History Recap / Taskmaster

%%# '''[[Recap/TaskmasterNewYearTreatsAndOneOffs Taskmaster New Year Treat 2023]]''': ''a one-off New Year special, first UK broadcast 02/01/2024. Contestants were:''
%%** Deborah Meaden, Kojey Radical, Lenny Rush, Steve Backshall and Zoe Ball
%%*** Winner: TBD

As of Series 15 (2023):

## Amelia Dimoldenberg, Carol Vorderman, Greg James and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (14 points)[[note]]Amelia, Carol, Greg and Rebecca are to date the only contestants to appear in an episode where everyone has scored the same amount of points apart from the episode winner[[/note]]
## Rylan Clark-Neal and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (13 points)

%%# '''[[Recap/TaskmasterNewYearTreatsAndOneOffs Taskmaster New Year Treat 2023]]''': ''a one-off New Year special, first UK broadcast 01/01/2024. Contestants were:''

%%# '''[[Recap/TaskmasterChampionOfChampions Champion of Champions 3]]''': ''TBD special, featuring the winning contestants of Series 11 through 15. Contestants provided in spoilers:''

* It was announced in December 2023 that Mae Martin is unable to participate in [=CoC=] 3 due to scheduling problems, and that Kiell Smith-Bynoe is participating in their place. There has been no indication yet whether Kiell will be "officially" competing in his own right or on Mae's behalf for purposes of point attribution, or whether this won't be addressed at all and will be left to the viewers and statisticians to quibble about.

* It was announced in December 2023 that Mae Martin is unable to participate in CoC 3 due to scheduling problems, and that Kiell Smith-Bynoe is participating in their place. There has been no indication yet whether Kiell will be "officially" competing in his own right or on Mae's behalf for purposes of point attribution, or whether this won't be settled at all and will be left to the viewers and statisticians to quibble about.

#Dara Ó Briain''' - Series 14 (184 points)

* Josh Widdicombe, Liza Tarbuck, and Richard Herring are to date the only participants in a Champion of Champions episode to be seated in the same chair that they occupied during the main series they competed in. Though their Champion of Champions has not aired yet, Dara Ó Briain and Sophie Duker will also sit in the same chairs. Conversely, Mae Martin will be the first contestant to move more than one chair away from their original main series chair, moving from fifth seat to second seat; every other contestant has at least been adjacent to their original seat. By a weird coincidence, the champions' seating positions in Champion of Champions III were known even before the S15 winner was revealed, as every S15 contestant's name came alphabetically after Dara and before Morgana, Sarah, and Sophie.

* (As of November 2023) When looking at the ''tasks'' from which the titles derive (i.e. the source or subject of the comment used for the title), 132 (89.9%) have been from video tasks, 12 (8.4%) from live tasks, two (1.7%) from trick tasks ("Welcome to Rico Face" -- if counted as a trick against Jon Richardson -- and "Absolute Casserole"), and only one from a prize task ("Aquatic Sewing Machine"); one more came from no task, but rather came while the final scores were being read out ("Having a Little Chuckle"). No titles have emerged from tie break tasks.[[note]]Unless you count David Baddiel's lassoing attempt in "Another Spoon" which was intended to be a tie break task but aired as a video task.[[/note]] Among video tasks, tasks later in the episode are preferred (as with the scarcity of titles from prize tasks): 27 episodes (18.6%) are named for the first video task, compared to 52 episodes (36.1%) for the second and video task and 44 (30.8%) for the third. In Series 16, seven episodes' titles derived from the second video task, and the remaining three were all derived from the third.

* (As of December 2022) If we count contestants ''whose attempts give rise to'' episode titles (whether from their own or another person's comment), by far the most are derived from attempts by last-place finishers in their series: 31 (30.1 %). The fewest (17, or 16.5%) are derived from attempts by champions, with 18 each (17.5%) derived from second- or third-place finishers and 19 (18.4%) from fourth-place finishers. (These figures only count episodes whose names clearly arise from a single contestant's attempt at a task, although it may include a single contestant's involvement in a team task.)
* (As of December 2022) However, a large plurality of episodes named by contestants are named by the winning contestant ''of the relevant task'': 19 of 54 (35.2%), not counting Mike Wozniak naming "Absolute Casserole."

