Taskmaster New Zealand

Taskmaster New Zealand
Title card (season 4–present)
Also known asTaskmaster
Taskmaster NZ
GenreComedy, panel game
Created byAlex Horne
Written by
  • Sam Smith
  • Joseph Moore
  • Paul Williams
Directed byAndy Robinson & Tom Furniss
Presented byJeremy Wells
StarringPaul Williams (assistant)
Theme music composerThe Horne Section
Country of originNew Zealand
Original languageEnglish
No. of series5
No. of episodes50
Production
Executive producers
  • Bronwyn Bakker
  • Cameron Bakker
  • Richard Allen-Turner
  • James Taylor
  • Jon Thoday
  • Rob Aslett
  • Andy Devonshire
  • Alex Horne
Editors
  • Ben Winter
  • Luke Earl
Running time44 minutes[1]
Production companies
Original release
NetworkTVNZ 2
Release21 October 2020 (2020-10-21) –
present
Related
Taskmaster (British TV series)
Taskmaster Australia
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Taskmaster New Zealand (also known as Taskmaster or Taskmaster NZ especially prior to season 4) is a New Zealand comedy panel game show, first broadcast in 2020 on TVNZ 2. The format for the show was created by British comedian Alex Horne during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010 and was subsequently developed into a successful UK television show in 2015.

Following the format of the original British version, the show consists of five contestants who compete in a series of strange and unusual tasks to gain points from the Taskmaster, Jeremy Wells, administered by his assistant, comedian Paul Williams.[2][3]

Taskmaster New Zealand is produced for TVNZ with support from NZ On Air. The first series was broadcast in the spring of 2020, while the second series was broadcast in the winter of 2021,[4] the third in winter 2022,[1][5] the fourth in winter 2023,[6] and the fifth in winter 2024.[7]

  1. ^ a b "April 2022 Funding Decisions". NZ On Air. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Taskmaster NZ". TVNZ.co.nz. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. ^ Craig, Michael (27 September 2020). "Taskmaster NZ: Team revealed as shows release date nears". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  4. ^ Dessau, Bruce (9 March 2021). "News: More Taskmaster For New Zealand". Beyond the Joke. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Taskmaster NZ Season 3 starts July 6th". Reddit. 22 June 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Clean sweep for comedy in NZ On Air's latest Scripted funding round". NZOnAir. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
  7. ^ "A scripted comedy and dark drama join slate of popular returning series funded by NZ On Air". NZ On Air. 24 November 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2024.