The iconic British comedy game show, Taskmaster, is currently airing its 22nd series, which is insane—but completely well-deserved and deeply warranted given how beloved it is. For those who might not know, Taskmaster is a game show in which five celebrities, often comedians, are given bizarre challenges to compete against each other for points.
Taskmaster Series 22 features well-known comedians Chloe Petts, Isy Suttie, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti, and Richard Ayoade, all of whom must complete tasks set by the judges, Greg Davies and Alex Horne.
While there isn't a US version of Taskmaster, or at least one that lasted more than a season, there is something in the same realm: Dropout TV's Game Changer. The show lives up to its name. It's an improv comedy game show where the game the contestants play changes every episode—and none of them know the rules when it all starts.
Dropout TV has some incredibly passionate fans, an audience who not only loves Game Changer, but the improv comedy show Make Some Noise and Dimension 20, a Dungeons & Dragons playthrough series starring Brennan Lee Mulligan. Needless to say, they've all seen the connection between Game Changer and Taskmaster—a dream crossover that so many people want.
There have been small moments that have happened, such as Alex Horne providing a prompt for Game Changer's "One and Done" episode, or him providing sports-like commentary for "Earwigs." Despite those fun gags, there's never been anything meatier. But could that ever come to pass?
The Direct spoke with Taskmaster creator Alex Horne, who discussed the likelihood of a Game Changer and Taskmaster crossover. Alongside Horne, we also spoke with the show's onscreen host, Greg Davies, where we spoke about how Taskmaster has evolved over these twenty-two seasons.
Could There Ever Be a True Taskmaster and Game Changer Crossover?
Sadly, the Answer Might Not Be What Fans Hope For.
- The Direct: "[Game Changer] shares a lot of DNA with this show, and the fans have always talked about and wondered what a crossover [with Taskmaster] would look like. Have there ever been any discussions with that team about whether you guys would ever do anything substantial with one another?"
Alex Horne: Well, unfortunately, the answer is probably [not]—Well, so, Sam Reich, who makes [Game Changer], basically came across to the UK once and got in touch and said, 'I do this program, which is a bit like your program. Can I come and have a look at your house and have a wander around,' and that was it. And we got on well. And he asked me to film something on my phone for him, and you know, that's all it was really.
"Never say never," Horne noted, but he does think it might be "best if they don't ever quite touch."
Horne: But I think we both know that they are similar worlds. But I think it's best if they don't ever quite touch. But we never say never. Yeah, I quite like the intrigue, and I don't know what it [would look] like. You know, our tone is all regal with all the red and the gold, and his is all the primary colors, the pastel colors, and they're similar but very different, I think. It isn't a great answer. The answer is I don't know.
How Taskmaster Has Evolved In 22 Seasons, and What They Want to Bring Back to the Show
"Now We're Much More Spontaneous..."
- The Direct: "What is your favorite part about how the show has evolved since it first premiered way back when?"
Alex Horne: We've just finished filming a season in the studio, and I said to Greg when we finished that my favorite bit is that we get to have lunch together. And in the old days, we didn't do that. We would have to sit down and talk about the show and write it, and it was much more structured, whereas now we're much more spontaneous, and we improvise nearly the whole thing. And I think that's what I've loved, that it's evolved into something which we are much more natural at.
Greg Davies: The world is established, and the dynamics are established. But it's still, because it's a whole new group of people every time, it's never boring, it never repeats itself. So it's sort of the best of both worlds, really, in that it's exciting and fun. But we know what we're doing, and we know what the boundaries of the show are and what our roles are. So it means we can just have a nice lunch together...
Davies added how now he doesn't even want to see the contestant's task prizes before they are revealed, a notable change from how he used to run the segment.
Davies: You know, to be specific, we would perhaps discuss what they brought in as their prize tasks beforehand, and you know, Alex might sort of give his views on it, and I would respond before we go out onto the studio. But now we don't even, I don't even know what they've brought in, which [I prefer]. I prefer to react in the room. And we've never cheated it. We've always scored it in the room anyway. But I just think it all feels very familiar, but joyously, there's never the same group of people.
- The Direct: "What is something from early on in the show that you feel kind of maybe has been lost throughout the years, and not necessarily a good or bad thing, but just through that evolution that you kind of would love to revisit or kind of bring back a little bit at some point?"
Horne: I mean, there's one thing that was in the early days, we did some quite long tasks. So one of them was that they had to get this boulder away from the house as far away as possible, and they had an hour to do it. But the trouble with that is it meant they had an hour to do it, and then we had to travel an hour back from wherever they got, and so we'd lost half the day just like that, and we sort of realized you don't need five hours' worth of footage. Once you've got that times five people, it's not a very efficient way of working.
"But I did like tasks that lasted for a long time," Horne made sure to note, adding how he "wouldn't mind getting that back:"
Horne: But I did like tasks that lasted for a long time. So I wouldn't mind getting that back, but it's not a good idea. Also, we did the odd one, which we used to do more, which was a bit more homework for them. So they had to, I think, even in that season, they had to grow the longest fingernail over four months. And I quite like ones like that, but comedians are lazy, so you don't necessarily get as good a result as you should.
Davies: I'll take something that we've brought back in, and it doesn't really relate to this season so much as the one that we've just filmed. But we've brought back a strictness to the adherence to the rules in recent times, and I think it's quite refreshing because as the show's evolved and our relationship and our characters have evolved in the room, there's become an elasticity in how I score things...
Bringing back that strictness and adherence to the rules has "led to fun and debates and arguments" alongside plenty of "online content."
Davies: ... Which has led to fun and debates and arguments and things and lots of online content. But we revisited the idea, and will more, I think, for a little period of, the rules of the rules, and being a bit more sort of a stickler. So I guess that's a thing that had drifted a bit, and now I think it's fun to reintroduce.
The Direct's full interview with Taskmaster's Alex Horne and Greg Davies can be seen below.