* Jamali Maddix is the only contestant to have his actual name used in an episode title: Series 11 finale "Activate Jamali." Jamali himself never named an episode.
* (As of December 2022) When looking at the ''tasks'' from which the titles derive (i.e. the source or subject of the comment used for the title), 103 (88.9%) have been from video tasks, 10 (8.7%) from live tasks, two (1.7%) from trick tasks ("Welcome to Rico Face" -- if counted as a trick against Jon Richardson -- and "Absolute Casserole"), and only one from a prize task ("Aquatic Sewing Machine"); one more came from no task, but rather came while the final scores were being read out ("Having a Little Chuckle"). No titles have emerged from tie break tasks.[[note]]Unless you count David Baddiel's lassoing attempt in "Another Spoon" which was intended to be a tie break task but aired as a video task.[[/note]] Among video tasks, tasks later in the episode are preferred (as with the scarcity of titles from prize tasks): 23 episodes (22.3%) are named for the first video task, compared to 36 episodes (35.0%) for the second and video task and 35 (34.0%) for the third.

* On 43 (arguably 44) occasions the winner of the prize task -- the very first task of the show -- has gone on to win the episode[[note]]Tim Key ([=S1E6=]), Richard Osman ([=S2E5=]), Noel Fielding ([=S4E1=]), Lolly Adefope ([=S4E6=]), Sally Phillips ([=S5E2=]), Bob Mortimer ([=S5E3=]), Russell Howard ([=S6E4=] and 7), Tim Vine ([=S6E6=]), Asim Chaudhry ([=S6E10=]), Jessica Knappett ([=S7E5=]), Rhod Gilbert ([=S7E8=]), Sian Gibson ([=S8E4=]), Iain Stirling ([=S8E5=] and 10), Paul Sinha ([=S8E8=]), Lou Sanders ([=S8E9=]), Ed Gamble ([=S9E6=]), David Baddiel ([=S9E9=]), Richard Herring ([=S10E5=], 8 and 9), Mawaan Rizwan ([=S10E6=]), Shirley Ballas (New Year Treat 2020), Sarah Kendall ([=S11E4=]), Jamali Maddix ([=S11E6=]), Lee Mack ([=S11E7=]; in E8 he tied all the other contestants, but they were only given 3 points each), Charlotte Ritchie ([=S11E9=]), Guz Khan ([=S12E2=] and 5), Desiree Burch ([=S12E3=]), Alan Davies ([=S12E4=]), Victoria Coren Mitchell ([=S12E7=]), Ardal O'Hanlon ([=S13E4=]), and Bridget Christie ([=S13E8=] tied with Sophie Duker), Dara Ó Briain ([=S14E2=]), John Kearns ([=S14E3=] and 5), Sarah Millican ([=S14E4=] and 6), Fern Brady ([=S14E9=] tied with Dara and Sarah, but they were only given three points each), Mae Martin ([=S15E1=]), Kiell Smith-Bynoe ([=S15E9=])[[/note]]. 36 contestants have achieved this. Series 3 is the only main season where this has not occurred at least once, though it also did not occur during the first Champion of Champions. Eight series champions (Noel Fielding, Bob Mortimer, Lou Sanders, Ed Gamble, Richard Herring, Sarah Kendall, Dara Ó Briain, and Mae Martin) have accomplished this. For 12 contestants (Tim Key, Noel Fielding, Lolly Adefope, Asim Chaudhry, Jessica Knappett, David Baddiel, Mawaan Rizwan, Shirley Ballas, Jamali Maddix, Victoria Coren Mitchell, and Fern Brady) this was also the only episode they won in the series, though in Shirley's case she only participated in a one-off special. Six contestants (Russell Howard, Iain Stirling, Richard Herring, Guz Khan, John Kearns, and Sarah Millican) have accomplished this more than once,[[note]]arguably Lee Mack did too -- see above[[/note]]; Richard is the only series champion to do so, and John Kearns is the only contestant to do so in every episode he won. Series 8 holds the current record for most joint prize-episode wins (5) while Richard Herring holds the individual record (3). Rhod Gilbert, Bridget Christie, and Fern Brady are the only contestants to accomplish this while being the joint-winner of the prize task in the relevant episode[[note]]arguably Lee Mack did too -- see above[[/note]]. Series 8, 11, 12, and 14 had four contestants all accomplish the feat. Four series finales -- Series 1, 2, 6 and 8 -- have ended in this fashion, but to date no series champion has won the series finale in this manner.
* Nine series champions -- Josh Widdicombe (1), Noel Fielding (4), Bob Mortimer (5), Kerry Godliman (7), Richard Herring (10), Sarah Kendall (11), Morgana Robinson (12), Mae Martin (15), and Sam Campbell (16) -- won the first episode of the series they appeared in. Sophie Duker is the first series champion since the show moved to Channel 4 not to also win the first episode.

