Worst Taskmaster Contestants: These are the 10 lowest scoring Taskmaster contestants of all time
Series 16 of the show that sees comedians challenged to complete a host of strange tasks is about to get underway – but will any of them join the ranks of the all-time worst contestants?
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 15 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 75 celebrities who have appeared on the 15 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 16 contestants after the final episode has aired.
So, here are – currently – the worst 14 Taskmasters of all time.
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.
5. Victoria Coren Mitchell
Only Connect host Victoria Coren Mitchell was a hugely popular contestant in series 12. Being entertaining doesn't necessarily lead to success though - with a 46.18 per cent success rate, she's the fifth worst player in Taskmaster history. She finished 40 points adrift of Alan Davies and Desiree Burch in joint third place. Photo: Ben A. Pruchnie
6. David Baddiel
Completing our bottom five is David Baddiel, who could only manage to win 48.12 per cent of the points available in series 9, won by Ed Gamble. Photo: Jeff Spicer
7. Nish Kumar
Propping up the series 5 leaderboard, Nish Kumar's 107 point total represented a 48.64 success rate. He finished 31 points behind victor Bob Mortimer. Photo: Stuart C. Wilson
8. Paul Chowdhry
Back in series three, Paul Chowdhry could only manage a 48.89 per cent hit rate. He finished 21 points behind winner Rob Beckett. Photo: Joe Maher