Been gleefully watching all of Taskmaster's various adaptations for months now, and until today I had never heard they did a US version. Delighted to inform you that they bungled it!
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
It's so funny that this has never come up when I swear I checked to see if a US one was ever made or planned. It's like they tried to erase its existence. This happened in 2018.
In fact, Greg Davies and Alex Horne have been doing the US talk show circuit to promote the latest UK season (putting the show on YT has upped the show's popularity), and they said Jason Mantzoukas is the first American to do Taskmaster lol
It seems the US version is a weird situation where it was produced with Comedy Central, so they may not have the rights to put the eps on their YT. That, or they don't want to. Comedy Central also asked them to make a lot of changes to the format, none of which were for the better.
I just finished watching it now (it's only 8 eps at 20 mins each), I will say it's not as terrible as it's made out to be. It's a lesser version of the show because of the time constraints, but the tasks are still fun.
Reggie Watts wasn't the strongest Taskmaster, but I'd still say he's the best after Greg Davies because I don't think they've had much luck with Taskmasters (sorry!)
The secret about Taskmaster is the Assistant is way more important to get right than the actual Taskmaster. It's not not important but for example, I think NZ is a stronger version than Aus because Paul Williams hit the ground running while Tom Cashman took a bit of time to come into his own.
"Your show is insanely popular and successful! We want to do one like it in America. We'll misunderstand the point of the show and make a bunch of changes, none of which will improve the show at all. But we still want to make those changes."
Sounds like every attempt to remake a UK comedy in the US
Kind of reminds me of the time the Scifi channel botched CHA$E, the adaptation of the Japanese game show TouSouChu, Run For Money.
Basic premise: a closed-area game of tag. The Agents are "it" & the longer you last without being tagged out, the more money you win. The Agents are super-athletes, tho
Meanwhile, there's a set of challenges set in the environment to earn bonus cash... but if you lose, more goons get released, increasing the chances of literally nobody winning. There's also video game-like items, like a phone where you can call in to leave early and cash in the money you earned.
Comments
It's like how the CW licensed season 8 of Taskmaster and it bombed... and they'd cut it down massively when they aired it!
Executives always gotta meddle, stamp their make on it, do it better than the creators.
Why buy something that you know has market value just to change things about it so it no longer resembles the product you bought?
"None of them?"
The American team couldn't get their heads around it. There has to be a hero, someone for the audience to relate to.
Sounds like every attempt to remake a UK comedy in the US
Basic premise: a closed-area game of tag. The Agents are "it" & the longer you last without being tagged out, the more money you win. The Agents are super-athletes, tho
Meanwhile, CHA$E ignored the lore and just did the game instead, without any heart... and the occasional celebrity wrestler cameo for some reason.
If you wanna see Americans do it right:
https://YouTube.com/@TaskmasterMN