* As of Series 16, eight of the champions have been men, seven have been women, and one has been non-binary. Sophie Duker is so far the only champion from a non-white ethnic background, although five champions have also been from a non-UK background (Katherine Ryan [2] and Mae Martin [15], Canadian; Sarah Kendall [11] and Sam Campbell [16], Australian; Dara Ó Briain [14], Irish; Morgana Robinson [12] is Australian-born but grew up mainly in the United Kingdom). As of Series 16, Canadian contestants have a 100% win record in UK Taskmaster, as do Australians.

* '''37 episodes''' have been named by Greg Davies
* '''14 episodes''' have been named by Alex Horne

* '''3 episodes''' each have been named by Joe Thomas, Ardal O'Hanlon and Frankie Boyle
* '''2 episodes''' each have been named by Roisin Conaty, Jon Richardson, Aisling Bea, Johnny Vegas, Guz Khan, Dara Ó Briain and John Kearns
* '''1 episode''' each has been named by Tim Key, Richard Osman, Joe Wilkinson, Paul Chowdhry, Hugh Dennis, Lolly Adefope, Sally Phillips, Alice Levine, Asim Chaudhry, Tim Vine, Phil Wang, Paul Sinha, Sian Gibson, David Baddiel, Ed Gamble, Jo Brand, Katy Wix, Daisy May Cooper, Mawaan Rizwan, Sarah Kendall, Desiree Burch, Adrian Chiles, Bridget Christie, Sarah Millican, Carol Vorderman, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Mae Martin

* Greg Davies has named at least one episode in every other series except for Series 5 and Series 13. Of those series, he has named more than two episodes in every series except for Series 6 and Series 14. He also named one of the episodes in the first Champion of Champions. He named the most episodes (6) in Series 4; this is also the most episodes named by any one participant in any single series.
* To date, thirty-two main series contestants have never named an episode. This includes nine champions, and both Champion of Champions winners. Adrian Chiles is the only New Year's Treat episode winner to date to name his episode.
* Alex Horne has named episodes in Series 3, Series 5, Series 6, Series 7, Series 9, Series 12, and Series 13. He also named the 2020-2021 New Year Treat episode.
* To date, no series has had an episode named by every single contestant. The closest has been Series 6, Series 9, Series 14, and Series 15, in which four out of the five contestants named at least one episode.

* In addition to Bob and Liza, Ed Gamble, Sarah Kendall, Dara Ó Briain, and Mae Martin are the only series champions to also name at least one episode. Liza is the series champion who has also named the most episodes within her series (4). Bob, Liza and Sarah named the last episode of their series (and the last episode of Ed's series was named after a line from Greg during an exchange with Ed).
* Conversely, thirteen of the lowest-scoring participants of their series -- Roisin Conaty, Joe Wilkinson, Paul Chowdhry, Lolly Adefope, Alice Levine, Phil Wang, Paul Sinha, David Baddiel, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Judi Love, Fern Brady, John Kearns, and Ivo Graham -- have directly named at least one episode of the series they appeared in. This includes the bottom three lowest scoring contestants in series history (Roisin, Joe and Paul Chowdhry). Twenty-five episodes have been named by the lowest-scoring contestants, more than any other rank.

* To date, eleven contestants have named an episode they also won -- Richard Osman ([=S02E01=] - "Fear of Failure"), Liza Tarbuck ([=S06E02=] - "Tarpeters"), Tim Vine ([=S06E06=] = "We Met At Mealtimes"), James Acaster ([=S07E10=] - "I Can Hear It Gooping"), Victoria Coren-Mitchell ([=S12E07=] - "The Integrity of the Product"), Adrian Chiles (New Year's Treat 2 - "Basic Recipe 28"), Ardal O'Hanlon ([=S13E05=] - "Having A Little Chuckle"), Dara O'Briain ([=S14E02=] - "Enormous Hugeness"), Sarah Millican ([=S14E04=] - "Crumbs in My Bralette"), Ivo Graham ([=S15E03=] - "I Love to Squander Promise") and Lucy Beaumont ([=S16E06=] - "Brother Alex"). This has occurred twice in only two series - 6 and 14. It has only occurred once in a series with less than eight episodes, twice in a series with eight episodes (albeit in the same series), seven times in a ten episode series, and once in a special episode. It occurred only four times in the series aired on Dave, seven times in a series or special aired on Channel 4, and to date has occurred once a series since Series 12. Only two series champions (Liza Tarbuck and Dara O'Briain), one special episode champion (Adrian Chiles) and two last-place contestants (Victoria Coren-Mitchell and Ivo Graham) have accomplished this. No contestant has accomplished this more than once.

