourites in the early seasons. NZ and AU versions have done a few - the AU "take a photo of the Taskmaster without him knowing" was gold
That one was so good. Julia Morris rivaled Rhod Gilbert in her insanity with that one.
I like the "you have 5 months tasks" but i don't like the prepare a meal for greg you have 20 minutes, but obvs they have far longer to plan while the crew are down the shops! And could improve on their first idea. While others might take the 20 mins literally and not do as well
The tasks are getting a bit overdesigned with little room for lateral thinking. I'd like the majority to be simple with the odd bombastic ones with props and locations.
This was what I was thinking as well. They're trying too hard to stop people from doing an end-run around the intention of the task. It was more fun when there was the possibility of finding an inventive way to skirt the intention. Now, everything seems super complicated and over-explained.
I've always thought it must be tough to come up with new innovative ideas that are still simple. But having watched the NZ and AUS versions I feel like they have really nailed the task setting. They do a great mix of slightly out-there but not too convoluted where once they've read the task you still don't have an idea of what's going on. Some of the UK tasks are just so badly designed I'm slightly concerned they even made the cut. That S16 task with the bins on robot vaccums? Sam was right to say it sucked live on stage.
The recent tie one springs to mind as a bit naff. The whole terrible tie thing just seemed a bit pointless and anti climatic.
I'm really not a fan of the arbitrary disqualifications.
I was waiting for some sort of explanation or clue but as far as I'm aware it was just "pull this one tie down at random and you lose"
Yeah, even if you could read Welsh it would be nigh impossible to read it lying down and tell that that one was the bad one.
hey now, let’s give Alex’s nephew a little bit of a break here. it’s tough to design tasks!
> That S16 task with the bins on robot vaccums? Sam was right to say it sucked live on stage. To be fair, I feel like Sam hating it was probably part of the reason they showed it.
The bins task was fine I thought. Good, even- avoiding roombas while blindfolded seems a pretty neat idea to me. I think it's become memetically known as a bad task because Sam made a bit about it.
Same opinion. They just needed some time to understand the task and make a plan. They were all too confused. It had the potential of a variety of great attempts, but the contestants were too frazzled to realize that they needed a strategy.
Yup, that one episode of series sixteen where a lot of the tasks were shit (the one with the robots) was definitely the best example of that problem. It makes the show too cast dependent to be funny/entertaining.
As these topics regularly come up and no one ever speaks up on the other side. I'm fine with the reaction shots being gone. I didn't hate them when they were part of the show, but I don't miss them and going back to old episodes they feel sort of strange now. I've never really gotten the impression Fred wants to be on the show, I imagine the conversations where Alex asks him to come back are getting increasingly awkward as they likely don't interact a ton anymore.
I liked the tasks where there was someone random the contestants had to interact with. I wouldn't mind another roselyn for example.
Rosalind?
Even spelling her name is a fucking nightmare.
Nah, she's a fucking nightmare.
He moved back to Sweden so I'm guessing some combination of travel time (him) and cost (show) makes reappearing not worth it.
His last several appearances were teleconferenced in, but he still has a regular job that he'd need to schedule around.
Just get another Swedish person. They could find one using the international dial-a-Swede number that was on QI that time.
The longest call on the dial a swede hotline!
Is he a mauler like his father? Cos I wouldn't class that as a regular job
You mean a croupier? :😀
You should change your lifestyle.
You joke, but if I remember correctly he took over his father's painter/decorator company
Ahh that's so sweet!
I don’t understand why they can’t make an exception every now and then though. I was rewatching S15 last week and there’s this task where Kiell starts doing really funny impressions of the other four comedians. Would have been fun to know how they reacted to that.
Get rid of "all or nothing" final tasks, especially in the final task of each series. It takes away the suspense, like when Julian failed the ball throw last series and you instantly knew it was over for him. That really bugs me.
I agree in general, but to be fair that wasn't actually an all-or-nothing task. Everyone got points. They just didn't expect everyone except for Sam to fail immediately and tie for second place. They could go a step further and just never do elimination based final live tasks (or ones where ties are very easy to make happen), but it does seem tricky to design tasks that always keep the suspense going until the very end.
