Taskmaster s17

[Twilkes]

It definitely seems to be reaching that peak popularity stage where there's about 100 spin offs and everyone's always going on about it and it starts to get a bit annoying

Isn't that the opposite of a cult though? It feels more like when the band you were into when you were 12 years old was suddenly discovered by everyone else when you were 15 years old and you resent them even though you were telling them how good the band was for the last three years.

Crystal Maze Experience is £60-£70 for the tickets I saw, also can include random strangers if you're not a group of eight, and have heard lots of people say how good it was. Crystal Maze is very much a puzzle thing though, whereas Taskmaster's uniqueness is the creative tasks - I bet the live experience tasks are very prescriptive and skills/time based, would there even be anyone there to act as a judge for creativity?

[surrounded by post #449 and post #451 and it's old new-page-chump in the middle]

[chutnut]

Isn't that the opposite of a cult though?

Yeah it wasn't me who said it was like a cult tbf

[amateur]

I think they'll be very careful with how they do the tasks - no one wants to pay £50-100 and be told they're shit.

(And if they do there's plenty of ways to pay that money elsewhere)

I'm interested - I loved the Crystal Maze business - but I'll wait to see if it's decent before wading in.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Given the price tag I do wonder how rich Alex Horne is now, I guess a lot of it will come down to the contracts he signed with Dave and Channel 4, but given that it's lasted for 17 seasons and has so many international versions he must be pretty well off, and doesn't need the money from this.

I guess what I'm asking is "Should I try and fuck Alex Horne?" and the answer is clearly yes.

Edit: To answer my own question - https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/taskmasters-runaway-success-makes-creator-32940458

[BeardFaceMan]

Alex is fucking minted, his production company made 7.5 million in 2023.

[Twilkes]

If I'm reading the accounts right it had net assets of £7.5m in 2023, but that was only up from £5.5m the previous year, so £2m in 12 months is not to be sneezed at but it's not making £7.5m a year.

It's quite cute that he and his wife set up the company (70/30 split, he's not stupid) after Taskmaster got commissioned by Dave, and now it's worth millions. Up to that point he'd probably been scraping a living doing the Horne Section radio series and peaking with his Monsieur Butterfly stage show.

[BritishHobo]

I did think at that price point you'd be pretty bummed if you're not one of the five people at the end who get to do the live task.

Then again sometimes I want to be a contrarian entirely because of the humourless self-righteousness of comments like these:

And a third said: 'We're still in a cost of living crisis and you're charging extortionate amounts for tickets. Fans like myself that have followed the show since day one deserve much better.'

Oh just don't go then you prick

[her?]

I went to a Taskmaster family thing at Warwick Arts Centre last year and it was great. It was £10 for adults and £5 for kids and the real Alex Horne was there. Mark Watson was part of it too.

So I won't be paying £100 a person for this.

[lb99]

I get that this will be expensive to put on, if done properly, but it does seem like Alex Horne has quite badly misjudged his pricing structure.

You make it sound like Alex, personally, is responsible for the pricing structure.

[Tiggles]

You make it sound like Alex, personally, is responsible for the pricing structure.

That's true, I did. Do you think he's not involved at all?

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Alex is heavily involved in just about everything Taskmaster related so I imagine he does have some say about the prices. It's definitely expensive at weekends but there are loads of £50 tickets at other times which doesn't seem ludicrous. Either way, I'm enjoying some of the massive overreactions to it. I saw someone say they'll never watch the show again.

Some of the dafties over at r/taskmaster are fuming that Greg and Alex won't be there and it's not at the actual house.

Actually the website does say "this is your chance to step inside the iconic Taskmaster house" so perhaps it's not that daft after all for people to expect they'll get to visit it.

[lb99]

That's true, I did. Do you think he's not involved at all?

He'll have signed it off, but on the recommendation of the producers of the show, Avalon. He's the creative behind it, not the business part.

[Tiggles]

He'll have signed it off, but on the recommendation of the producers of the show, Avalon. He's the creative behind it, not the business part.

That's basically what I thought would have happened, tbh. I should have put that Alex has misjudged signing off the pricing structure to be clearer. I fully expect he will be really sensitive to how the Taskmaster brand he created is perceived, and although the response has definitely been OTT, it's still not great overall.

[DrGreggles]

It's essentially a franchise.
Ronald doesn't set the price of a Big Mac.

[Hat FM]

so will they be brand new tasks cooked up by Alex? does Alex do cameo? (probably not now he earns footballer wages) you could think of some tasks, get him to record them on a cameo then set up your own taskmaster franchise down the local scout hut.

[FeederFan500]

If I'm reading the accounts right it had net assets of £7.5m in 2023, but that was only up from £5.5m the previous year, so £2m in 12 months is not to be sneezed at but it's not making £7.5m a year.

It's quite cute that he and his wife set up the company (70/30 split, he's not stupid) after Taskmaster got commissioned by Dave, and now it's worth millions. Up to that point he'd probably been scraping a living doing the Horne Section radio series and peaking with his Monsieur Butterfly stage show.

The article is bad because it suggests the 7.5m has gone to him but the 2m increase doesn't include any money drawn from it, he could have earnt quite a lot through it. I cba looking into it further.


This is perhaps not the most pertinent point but I do wonder why the cost of living crisis is brought up in situations like this. If it was an economic boom, the same people wouldn't be saying that £100 (or equivalent with inflation) is fair enough when everyone's flush. I just don't think the actual experience would be anything like the TV show, and more like one of those terrible corporate days where you have to build a marble run or something with virtual strangers from another department.