* Eight of the lowest scoring contestants are women, six are from a non-white background, and two (Lolly Adefope and Judi Love) are both.
* With the exception of Fern Brady, every last-place contestant came last or joint last in at least three episodes of the series in which they appeared (and Fern came last / joint last in two). Victoria Coren Mitchell placed last or joint last in the greatest number of episodes (seven out of ten episodes), followed by Nish Kumar and Charlotte Ritchie at six episodes. This also means that Nish Kumar has the highest percentage of last or joint-last finishes of his season (75%), followed by Victoria Coren Mitchell (70%), Roisin Conaty (67%) and Joe Wilkinson / Paul Chowdhry / Charlotte Ritchie (60%).

* Thirty contestants have earned the same amount of points as a contestant competing in a different series (Josh Widdicombe [1] and Katherine Ryan [2]; Joe Lycett [4] and Paul Sinha [8]; Lolly Adefope [4] and Charlotte Ritchie [11]; Tim Vine [6] and Jessica Knappett [7]; Russell Howard [6] and Chris Ramsey [13]; Asim Chaudhry [6] and Rose Matafeo [9]; Alice Levine [6] and Jenny Eclair [15]; Rhod Gilbert [7], Ed Gamble [9], and Guz Khan [12]; Joe Thomas [8], Munya Chawawa [14], and Frankie Boyle [15]; Katy Wix [9], Daisy May Cooper [10], Sarah Kendall [11], and Kiell Smith-Bynoe [15]; Jo Brand [9] and Mike Wozniak [11]; Mawaan Rizwan [10] and Lee Mack [11]; Sarah Millican [14] and Mae Martin [15]; four of the five contestants in both Series 11 and 15 tied previous contestants.

* Curiously, discounting sudden increases or decreases as a result of changing episode numbers (and thus opportunities to win more or less points overall due to more/less tasks), from Series 1 to Series 11 a consistent downward trend can be identified wherein with one exception the contestants of each series earn less points overall than the contestants of the previous series. The sole exception is Series 9, wherein the contestants earned a combined total of 766 points, 17 points more than Series 8 (749 points). From Series 11 to Series 14 contestants scored more points in subsequent series, though the contestants of Series 14 only scored one more point (796) than their immediate predecessors (795). This also makes the contestants of Series 14 the highest scoring of any series since Series 6. The contestants of Series 15 scored less than the preceding contestants (765), though it is too early to tell whether a new trend has started.

* 5 individuals (Hugh Dennis [4], Joe Lycett [4], Jamali Maddix [11], Katherine Parkinson [10], and Johnny Vegas [10]) have won their ''only'' episode(s) by winning a tiebreaker task. Joe Lycett is the only one to win more than one episode in this manner. Sue Perkins [16] is the only other contestant to win more than one tiebraker task - she won a third episode outright.

* Only three times has a winner of the first prize task of episode 1 of a main series (in other words, the very first task of the series) gone on to win the series overall. These were Noel Fielding (Series 4), Lou Sanders (Series 8), and Mae Martin (Series 15). If special episodes are included, then Josh Widdicombe (Champion of Champions 1) and Shirley Ballas (New Year Treat 1) have also done this. However, on five occasions, the winner of the first location task of the series has gone on to win the series overall -- Rob Beckett (Series 3), Bob Mortimer (Series 5), Kerry Godliman (Series 7), Ed Gamble (Series 9) and Morgana Robinson (Series 12). Adrian Chiles also accomplished this in the second New Year Treat. Only six series winners have also won the first live studio task of their series, but to date this includes every champion since Series 6 with the exceptions of Series 7, 9, 13, and 15.
* It isn't until Series 14 in which a contestant earns the maximum points by winning every single task. Dara Ó Briain won 5 tasks (including a two-part task where each part was scored from 1-5 separately) and also earned bonus points in "Enormous Hugeness." The next closest to accomplishing this is Joe Thomas in Series 8's "This Is Trevor", who won/joint won every task but the prize task (in which he came joint second) for a score of 24 points. The third closest to almost win a perfect episode are all in Series 13 - Chris Ramsey in "The Noise That Blue Makes", Bridget Christie in "I Think I've Got This," and Sophie Duker in "Heg," who all were just 2 points off of the maximum available in their episodes (23 out of 25, 25 out of 27, and 28 out of 30, respectively); in each case they got full marks in all but two tasks. Next closest is Adrian Chiles in the second New Year Treat, who won all tasks except the prize task and the live task (in which he came third and second respectively) for a score of 22 points. Of main series contestants, Charlotte Ritchie is next due to her performance in Series 11's "Mr Octopus and Pottyhands"; she won the first three tasks, came second in the third, and then came joint last in the live task for a score of 20 points. Following her is Josh Widdicombe in Series 1's "The Poet and the Egg", who won 22 out of 30 points and came first in all but the prize task (2 points) and first task (disqualified).

