Channel 4 commissions Your Time Starts Now from Taskmaster creator Alex Horne, in which households across the UK can tackle his tasks in their actual homes

It was announced today that, following a successful pilot, Channel 4 have commissioned a series of the new play-at-home gameshow, Your Time Starts Now (w/t). The new 8x60’ series is devised and developed by Alex Horne, creator and host of BAFTA and Rose D’Or winning Taskmaster and Andy Devonshire, founding Series Director on shows including The Apprentice, The Great British Bake Off and Taskmaster.

Set in the Taskmaster universe, the new show builds on the at-home ingenuity of earlier incarnation The Button, which Horne devised and narrated in 2018, and HomeTasking that saw Horne on a mission to entertain a world stuck in 2020’s lockdown. Your Time Starts Now will see UK households compete against one another while tackling a host of his typically devious tasks without ever leaving their homes. 

Five teams of friends and families across the UK will need to display creativity, lateral thinking, speed, knowledge and teamwork if they want to win. Each task has a cash reward and the household with the most money at the end of the episode has a choice to leave with their winnings or play for double that amount the following week, meaning someone could win a potential cash prize of millions at the end of the series.

Alex Horne, creator and host, said: “I often hear about friends, families, colleagues and teammates doing our Tasks on holidays or at weddings, scout camps and Christmas dinners, but I seldom hear that these people have sought permission to do so. Now, finally, we will harness the country and be able to set challenges within a rigorous framework so that the rules are properly adhered to, everyone is judged appropriately and the best rightfully rewarded. Also, I think it's going be very fun for everyone, and that's got to be a good thing”.

Jon Thoday, Executive Producer at Avalon, said: “It’s an absolute delight to have the backing of Channel 4 to release a new show from Alex Horne and Andy Devonshire and their amazing team”.

Tom Beck, Head of Live Events and Commissioning Editor said: “The pilot delivered laughter, warmth, comedy and families arguing over why they’d failed to nail an obviously ludicrous task. It’s joyful! Roll on the series.”

Andy Devonshire, Director and Executive Producer, added: “Time waits for no one, so you may as well be doing tasks. This is a chance for everyone to have a go without leaving the house”.

Executive Producers for Your Times Starts Now (w/t) are Alex Horne, Richard Allen-Turner, Jon Thoday, James Taylor, and Andy Devonshire (The Apprentice and The Great British Bake Off), who also acts as Series Director. Sallie Clement is Series Editor and Lizzie Gill is Series Producer. The show was commissioned for Channel 4 by Head of Live Events, Tom Beck.

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Notes to Editors

The Button, which aired for one series on the BBC, received wide critical acclaim: with The Radio Times saying, “Genuinely interesting new game show concepts are a rare breed – but luckily, this is one of them… t…”; Digital Spy commenting, “Taskmaster’s creators have come up with another addictive triumph”; The i Newspaper noted “Alex Horne, who also created Dave’s Taskmaster, is obviously some kind of game-show genius. I’m becoming slightly addicted to his new creation”; with The Times adding “by taking place in living rooms rather than in a shiny studio, finds a bit of originality within t….  HomeTasking, had over 6 million views across YouTube. It was watched in 125 countries with viewers ranging from the US to the UK and from Moldova to Mongolia.

Meanwhile, the Taskmaster brand continues its stratospheric growth across the globe.  The show continues to triumph as one of Channel 4’s most popular programmes in recent years, sitting in Channel 4’s top three series of audience share of young viewers (16-34) in the coveted 9pm slot, with Gogglebox and Derry Girls. More countries than ever are creating their own versions as Poland joins the thirteen other countries who air local versions of the format, while the UK original is attracting its highest ever global audience as the recent series 21 reached a 28% audience growth compared to previous series with 153,053,786 million impressions (16,369,690 views) and counting on the official Taskmaster YouTube channel. 

Taskmaster: The Live Experience was a critically-acclaimed sell-out hit that was extended to meet demand for tickets from fans who travelled from as far as Brisbane, San Franscisco, Toronto, and South Africa to take part. Last year also saw a successful collaboration with English Heritage which invited families across the UK to take on bespoke tasks set in their iconic historical locations, while the growing success of Taskmaster Education and School Tasking is being used by an increasing number of schools bringing the ethos of Taskmaster to the classroom, taking elements of the show and using them to inspire, engage and teach children and young people.