Taskmaster move to Channel 4 confirmed

Channel 4 have a habit of doing this, looking after a show when it's new then quickly losing interest. Russell T Davies famously vowed never to work for them again after spending a year developing a Queer As Folk spin off and The Second Coming for them before a change of personnel meant they were rejected.

Gogglebox is 15 episodes per series, it's on way too much although it's still rates so Channel 4 won't be cutting back anytime soon.




RTD has clearly forgiven Channel 4 as wrote Cucumber for them and he's got another drama Boys coming next years

That was the fear when the 3 series were commissioned but actually the opposite has happened and the last three series have been some of the best. I'm not sure whether it's the combination of those taking part, or the quantity of episodes/series giving them extra momentum, but it has reeally worked.

Nonsense, there are plenty of people left in the comedy world who they could get to take part, and plenty of new talent coming up. There's a big well of comedians from previous generations to dip into too


Remember though that it is used very much as a showcase for Avalon talent, as well as Alex Horne and Greg Davies every series has had at least 2 or 3 Avalon clients, particularly the newer talent: David Baddiel, Rose Matefeo and Ed Gamble in the case of this current series. They won't run out

List of all their clients here: http://avalonuk.com/all-clients/

Yep and it's what the BBC have been doing for decades just without the money aspect - trying and growing shows on BBC2 and then being poached by 1!

Dave have been using it to promote their commitment to original programming, I imagine those promos will end soon

I hope that the past series will stay on UKTV in some form, I would have thought that they'd rather show them if they can than pull them out of spite. Having the new series on Channel 4 should push its new found fanbase to Dave for the back catalogue

Given this news odd just ahead of the finale for UKTV to purchase a post-RWC Final slot solely to advertise Taskmaster with an ad clearly designed to go out pre-series.

And of course UKTV is wholly owned by the BBC, oddly enough.

BBC1 taking a show from BBC 2 is not the same as Channel 4 taking a show from Dave.

Yes - though via it's production and sales arm, BBC Studios. (BBC Studios is also a rival for Avalon as a production company)

Possibly because that rejection worked out for the best in the end. Second Coming ended up on ITV, and then the BBC hired both Davies and Second Coming's lead actor Christopher Eccleston for Doctor Who.

I remember a couple of years ago (2017) scheduling was all over the place. It started off in the usual Friday 9pm slot, then it was randomly on two Mondays in a row at 10pm, then Thursdays at 9pm, then Thursdays at 10pm, then Fridays at 9pm, then Fridays at 10pm, before going back to its usual slot of Friday at 9pm. All within the space of 2017 alone.

It kind of is, just not with the financial aspect and with less rivalry.

BBC2, and to a lesser extent 3 and 4, provide the risk and try new programmes and formats and then BBC1 poaches them when it's successful. It's still a bit of a kick in the teeth for the channel that took the risk