* Asim Chaudhry is the contestant who went the most episodes before eventually winning one, not winning his first episode until the tenth (and final) episode of Series 6. He is followed by David Baddiel and Fern Brady, who didn't win an episode until episode 9 of Series 9 and 14, respectively; and Paul Sinha and Munya Chawawa, who didn't win until episode 8 of Series 8 and 14, respectively. Asim and Tim Key are the only two contestants who didn't win an episode until the finale of their respective series, although in Tim's case the series (1) was only six episodes long. Of series champions, Sophie Duker went longest without winning, not winning her first episode until episode 6 of Series 13.

* 9 main-series contestants have not had at least one episode score that was 20 points or more. This count includes one series champion (Morgana Robinson [12], 19 points, although her lowest episode score is 13 points), and 4 people who placed 5th overall (Nish Kumar [5], 19 points; Phil Wang [7], 19 points; David Baddiel [9], 19 points; and Victoria Coren Mitchell [12], 18 points).

* Dara Ó Briain has won the most points of any champion (184), while Richard Herring has won the most episodes (five).

* Of the champions, seven of them (Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Rob Beckett, Lou Sanders, Ed Gamble, Dara Ó Briain, and Mae Martin) have never placed last in an episode in their series. However, Gamble did place last in his Champion of Champions special.

* Noel Fielding, Bob Mortimer, Kerry Godliman, Richard Herring, Sarah Kendall, Morgana Robinson, and Mae Martin are series champions who also managed to win the first episode of the series in which they appeared, which also makes Richard Herring to date the only champion who has won both his first and last episodes.

* Rob Beckett [3], Bob Mortimer [5], Kerry Godliman [7] Richard Herring [10], Morgana Robinson [12] and Dara Ó Briain [14] are champions who have won or joint-won the final live task of their series -- for Beckett, Godliman, Herring, and Robinson, winning the final live task was crucial to their victories. Noel Fielding [4], Liza Tarbuck [6], Lou Sanders [8], Ed Gamble [9], and Mae Martin [15] did not earn any points in the final live tasks for their respective series, although Noel did earn a bonus point (the Series 4, 9, and 15 final live tasks were scored on a winner-takes-all basis and both Liza and Lou were disqualified in their final live tasks).

* As of June 2023, five series have been won by the contestant sitting in the fifth seat (Noel [4], Richard [10], Sarah [11], Sophie [13], and Mae [15]), and three series each have been won by the contestant sitting on the the second (Josh [1], Bob [5], and Ed [9]), third (Liza [6], Kerry [7] and Lou [8]), and fourth seats (Katherine [2], Rob [3], and Morgana [12])[[note]]that is, the contestant whose first name is either second, third, fourth, or fifth in alphabetical order respectively[[/note]]. As of December 2022 Dara Ó Briain is the only main series contestant who has won their series from the first seat; if one-offs are included, however, then the "first seat" curse was finally broken in the second New Year Treat episode, which was won by Adrian Chiles. If one-offs and specials are counted, then the contestants on the second seat (Josh [Champion of Champions]) and on the fourth seats (Sir Mo Farah [2023 New Year Treat]) have each won four times, and contestants on the fifth seat (Shirley Ballas [2021 New Year Treat], Richard [Champion of Champions II]) have won a whopping seven times.
* As of Series 15, eleven series champions (Josh, Katherine, Noel, Bob, Liza, Lou, Ed, Sarah, Morgana, Sophie, Dara, and Mae) have been in the three-person team for team tasks, while only three series champions (Rob, Kerry and Richard) have been in the two-person team.
* As of Series 15, seven of the champions have been men, seven have been women, and one has been non-binary. Sophie Duker is so far the only champion from a non-white ethnic background, although four champions have also been from a non-UK background (Katherine Ryan [2] and Mae Martin [15], Canadian; Sarah Kendall [11], Australian; Dara Ó Briain [14], Irish; Morgana Robinson [12] is Australian-born but grew up mainly in the United Kingdom). As of Series 15, Canadian contestants have a 100% win record in UK Taskmaster, as do Australians.

With only three exceptions to date, each episode title is a TitleDrop delivered by either Greg Davies, Alex Horne, or one of the series contestants. Of the 117 episodes broadcast through June 2022:

* As of Series 15 (2023), Alice Levine, Charlotte Ritchie, John Kearns, and Ivo Graham are the only last-place contestants who have managed to win more than one episode; only Alice Levine required a tiebreaker to win at least one of her episodes. Lolly Adefope won one episode and lost a three-way tie in another episode. Four last-place contestants (Nish Kumar, Judi Love, Phil Wang, and Joe Wilkinson) have failed to win any episode at all; Phil Wang, Judi Love, and Frankie Boyle are, to date, the only contestants to take part in a 10-episode series and never win an episode, although Frankie did not place last in his series.

