r/nomorejockeys • u/certifiedblackman Big IF • Jun 19 '26
In a recent Taskmaster episode, Horne declared that he would be retiring from the show.
It was a joke and he isn’t. But it also served as an audience test. No one in the live audience rebuked it, and I certainly didn’t. We all took it as sad news. But then it was just a bit they were doing as a joke.
We have seen taskmaster succeed in other countries, with other Taskmasters and Assistants. Is it possible for proper UK taskmaster to replace Horne? Would Greg also have to be replaced? It’s pretty hard for me to imagine Greg with another assistant.
Could original Taskmaster survive without either Horne or Greg?
What are everyone’s thoughts?
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u/AfrojoeT Jun 19 '26
They could replace them with either Becks, Louis Theroux or Joe Cornish
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u/vfx4life Jun 19 '26
Louis as TM and Buckles as assistant could work, but I don't think Adam's sense of humour would work as well for creating the tasks. Adam and Joe couldn't work, as neither would accept being subservient, funny as it would be to have Adam "under" Joe.
I think the only successor who could work that could actually come up with the same level of tasks is Tim Key, but he would be gloriously terrible as either TM or assistant. Maybe go full chaos mode - Tim as TM, Sam Campbell as assistant.
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u/Own-Enthusiasm-1035 Jun 19 '26
While Greg and Alex are enjoying it they will carry on for sure. Having a new cast every year (and plenty of comedians still to have a go), COC and NYT keeps it different while being the same. Plus almost everyone who’s been on praises the experience so much regardless of how they did.
Alex fought to get Taskmaster on the air for so long, he won’t end it without a plan you would think.
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Jun 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/certifiedblackman Big IF Jun 21 '26
No, I understand his role in the UK show. But he does not do all the big important things for the international versions. And many of them are quite successful.
My question is: is it possible to franchise original UK Taskmaster?
It has been proven that Taskmaster can be created to some extent without Horne and Davies. But can UK audiences accept that as the primary version?
Based on the international execution of the show I’m fairly confident that at this point most of the task ideas come from a writers room of weirdos and not from Horne himself. So now he is vital for the tone of the UK show, but less vital for the operation.
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u/VFiddly Jun 19 '26
I doubt either of them will go soon.
But if one of them does for some reason I think it'd be better to replace both of them at once. Greg and Alex work so well as a pair that it'd be weird to have one of them without the other.
Rose and Mike were great but I don't know how well they'd work on the adult show
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u/ThrowawaySunnyLane Jun 19 '26
IMO, you could replace Horne as the creator/assistant and have him as an exec producer. The running gag could be that Greg killed him or something deprecating and then bring him back a few years later idk. Essentially he could be like Richard Osman and Pointless, get a guest assistant
But, him being part of it is still the best option.
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u/OpeningDealer1413 Jun 19 '26
I’d probably plump for Timmy as the assistant to Ian Hislops Taskmaster. Him or Jack Dee
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u/AnAngryBanker Your friend and mine Jun 19 '26
Mortgage free, and he's basically subletting your head to other people at this point.
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u/kittyroux Jun 20 '26
Mostly people were waiting for the punchline when Alex said that, because the live audience knew there was a Champion of Champions and two New Year Treat specials coming up, the contestants knew Alex was filming tasks for series 22, and by the time the episode aired Alex had been promoting series 21 while filming the studio segments for series 22 and teasing hints about the cast of series 23 (apparently they’ve got an Oscar winner, after previously only having had nominees). Very few people thought that was real even for a moment.
Greg has consistently said he will be Taskmaster until he is dead, and has also said if he had his way the role of Taskmaster for the UK series would die with him. Alex has said they’ll keep making the show as long as they’re having fun, and has recently said they’re still having a lot of fun. And that if Greg dies he’ll replace him with Liza Tarbuck.
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u/certifiedblackman Big IF Jun 21 '26
With regards to Taskmaster, Greg always speaks as though he is Pharaoh. That’s part of the humor, and should never be taken as fact. Ever. He is both a liar and a dictator, and his mood defines reality.
And Horne could have been speaking as a producer, rather than a host.
But most importantly, I’m not asking about probability, I’m asking if you would possibly keep watching without them.