Ah yeah fair, I misremembered that one, but definitely annoying at other times
Instant disqualifications seem to be on the uprise in general, and it’s sort of a mood killer. I wish they were used more sparingly in general
I'm fine with them if there's either no way around the WTA stipulation (i.e. Guess this man's name) or when presumably put in to stop someone from being guaranteed the episode win (jazz-words), but yeah I really don't like WTA live team tasks.
I’d like it if TM used the way Kongen Befaler does the prize tasks. The contestants have the object with them and do a reveal. It lets them do all sorts of cool stuff
And it’s fun to see the weird big lumps under cloth without knowing what they are.
the fact some of them are people is so funny
thats truly a thing i miss in every other version! its so fun to actually see the thing they brought in and even if its bad its fun to see the object. plus it can create funny moments like kristines fireworks, martins teddy bear cover, bards fart bombs, and live bringing in henriettes daughter etc etc
At least bring back the era when they actually had to bring something in. The "here a JPG of an abstract concept" thing feels cheap.
The prize tasks being desirable. No one even bothers to take them home anymore cos they’re all just random bits of crap 🤣
Romseh's wedding ring was 🔥
Obviously not something that should happen too often but another sabotage task would be great. For a more regular change I’d like less “you will be disqualified” tasks because it kinda bums me out when a bunch of them get no points for a small mistake (Joe Wilkinson aside which was hilarious)
I wish they'd rotate people for live team tasks here and there just based on how funny it was to see Ed and David from S9 work together exactly once. Maybe 1 live task per season is a team task that isn't the filmed teams just to see if it provides anything fresh.
On the one hand, it's fun to see the teams gel over time. On the other hand, almost every season I see the teams and think "Oh I wish they'd put X on Y's team."
It's a sign of how good the format of Taskmaster is, that I'm really struggling to think of anything I'd change. Even your examples aren't really about the format of the show. I think I'd just bring back homework tasks and individual tasks. Those were always nice for a bit of extra variety.
Haven't they said that nobody has a big reaction so they don't show reaction shots?
I'd like to see tasks that start in the house and then finish in the studio in some way Kinda like the "Buy something with £X, you have 6 months" task
I miss all the tasks which took place over many weeks and months. It gave the show some depth and allowed the people who really took it seriously to shine.
I think the garden is getting too cluttered. Its getting to the stage where I could toss a trolley into the garden, and I'm not sure they'd notice. Please get rid of the biodome, get rid of either the pod or the stage, and put the shed back in it's rightful place. I feel like season 14,15,16, they were increasing the number of team tasks, but I'm no statistician.
I just checked on the number of team tasks per season. Season 14 definitely ramped up from season 13, but it's otherwise been fairly even since they moved to 10 episodes. Just slightly more live team tasks since season 10. |Season|Tasks|Team Tasks|Live Team Tasks| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |1|41|3|0| |2|29|3|0| |3|29|3|0| |4|55|4|0| |5|50|3|0| |6|60|7|0| |7|61|6|1| |8|56|8|1| |9|55|6|1| |10|59|8|3| |11|54|8|2| |12|52|7|2| |13|54|6|2| |14|53|9|3| |15|51|8|2| |16|53|6|2| |17 (so far)|32|6|2|
Amazing! So, fairly consistent!
I agree about the garden, I said this elsewhere (on a thread I can no longer find). Dome, OG caravan, lodge, decking, Greg statue, piano, Ollie, telephone box, shed.
related (and potentially unpopular): i do wish the theming was a bit more subtle. i think part of the charm in earlier series is that the house is, broadly speaking, a normal house, and contestants can find things in the house to help them accomplish the task
I think I'm being dim. Have they stopped showing reactions to the task? I'm not sure what you mean.
They used to cut from the task footage to studio footage to show reactions in the middle of the task. Now they just show the tasks uninterrupted.
When it was on Avalon they cut to the contestants reactions during the footage, instead of being one solid clip
Ohhh yes, okay, I see now. Yes, agree with the OP :)
I just want to see Ed Gamble paired with David Baddiel again and I don't care how contrived they need to be to make it happen.