* With the exception of Fern Brady, every last-place contestant came last or joint last in at least three episodes of the series in which they appeared (and Fern came last / joint last in at least two). Victoria Coren Mitchell placed last or joint last in the greatest number of episodes (seven out of ten episodes), followed by Nish Kumar and Charlotte Ritchie at six episodes. This also means that Nish Kumar has the highest percentage of last or joint-last finishes of his season (75%), followed by Victoria Coren Mitchell (70%), Roisin Conaty (67%) and Joe Wilkinson / Paul Chowdhry / Charlotte Ritchie (60%).

* Seven last-place contestants earned single-digit scores in more than one episodes (Fern Brady, Charlotte Ritchie, and Phil Wang in 2 episodes; Victoria Coren Mitchell, Katherine Parkinson, and Ivo Graham in 3 episodes; and Roisin Conaty in 4 episodes).

* When average scores of each contestant are calculated, Lolly Adefope, Alice Levine, Fern Brady, John Kearns, Judi Love, and Joe Wilkinson are the only lowest-scoring contestants not to appear in the bottom ten. Calculating the lowest scoring contestants' average scores would rearrange the ranking thus:

#Alan Davies and Desiree Burch (161 points)

#Johnny Vegas (139 points)

#Jamali Maddix (137 points)

#Hugh Dennis* (129 points)

* Thirty contestants have earned the same amount of points as a contestant competing in a different series (Josh Widdicombe [1] and Katherine Ryan [2]; Joe Lycett [4] and Paul Sinha [8]; Lolly Adefope [4] and Charlotte Ritchie [11]; Tim Vine [6] and Jessica Knappett [7]; Russell Howard [6] and Chris Ramsey [13]; Asim Chaudhry [6] and Rose Matafeo [9]; Alice Levine [6] and Jenny Eclair [15]; Rhod Gilbert [7], Ed Gamble [9], and Guz Khan [12]; Joe Thomas [8], Munya Chawawa [14], and Frankie Boyle [15]; Katy Wix [9], Daisy May Cooper [10], Sarah Kendall [11], and Kiell Smith-Bynoe [15]; Jo Brand [9] and Mike Wozniak [11]; Mawaan Rizwan [10] and Lee Mack [11]); Sarah Millican [14] and Mae Martin [15]; four of the five contestants in both Series 11 and 15 tied previous contestants.

* To date only Victoria, Desiree, Mel Giedroyc, Nish Kumar and Mark Watson have managed to earn negative points on a task. In addition to the task outlined immediately above, Mel scored -4 points for the "Transfer the most water between the fishbowls" task. Unlike the other examples, this task was scored according to the 5-1 system but a secret clause in the task[[note]]do not eat any of the provided chocolate[[/note]] that Mel fell foul of resulted in her being docked 5 points after initially only scoring 1. For the pair in Series 5, the task in question required contestants to vote for who should earn five points, with the rules stipulating that contestants who voted for themselves would lose two points if no one else voted for them; both Nish and Mark fell into this trap.

* Roisin Conaty has ended up with a single-digit score in the greatest number of episodes (4), followed by Katherine Parkinson, Victoria Coren Mitchell, and Ivo Graham (3).

%%NOTE: This folder needs to be updated to reflect Series 15 data. Remove this note when completed.

* 17 points ('''Josh Widdicombe, 8 episodes including [=CoC=]'''; Jon Richardson, 5 episodes; '''Katherine Ryan, 7 episodes including [=CoC=]'''; Dave Gorman, 5 episodes; '''Rob Beckett, 7 episodes including [=CoC=]'''; Jessica Knappett, 10 episodes; '''Kerry Godliman, 10 episodes'''; '''Lou Sanders, 10 episodes'''; '''Ed Gamble, 10 episodes'''; Rose Matafeo, 10 episodes; '''Shirley Ballas, 1 episode'''; Mike Wozniak, 10 episodes; '''Morgana Robinson, 10 episodes'''; Sarah Millican, 10 episodes)

* 16 points (Al Murray, 5 episodes; Sara Pascoe, 5 episodes; Hugh Dennis, 8 episodes; Aisling Bea, 8 episodes; Sally Phillips, 8 episodes; Tim Vine, 10 episodes; Mawaan Rizwan, 10 episodes; '''Richard Herring, 10 episodes'''; '''Sarah Kendall, 10 episodes''')
* 15.5 points (Frank Skinner, 6 episodes; Mark Watson, 8 episodes; Alice Levine, 10 episodes; Sian Gibson, 10 episodes; Katy Wix, 10 episodes; Alan Davies, 10 episodes)

