Presented by Greg Davies and Alex Horne (who also created the programme, originally as a show for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), the first series of Taskmaster was broadcast in 2014 on comedy channel Dave, before expanding its audience after being poached by Channel 4 in 2020.
Along with the 17 series proper, there have also been special one-off ‘Champion of Champion’ and ‘New Year Treat’ programmes, comprising one or two episodes.
The show sees (mainly) comedians take part in a range of challenges which are then marked by the hosts, usually (but not always) winning a maximum of five points per task.
In order to judge which Taskmaster alumini have been least successful, and to take into account the often convoluted rules, we’ve taken the maximum amount of points available in each series and worked out what percentage each contestant has won – so if there were 20 points available in an episode and a contestant won 10 points, they would have a 50 per cent success rate.
For the purposes of this list we have restricted it to the 85 celebrities who have appeared on the 17 completed full series of the show – one-off special episodes don’t count.
We will update it (if anybody is bad enough) with the series 18 contestants after the final episode has aired.
So, here are – currently – the worst 14 Taskmasters of all time.
1. Roisin Conaty
With a points hit rate of just 45.03, Roisin Conaty is officially the worst Taskmaster contestant of all time. She finished series one with just 68 points - 26 behind winner Josh Widdicombe. Photo: David Livingston
2. Joe Wilkinson
Season two fifth (and last) places contestant Joe Wilkinson memorably threw a potato in a golf hole - one of the few successes in his 45.39 per cent successful appearance. He finished 25 points behind series winner Katherine Ryan. Photo: Contributed
3. Katherine Parkinson
Multi-talented Katherine Parkinson's numerous skills don't extend to completing esoteric tasks. She came last in series 10, won by Richard Herring, with 118 points - a 45.56 per cent strike rate. Photo: Jeff Spicer
4. Phil Wang
Phil Wang's memorable trousers were one of the talking points of series 7, but he couldn't turn that into many actual points. With a 46.02 per cent hit rate, he finished a massive 43 points behind winner Kerry Godliman. Photo: John Phillips