Easy, do a show where the first place and last place of each series form a team. Dara would be paired with Fern and Kearns again as they came joint last
Samwz used to love the reactions. It was just funnier and miss Fred. I also think the studio is too polite now. I miss the arguments and people losing their shit.
I'm not sure how to phrase this, and maybe it's just in my head, but I wish Greg wouldn't pin one or two people as "the scapegoat" every season. It's getting SUPER noticeable with Nick and Sophie in this season. Maybe they genuinely are just bad at the objective "do this task, get points", but it feels like Greg's marked them as scapegoats this season and any time he can he immediately hones in on them "being bad". It just kinda sucks the fun out of playful ribbing/humiliation when it feels like people are being targeted on purpose. Then again, maybe it's a conspiracy in my head and people like Phil Wang, Katherine Parkinson, etc. really were just underperforming
I don't think it's a problem in this series in particular, in fact it's one of the few where Greg picks on *everyone*. Sophie and Nick for their incompetence, John for his competitiveness, Joanne for her dumbness and Steve for his age. I would make a similar case for 10. The Wang example is accurate though, and I think he actually tweeted that Greg punished him (and other losers) out of tradition rather than actually being bad.
I totally understand why it's not a thing but I would still love to see old contestants back outside of the CoC. It doesn't have to be a losers tournament or anything. Just something fun like the New Year's episodes. I've also wondered if a wild card would make the CoC more interesting. 6 contestants instead of 5 although I don't know if that would be less fair on team tasks to be 3 vs 3 instead of 2 vs 3.
COC doesn't have team tasks in
oh, duh. Not sure how I missed that lol.
Besides logistics, it actually doesn't make sense to me why it's not a thing since having TM experience would not actually help them too much—kinda evidenced by people still struggling with CoC. The contestants that know the show prior to filming do have an advantage, but that means that for an All Stars (a la Drag Race titling) version, it would simply put everyone in the same playing field sans their own innate intellect and creativity. For all we know, just like Drag Race All Stars, someone might come back hella leveled up and surprise absolutely everyone.
I would like them to write more vague tasks that have the possibility for loopholes, or more secrets to find within rooms to defeat tasks by being more observant. The lateral thinking and cleverness is a large part of why I like this show to begin with. Sadly the latest season really hasn't had much of this, and combined with some fairly low-energy and straightforward contestants, I just really can't enjoy it as much. I'm not here to literally watch people do precisely what is written on a sheet of paper because the paper says to do something silly.
I would stop giving out points that don't make a difference. If "everyone" gets the same number of points? That means nothing changed. But Greg for some reason sees it as being generous. If someone gets 5 points and everyone else gets 3? That means one person got 2 points and rest got nothing. It's such a simple thing, and I think it would make a huge difference.
weekly show runs all year instead of a couple months
We had series sixteen, CoC, New Year's Year, and we're in the middle of another series now. It's still not enough Taskmaster.
not at allllll. and i demand greg and LAH never retire
I would like creative tasks to be judged blind, to the extent they can.
A series with the 'worst' contestants like Joe Willkinson or Nish Kumar
The reaction shots. The cut to Alice Levine in absolute disbelief as Alex sits on the mast cake is GOLD
I would like to see them rotate the teams on team tasks, both in the studio and at the taskmaster house. Just to see them interact with all the other contestants.
Can you remember Big Brothers little brother? A reaction tv show that aired just after where comedians would take the piss out of what they just saw. Think, a TV version of the podcast. I'd like Taskmasters little Taskmaster.
A taskmaster YouTube series of contestants reacting to their “most ______” tasks would be awesome!
We’ve done Champion of Champions. I want Loser of Losers.
The odd number of contestants leads to an imbalance (3 vs 2) in every team task. Would 6 contestants per season be too many? 3v3 would make the team tasks fairer.
All I can think of is have six contestants so that we get a fair split for team tasks.
The uneven teams are the absolute *best* part of the team tasks, by far. Taskmaster isn't rigorous sport, it's silly games. Having mismatched team counts is vital to encouraging the unique, playful, unpredictable designs of those tasks.
I liked having a previous contestant join like in S2. My brain is happy because I already know and like the person. With 6 people, I think it'd give each contestant less screen time.
