Avalon Television’s UKTV show Taskmaster has been commissioned for a series by Comedy Central in the USA.

The American version of the show will star US stand-up comedian Reggie Watts (The Late, Late Show with James Corden) as the Taskmaster with Alex Horne as his loyal assistant.
 
Taskmaster started out as a live show, devised by Alex Horne, which ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 and 2011.

UKTV has ordered a fourth and fifth series of Taskmaster with each series increasing from five to eight episodes. The show was 2016’s most watched commission on UKTV’s on demand service, UKTV Play. Series four of Taskmaster is back on air in the UK this week on Dave on the 25th April at 9pm.

The Taskmaster format has been licensed into five territories – Belgium, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Finland. A Belgian version has already aired on VTM and the Swedish version is currently on air on SVT 1. The original UK show has also been sold to BBC Worldwide Australia and TVNZ’s Duke.

The US show will be produced by Avalon Television and executive produced by Reggie Watts, Alex Horne, Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, Kara Baker, David Martin, James Taylor, Jon Thoday and Andy Devonshire (The Apprentice and The Great British Bake Off), who will also direct. Kellyn Parker, Adam Londy and Jordan Ellner are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.

Jon Thoday, Joint Managing Director of Avalon Television, said: “It’s great to be working with Alex, Reggie and Comedy Central on making this innovative and funny programme for the US.”
 
Avalon Television are also currently in production with: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), Not Going Out (BBC One), Catastrophe (Channel 4/Amazon USA),  Man Down (Channel 4) and The Russell Howard Hour w/t (Sky One)

Staff Reporter

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