24 thoughts on “Taskmaster off to Channel 4?

  1. Chris B

    Interesting in so many ways. Like Brig said on Twitter, bit of a kick in the teeth for Dave. Hard to imagine they wouldn’t have put in an improved offer for multiple series. Only changes I can really see is less episodes a year (which might be an attraction if they are getting more money for them I guess).

    I can’t really see it improving the audience for the show, but I guess C4 want the youth crowd watching their ads instead of Dave’s. They have always got pretty good guests, and I guess Greg will stay with it, so it boils down to money, which is funny in a way when it must cost not much to make.

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    1. Chris B

      Scheduling will be interesting, can’t see it being a 9pm weekday (although maybe on a Friday when Gogglebox isn’t on)

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    1. Chris M. Dickson

      … especially when one of the rap battlers in the ad is Doc Brown from TM series 2.

      I’m on a coach heading northbound and am in slow traffic. One lane along, at the same speed in the jam, was a car with reg plate 12 YA. It was a Mercedes SL 400, which research puts at over sixty grand. The passenger seat was very messy. Do you suppose it was the car of someone from 12 Yard Productons? (Or perhaps just someone with these initials RYA…)

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  2. Danny Kerner

    That might explain Dave’s coyness to not say anything about next year. Hopefully UKTV try to obtain the button format as it would be a great replacement if the deal is sealed

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  3. Brig Bother Post author

    I think the weirdness for me is that it’s quite an odd show and that can find an audience on something like Dave, but I can well see it leaving the sort of audience C4 tends to go for a bit cold – it might have similar comics to Cats, but it’s a very different style and there’s no guarantee it would work.

    They may find that the sort of numbers it gets on Dave might be the top end of its potential. If I’m on Dave, I get to make loads more. If I’m on C4, I might not.

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  4. Brandon

    It doesn’t really matter if it does better on Channel 4 than on Dave, as was pointed out on here it still did better in the key demographic than The Circle which I would say is their biggest recent attempt at grabbing that demo’s attention. Much cheaper to make I should think. As long as they don’t replace Greg with Jimmy Carr or anything dreadful like that it should be fine.

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  5. Jon

    It’s hard to see that it wouldn’t add a few hundred thousand viewers on what it’s getting already, which would let’s face it give it higher ratings than The Crystal Maze. I do wonder if they’re considering this as their replacement for The Crystal Maze?

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  6. BinBag Bob

    Does anyone think we might still get a second Champion of Champions Series on Dave before it goes off to C4?

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  7. Brekkie

    A good move by C4 and I think Avalon – they seem to be the right fit, but C4 need to schedule it right. Sundays would work well IMO.

    Also explains why Dave seem to have been showing alot more original content lately – trying to get an audience in before their biggest show leaves.

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  8. Brig Bother Post author

    Now here’s some Friday night fun, hearing suggestions that TBI may have jumped the gun and it *might not be C4*, or at least not initially. Curiouser and curiouser!

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  9. Whoknows

    C4 and the BBC have been in a bidding war for a while and I don’t actually think it’s over yet so this news may be a little premature.

    It’s worth noting that I don’t think this is a case of C4/BBC wanting to steal a show but more that it was simply too expensive for Dave to make now. As every series passes Alex and Greg’s fees will only go up, as will the celebs’ as the show is higher profile than it once was. I think this why Dave’s last contract was for so many episodes, that was simply the only way they could afford to do it. Regardless of who gets it, it just wasn’t going to be on Dave anymore.

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    1. David B

      I hear what you say, and I guess I’d rather have more Taskmaster on another channel than none at all. BUT… I owe my career to C4, and it was not set up to do remakes and buy-outs. At least TM on C4 will feel like a decent fit, unlike GGBO which I refuse to watch any more because the nation’s twee-est programme should never be on that channel, ratings be damned.

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      1. Brekkie

        Completely agree but the demos really don’t match the show when it comes to Bake Off. It’s always done very well with the 16-34s – and genuinely too, not just to mask a poor overall rating.

        Junior Bake Off might benefit too from the bizarre decision to pull The Chase from 5pm in the weeks running up until Christmas. If it wasn’t Bradley’s vanity project Cash Trapped would never have had a second series.

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  10. Daniel W

    So the new nickelodeon show “Americas most musical family” premiered yesterday and through some dark arts, I managed to watch it.
    Its your typical musical talent show just with families this time.

    The format is 5 families compete in each episode, after all 5 perform, the judges pick their favourite 3 and then the studio audience vote on which 2 they want through to the next round.
    The winning family will receive a recording contract with republic records and 250000 dollars, which is weirdly given by capri-sun (the juice brand) not sure why it cant be given by republic records themselves.

    Its your standard talent show fare, if you’re into those sort of things then you will probably enjoy it. Its a well made show, its not bad,just doesn’t try to add anything new.

    Viacom really wants this to succeed as it simulcasted the premiere on all of viacoms owned channels in the US.

    Its a simple enough format for it to be successful however it could also go down the route of people calling it that one weird music show sponsored by capri-sun.

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    1. Chris B

      Interesting! So not a done deal, and could yet stay with Dave. Wonder if last week’s story was a planned leak by one of the parties, similar to the whole Spider-Man/Sony/Disney thing from earlier this year.

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  11. Danny Kerner

    Alex has confirmed no audience participation during at least during season 10 and possibly season 11 if they record back to back for a possible spring season. The earliest we could see audience if channel 4 doesn’t think audience will be needed anymore will be season 12 if they do film back to back.

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