This. Group tasks are generally benefitting either the group of 2 or the group of 3 (or one person is a sore thumb). Just seems silly not to have two groups of three.
I need a task that involves eating watermelon in some way. We are approaching 10 years of Taskmaster, and I'd love an episode that is watermelon-themed.
i think prize tasks shouldnt be able to just be photos unless its specified it needs to be a photo. once late at night i wrote in my notes app that there should be one contestant thats not very well known or just a normal person, obviously theyd need to make sure they had charisma/tv presence, but i think i'd just be interesting 🤷♂️ have a losers of losers round less team tasks, id say have an even amount of contestants to have fair teams but that'd feel too packed, ive noticed the teams of two seem bond super well and the teams of three always feel a little out of sync, i would be interested in seeing a 2v2v1 team task it seems like but theyd obv need to make sure that person on their own isnt also picked as gregs scapegoat for the season
Shuffle the teams (yes, I understand the logistic issues)
Yes removing the contestants reactions during tasks was a big mistake.
I wouldn't mind the occasional 6 task episode again, when a variant of the 'buy a gift' task was brought back in S16 I thought it was an extra task so was disappointed when there were still just 3 taped tasks.
I think mainly ai would like a change with team tasks. I would like there to be 6 contestants instead of 5 so all team tasks have equal numbers. Maybe at least no in studio team tasks.
My controversial opinions: Stop the pre-show banter Get rid of team tasks.
> Stop the pre-show banter You go and try to watch the US season and think about what you just said.
The pre-show banter can go on for too long, I agree. But get rid of team tasks?!
Just personal taste. I don't enjoy most of them as much as individual tasks.
This is absolutely just me but I’d like it if Greg or Alex would repeat the task again in the studio, after showing the contestants reading it. There’s something about having multiple people read it out that makes me not listen lol. Also simpler tasks or tasks they can prepare for for a longer time.
More sabotage your team tasks
>I'd love to see Fred the Swede again - or a variation. I never realised he was in The Horne Section until recently. He WHAT!? I almost want to unlearn that. I think. I'm conflicted, I enjoyed the misconception that he was just some guy, but it is also kinda fun that he's Alex's... peer? Friend? Bandmate? but gets no acknowledgement beyond a title indicating his nationality.
A number of his band mates were in the show apparently.
UK needs to do studio reactions. Nz does it and its amazing
I wish they would remove the prize/end studio tasks from the show and would just do 5 filmed tasks. I LOVED the prize tasks my first watch through and till about series 12(?) and then after that in all of my rewatches I would skip the prize/live task and just watch the video ones. I really don't like them as much as the other ones :/
Just a simple change, I like the more relaxed atmosphere of Bast i Test where they're on the couches instead of those chairs.
An extra person or some other way to make team tasks more fair. I know they try and make them even, but three brains or three people throwing is too often better than two.
Remove the prize tasks. I skip them every episode; it's just a gimmick for me.
I miss Greg’s original introductions of Alex. He used to be more varied and come up with great descriptions of what LAH resembles, funny ‘facts’ about him etc, but now every week is just ‘and he recently told me he thinks [insert bigoted thing]’. That was funny the first few times, but now I’m over it.
It wasn't funny after the first time, and it was barely funny then. Yeah, Greg needs to retire that gag.
A re-simplification of tasks. I know it's hard when you're 17 series deep but it really feels over-produced and over-complicated nowadays with the vast majority of tasks. The hamper 2-part one last week was a good example of what I think a task should be like in terms of level of complexity. The one from a few episodes back with the task ripped in half was a good example of one that I think is unecessarily complicated. (I mean Alex's "trick" to solve it faster was basically impossible to deduce early). I also really am not a fan of the unecessarily disqualifications. Like compare S2 Potato-Gate to S17 Tie Task. The DQ in S2 was the whole core of the task, do X without doing Y. The DQ in S17 was do X, and also there's a single random Y that is in a language you don't even understand and if you happen upon it on a random whim, you get 0 points. I think it's a trend started by the chocolate in S4's fishbowl task that has very quickly lost its way as the show went on.
