Taskmaster Analysis/Research

Taskmaster is a British Comedy created by comedian Alex Horne and hosted by Greg Davies. It consists of 5 contestants undergoing a series of simple comedic tasks/challenges in order to earn points and win the overall show across 10 episodes. 

Each episode makes the contestants compete in various tasks and are judged by Davies’ tyrant “Taskmaster” by points ranging from 1-5 with few exceptions when it comes to disqualifications. 

Origin

Taskmaster was not meant to become a hit TV show. Originally the idea pitch of Taskmaster first developed when Horne sent 20 of his comedian friends a task every month for a year. With an in-depth about the origins of Taskmaster with ‘Campaign’, Horne mentioned that “ I have three children so I was home and bored a lot of the time. I sent 20 comedian friends of mine a task – one per month for a year."

Horne debuted the idea at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a “comeback” against his fellow comedian friend Tim Key due to him picking up the 2009 award. He asked 20 comedians to undergo several challenges throughout the year with the winner being revealed on a two-hour drunken show called ‘The Taskmaster’ in which the first task was “Put the most money into my (Horne’s) bank account, Most money wins.

The show was pitched years before it was greenlit and Horne described it as being a “big risk”. This is due to the show having no script and trusting that the comedians will be funny.

Horne called Davies and pitched the idea of playing the Taskmaster due to his natural authority from his role as Head of Year Mr Gilbert in hit show ‘The Inbetweeners’ and his previous 13 year experience teaching drama at Langleywood, Orleans Park and Sandhurst School.

Format

The first task is always a prize task where the contestants have to bring an object revolving around a statement or question, such as “What is the best thing you can carry… but only just” or “The best drinking vessel”. The prize that Davies thinks is the best in the category, wins the 5 points. 

The 2/3 tasks in between range from a simple task such as “Stuff as much of a banana inside a bottle in a set amount of time” to more complex tasks such as “Transport a beach ball to the finish line only using water”. Some of these tasks have a unique twist or surprise. A prime example of this was a task where they had to “Make the most exotic sandwich” and after the contestants had made the sandwich, they had to “Eat the sandwich in the quickest time”, in which most of them struggled. 

The last challenge requires the contestants to go onto the stage and do a practical task in front of the live studio audience.

Alex Horne will then reveal the episode’s points total and the winner of the episode. The winner will then win all the items that appeared in the 1st task of the show. Upon a score draw, a pre-recorded tiebreaker will be shown and the winner of that challenge will win the episode. 

Overall, in episode 10 (the final episode), they will reveal the series points total with the winner of the whole show winning a gold statue of Greg Davies’ Head. 

Production

All of the show is pre-recorded. This includes all the tasks and the events in the studio. Most of the tasks are filmed in a house in Chiswick, London, with the studio being located in Pinewood Studios. Also, filming for Taskmaster can take up to five days. The Taskmaster house is a former groundskeepers’ cottage which is inside a golf course in Chiswick, West London. It was listed for rent with a cost of £4,117. The budget for Taskmaster is estimated at £1.1M.

Target Audience

As of October 2020, Taskmaster recorded 1.7 million viewers on Channel 4. The viewing figures promote that the series’ target audience is prominently 16-34 year olds. 

The increase in viewers of these ages has helped push the show into other international markets such as the US, New Zealand and Norway. The US version failed to capitalise and develop on the original UK version and was soon cancelled after 1 season. However both the NZ and Norwegian version (Kongen befaler) were deemed successes during their runs and are now in development for series 4 and 7 respectively. Notably the NZ version caused the showrunner TVNZ 2’s audience to increase by 19% among those 25-54 years old and more than doubled the audience range in the 15-34 y/o bracket, allowing it to be the highest viewed local comedy in 2020.

Reception/Awards

Episode Analysis- Series 11: Episode 10 (Finale)

The show opens on a montage of moments throughout the past season, mixed together with footage of Greg Davies with a typewriter - This allows the audience to recall past moments and instantly get engaged with the show. Davies is shown with a typewriter to show the show's theme of a posh, old and mysterious style sitcom.

A wide shot is presented to allow the audience to know the setting and the circumstances around it. - Shows that Davies and Horne are the prominent main hosts due to them facing the 5 contestants as well as showing that this was filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

While introducing the show and the guests, the camera cuts to a full shot of Greg Davies and smaller medium close up shots for each of the contestants one by one

Throughout the prize task, The camera shots switch between the Full shot/two shots of Davies and Horne and the MCUs of the contestants to capture their reactions and speech. Along with that, when the objects are being revealed, for a brief second or two, the picture switches from the camera to the screen where an image of the object is shown. This is generally followed by a wide shot showing everyone in front of the screen. - Each shot lasts around 2-4 seconds

To transition from the studio to the task, a clip is shown to introduce a brief idea of the task. In this case, it is a video of Horne photocopying parts of his face, therefore alerting the audience that the photocopier will have a role in this task. (Make the best picture of a big scary dinosaur using this photocopier)

As the contestants read out the task, the camera shots shown here are a static medium shot, a handheld MCU and Close-up shot, and multiple “secret” cameras placed on the walls in the room. This allows the audience to get a full scope of the contestants actions across different angles while too focusing on their reactions. 

When more than one contestant is shown doing the task, it will switch between the two at regular intervals which lets the contestants show off their personalities to the audience, therefore more likely increasing their attention rate.

They also cut back to the studio before they show the final result to discuss the footage shown, which also increases the excitement and builds up for the finished piece.

This repeats with the other 3 contestants.

For the 2nd task, when the contestants enter the room, there is no background music, only the natural sound. This gives it the effect of a classic sit-com, something that Horne wanted when creating the format of the show.

Similar to the first task, there is a static full shot, paired with a handheld movement ranging from medium to close-up shots and cameras set to the ceilings and walls.

However unlike the first task (and common for at least 1 task per episode) they leave one contestant till last, in this case, Sarah Kendall. They normally do this as it is either the best attempt or the most outlandish or comedic of methods.

For the last VT task set outside, it opens with a wide shot with the contestants on the far left of the screen. 

Camera shots here include OTS, wide, full, aerial, medium and MCU shots. These shots are almost all static shots apart from a few handheld movements when it comes to the close up and medium shots types.

For the final task, it cuts from them sitting in the studio to being stood on the stage. On the other hand, these tasks take place all at the same time and will always take at most 3 minutes to complete. Every second is kept in the final show, so no cuts are used, but the camera switches between each contestant in a medium shot or a long shot.

When announcing the winner of the episode and receiving their prizes, they will cut to them entering the stage in a full shot behind all of the objects seen in the first prize task.

Due to this episode being the finale, they too announce the series points total and hold a trophy ceremony (with the trophy being a gold head statue of Greg Davies). The trophy being the head of Davies, enhances the idea of him being a powerful figure on the show.

Bibliography

Jane Turner, LJT, (2020), ‘Taskmaster: To Channel 4 and beyond, one cult show’s global takeover’, DigitalSpy

Bennett, HB, (2020), ‘10 things you might not know about taskmaster’, Royal Television Society

Kahn, EK, (2018), ‘UKTV’s Taskmaster- a risk that paid off’, Campaign Live

Sheehan, FS, (2019), ‘Taskmaster continues its award winning growth across Scandinavia’, Avalonuk

N/A, (2020), ‘Taskmaster wins 1.7 million viewers for Channel 4’, Chortle.co.uk