* 14.5 points (Joe Thomas, 10 episodes)
* 14 points (Fern Brady, 10 episodes; Amelia Dimoldenberg, 1 episode; Carol Vorderman, 1 episode; Greg James, 1 episode; Rebecca Lucy Taylor, 1 episode)
* 13.5 points (Judi Love, 10 episodes)
* 13 points (Phil Wang, 10 episodes; Rylan Clark-Neal, 1 episode; Jamali Maddix, 10 episodes; Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, 1 episode)
* 12.5 points (Nish Kumar, 8 episodes; Victoria Coren Mitchell, 10 episodes)

* 3 episodes: James Acaster, '''Sophie Duker''', Rhod Gilbert, Mel Giedroyc, '''Kerry Godliman''', Russell Howard, '''Sarah Kendall''', '''Mae Martin''', Lee Mack, Sarah Millican, '''Bob Mortimer'''*, '''Dara Ó Briain''', Sally Phillips*, Chris Ramsey, '''Lou Sanders''', Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Iain Stirling
* 2 episodes: '''Rob Beckett'''*, Desiree Burch, Bridget Christie, Daisy May Cooper, Alan Davies, Jenny Eclair, Sian Gibson, Ivo Graham, John Kearns, Alice Levine, Joe Lycett*, Rose Matafeo, Ardal O'Hanlon, Richard Osman*, Charlotte Ritchie, Frank Skinner*, '''Liza Tarbuck''', Tim Vine, Mark Watson*, '''Josh Widdicombe'''*, Katy Wix
* 1 episode: Lolly Adefope*, David Baddiel, Fern Brady, Jo Brand, Doc Brown*, Asim Chaudhry, Munya Chawawa, Paul Chowdhry*, Roisin Conaty*, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Hugh Dennis*, '''Noel Fielding'''*, Dave Gorman*, Tim Key*, Jessica Knappett, Jamali Maddix, Al Murray*, Katherine Parkinson, Jon Richardson*, Mawaan Rizwan, '''Morgana Robinson''', '''Katherine Ryan'''*, Paul Sinha, Joe Thomas, Johnny Vegas, Mike Wozniak

* Of series champions who participated since Series 6, only Liza Tarbuck and Morgana Robinson have failed to win three or more episodes. Richard Herring holds the record for most episode wins at 6, including his run of Champion of Champions. Guz Khan has won the most episodes (4) without winning his series. The longest winning streak is 3 episodes, which has occurred twice (Richard Herring in Series 10, episodes 8 to 10; and Kiell Smith-Bynoe in Series 15, episodes 7 to 9).

* Chris Ramsey has the highest episode score on a series premiere (23 points), followed by Al Murray (21 points). If one-off contestants are concluded, Adrian Chiles (22 points) would have the second-best debut. Charlotte Ritchie has the lowest episode score on a series premiere (5 points), followed by Katherine Parkinson (6 points). If one-off contestants are included, then Claudia Winkleman would equal Katherine Parkinson's second-worst debut.

* 14 contestants (Josh Widdicombe, Romesh Ranganathan, Doc Brown, Katherine Ryan, Dave Gorman, Rob Beckett, Mark Watson, Sally Phillips, Tim Vine, Lou Sanders, Ed Gamble, Alan Davies, Frankie Boyle, and Mae Martin) have never placed last or joint-last in an episode of their series. Five series (Series 4, 7, 10, 11 and 13) have seen every contestant come last or joint last at least once.
* Mike Wozniak [11] was the runner-up in the greatest number of episodes (6 episodes). This count includes an episode where Wozniak was tied at the top, but lost the tiebreaker. He only won 1 episode outright. Rose Matafeo [9] and Morgana Robinson [12] have the next greatest number of second-place rankings at 5 episodes.

* 22 episodes have ended with at least two contestants tied with the most points, and a winner had to be determined through a tiebreaker task. Two episodes ("No Stars for Naughty Boys" in Series 4 and "The Barrel Dad" in Series 8) have ended with a 3-way tie. The majority of the tasks used to break the tie were prerecorded except on three occasions ("The Poet and the Egg" in Series 1, "My Eyes Are Circles" in Series 7, and "Dog Meat Trifle" in Series 10) which were decided in-studio. Series 4 and Series 10 are tied with the greatest number of episodes to break a tie (3 episodes apiece). Series 2 and 3 did not air any tiebreaker tasks. Series 4 is the only one which saw every contestant compete in at least one tiebreaker task for a chance to win that episode. The longest gap between episodes featuring tiebreakers is 24 episodes ([=S13E06=] to [=S15E10=]).
* 5 individuals (Hugh Dennis [4], Joe Lycett [4], Jamali Maddix [11], Katherine Parkinson [10], and Johnny Vegas [10]) have won their ''only'' episode(s) by winning a tiebreaker task. Joe Lycett is the only one to win more than one episode in this manner.