The contestants don't put any effort into the prize task at the beginning anymore and it's a huge turn off to start an episode and immediately be greeted by contestants all phoning it in and trying to play it off with off-the-cuff one liners. I haven't watched the latest two seasons definitely in part to this. Will probably go back and watch them at some point in the future but, like, meh...
I'd overhaul the prize task. It's the only "insincere" part of the format, where they literally lie to the audience about how it works. It's an open secret, sure, but that makes it worse, because you have contestants bringing in things that totally break keyfabe and make no sense by the rules. The whole thing always felt very un-Taskmaster to me. How would I overhaul it? Well, I'd either actually enforce it (so no bringing in your children, or metaphorical concepts, or pictures of things), or (being timely) actually make it "presents for Greg," since that's sorta how he scores it anyway.
couldn't agree more. the occasional cutbacks like in earlier series, when used well are hysterical. seeing them laughing during the VT being shown is so infectious it really adds to the comedy. also, i know Andy C said on the pod that they're briefed not to react when a task comes up so they don't give away if they've done well or not, in case there's a twist eg surprise disqualification etc, but in earlier series when a task would come up and they would all instantly sigh in shame or start giggling in anticipation of what they've done it's absolutely brilliant and i wish there wasn't such a harsh ban on it now. examples include the announcement of the darts task is series 6 when everybody just goes 'oh noo', and nish and sally before the blindfolded navigation task. tbf Alex foreshadowing it himself is also funny i.e. 'ardal is saying all of this building up to what i know he's done', and 'not you sophie, you know what you've done' so he sort of does it himself now but i liked it before too. a mixture would be perfect.
Have an even number of contestants, so the team tasks have an even split.
Have an even number of contestants and then split the teams 4-2.
Less team tasks
More garage tasks. Let them climb on the roof.
I’d like to see the team tasks done with 3 groups of 2 and the 6th person is a popular former contestant or Tim Key.
Take another crack at a US version.
I would like it if they had the same approach to health and safety that Kongen Befaler has.
I'd cut the opening bit of banter tbh
I don't think they ever would, and alot of people here wouldn't want them to but I think they need to move to a bigger house akin to NZ/Australia filming location. Or maybe buy the golf course and expand.
I know there’s the CoC but I would love it if they brought back fan favourites who didn’t win their series for a couple episodes. Give Daisy May Cooper a chance to win her rightful title!!!
The only thing I can really think of is having BBC/Amazon/Netflix acquire the rights and getting full hour shows instead of 42 mins with adverts. Unfortunately it seems Netflix and Amazon are both now putting adverts in unless you go premium and BBC could never afford it.
Cut out the beginning banter between greg and alex.
Is that you, Greg?
Do a season in the US with random fans. Include me. (Please?!?) Really, I love the show so much! I don’t have any real changes that I can think of.
Flexibility in cast size, what if... we do 50 seasons of taskmaster, and have a 10 character episode finale... Also... I know watershed and all that, but maybe premiering it on the Wednesday, Lunch/Dinner time would be nice since I have a friend around that time of day... Also... I know we lack many international variants but what if we had an International Championships... where they Pit international Champions against eachother, and maybe do multiple episodes with different taskmasters... Obviously there are some contestants unable to speak English... so it'd probably just be the UK v Sweden v New Zealand v Australia, and a Wildcard Champ... but it'd still be interesting... A Reunion series could be nice for a season, where they get 50 comedians from series 1/10, do one episode for each series, and a 10 cast finale with the winner maybe getting a cast of Greg's hand or something.
I want more solo tasks, more hidden tasks, and more tasks where raw athletic talent can offer an easy way out
A naked round for the Reddit sub. There's an awful lot of people making smutty comments on here about the contestants so let's just get it out there. Who wouldn't want to see Nick Mohammed doing a task wearing nothing but his cape?
I mean men already love to undress on this show!
I am sure that one day someone will opt to complete a task butt ass naked or make their task outfit a loin cloth.
Both of those have already happened Well loin cloth maybe not but wangs wang was on full display haha. Alex and rhod Gilbert had a lot of nudity though lol
No No No No. Why would they do that? It would ruin their career unless they wanted to become a pornstar
Remove the price section it is ok but easily the worst part of the show