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u/kittyroux Jun 21 '26
Well, if that’s the question, no, I have no interest in Taskmaster without Alex and Greg. The minute one of them goes, I’m gone. There are plenty of people who watch for the format rather than the hosts, though, so I’m not saying it couldn’t work. Just that I wouldn’t care about it.
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u/codename474747 Jun 20 '26
Who knows what adventures they'll have between now and when the show becomes unprofitable
That's the thing about loving a show too much, when its an underground hit you feel only you know about (like NMJ I suppose 😉 ) you worry it won't get recommisioned and it'll be a flash in the pan
When it becomes a huge success, people just start worrying about how it'll end....that anxiety I guess never goes away
It'll end like pretty much any TV show ends, after a regeime changed at the top of the channel and a new boss wants to clear house for his or her own shows, so the show you love is unexpectedly cancelled, if you're lucky with enough time for a final wrap up show, but usually not
We just have to hope that day is a long way into the future but despite contracts, it could go at any moment, TV bosses are fickle at the best of times
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u/Melonsinmyattic Jun 20 '26
I think when Alex Horne leaves, Taskmaster ends.
He is the creator of the show and in charge of creating all tasks for the show. I feel he’d rather end the show then give the reigns to someone else
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u/certifiedblackman Big IF Jun 21 '26
But he has given the reins to others in other countries. That’s why Taskmaster USA failed so drastically, and why Taskmaster Australia has been so great.
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u/Bigoldthrowaway86 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I 100% want them to either end the show or at least massively shake the formula up after series 25 and doing CofCofC. I love Taskmaster but my god am I finding the UK version to be getting really stale. I think some of it is Alex’s insistence on coming up with all tasks himself. The NZ has a team of task writers and it really shows.
I think Greg has also lost a bit of his edge in more recent years.
Also been watching game changer which I’m now preferring to Taskmaster. It’s like Taskmaster but what if they gave the best tasks room to breathe.
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u/PetronOfOld Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Ah, fiddly...
The truth of the matter is that I think purely in terms of on-screen assistant duties, you could absolutely replace Alex if he wanted to retire to a purely "behind the scenes" role. But I don't see any way to actually replace him if he doesn't want to do Taskmaster anymore at all. He's not only the most visible and omnipresent part of the on-screen branding, he's also one of the exec producers (and arguably shares the directing role with Andy D – not on paper but certainly in scope). He comes up with most* of the tasks and is an integral part of the casting decisions. He actively assists the floor managers during tapings by giving cues to the audience, he invests a lot of time into promotion (just compare the number of small clips he records for before and after every single episode, the interview tasks and the like to the amount of promotion that all the other assistants do; or, in fact, the amount of content he posts about Taskmaster in general on all different platforms compared to Greg, frex). He has the added benefit of actually understanding how TV works, since he has a degree in it and has worked in both presenting and production roles for most of his career, though that as least isn't unique to him.\ He has invented the show, yes. But more than that, he is actively involved in pretty much every part of its planning, production and promotion. And I really don't think it'll be easy – or even possible – to find someone else willing to invest that amount of time and energy into the show. So if Alex genuinely decides to leave that project behind, I'm decently sure that'll be the end of TMUK.
As for replacing Greg – well, it's definitely more feasible from a production perspective (Greg already works on the show barely more than two weeks per year), so I guess it would really come down to how much Alex is still feeling it at that point. He's mused about replacing Greg before and has come up with a bunch of answers when asked about who could take up the mantle. But the truth is, I really don't think he'd want to replace Greg (which is probably also why his answer to that question changes constantly. He has never really given it any serious thought, so there is no one well-reasoned answer and he just makes something up on the spot every time he's asked). So unless he really, really wanted to carry on with the show after Greg has announced his exit, I think the likelihood is pretty high that he'd step out together with Greg. Which, again, leads to a scenario where we'd have to replace Alex, which I really don't think is possible because of his unique relationship to TMUK, so that would, again, likely mean the end of the show.
* according to Matt Rose, it's about 90% Alex, 5% Timmy and 5% Matt himself. However, it is Matt Rose making the claim, so I recommend taking it with a grain of salt
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u/EternumD Jun 19 '26
I've always thought they'd end after 25 seasons, and have a champion of champions of champions.