* 14 episodes have ended with 2 contestants in joint-fourth place. 2 episodes have ended with 3 contestants in joint-third place, both of which were consecutive episodes in Series 13.

* Eight series champions -- Josh Widdicombe (1), Noel Fielding (4), Bob Mortimer (5), Kerry Godliman (7), Richard Herring (10), Sarah Kendall (11), Morgana Robinson (12), and Mae Martin (15) -- won the first episode of the series they appeared in. Sophie Duker is the first series champion since the show moved to Channel 4 not to also win the first episode.

* Kerry Godliman is the only series champion to win both the first two episodes of the series she later went on to win. Four other champions won at least two of the first three episodes (Bob Mortimer and Sarah Kendall won episodes 1 and 3, while Liza Tarbuck and Lou Sanders won episodes 2 and 3).

* Richard Osman, Mel Giedroyc, Joe Lycett, Russell Howard, Alan Davies, Desiree Burch, and Guz Khan won more individual episodes (2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, and 4, respectively) than the eventual winner of their respective series (Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding, and Morgana Robinson won 1 episode each and Liza Tarbuck won 2 episodes).

# '''[[Recap/TaskmasterSeriesSixteen Series 16]]''': ''10 episodes, first UK broadcast 21/09/2023-23/11/2023. Contestants are:''

* To date, eleven contestants have named an episode they also won -- Richard Osman ([=S02E01=] - "Fear of Failure"), Liza Tarbuck ([=S06E02=] - "Tarpeters"), Tim Vine ([=S06E06=] = "We Met At Mealtimes"), James Acaster ([=S07E10=] - "I Can Hear It Gooping"), Victoria Coren-Mitchell ([=S12E07=] - "The Integrity of the Product"), Adrian Chiles (New Year's Treat 2 - "Basic Recipe 28"), Ardal O'Hanlon ([=S13E05=] - "Having A Little Chuckle"), Dara O'Briain ([=S14E02=] - "Enormous Hugeness"), Sarah Millican ([=S14E04=] - "Crumbs in My Bralette"), Ivo Graham ([=S15E03=] - "I Love to Squander Promise") and Lucy Beaumont ([=S16E06=] - "Brother Alex"). This has occurred twice in only two series - 6 and 14. It has only occurred once in a series with less than eight episodes, twice in a series with eight episodes (albeit in the same series), seven times in a ten episode series, and once in a special episode. It occurred only four times in the series aired on Dave, seven times in a series or special aired on Channel 4, and to date has occurred once a series since Series 12. Only two series champions (Liza Tarbuck and Dara O'Briain), one special episode champion (Adrian Chiles) and two last-place contestants (Victoria Coren-Mitchell and Ivo Graham) have accomplished this.

* To date, eleven contestants have named an episode they also won -- Richard Osman ([=S02E01=] - "Fear of Failure"), Liza Tarbuck ([=S06E02=] - "Tarpeters"), Tim Vine ([=S06E06=] = "We Met At Mealtimes"), James Acaster ([=S07E10=] - "I Can Hear It Gooping"), Victoria Coren-Mitchell ([=S12E07=] - "The Integrity of the Product"), Adrian Chiles (New Year's Treat 2 - "Basic Recipe 28"), Ardal O'Hanlon ([=S13E05=] - "Having A Little Chuckle"), Dara O'Briain ([=S14E02=] - "Enormous Hugeness"), Sarah Millican ([=S14E04=] - "Crumbs in My Bralette"), Ivo Graham ([=S15E03=] - "I Love to Squander Promise") and Lucy Beaumont ([=S16E06=] - "Brother Alex"). This has occurred twice in only two series - 6 and 14. It has only occurred once in a series with less than eight episodes, twice in a series with eight episodes (albeit in the same series), seven times in a ten episode series, and once in a special episode. It occurred only four times in the series aired on Dave, seven times in a series or special aired on Channel 4, and to date has occurred once a series since Series 12. Only two series champions (Liza Tarbuck and Dara O'Briain) and one special episode champion (Adrian Chiles) has accomplished this. Only two last-place contestants (Victoria Coren-Mitchell and Ivo Graham) have managed it.

* To date, eleven contestants have named an episode they also won -- Richard Osman (S02E01 - "Fear of Failure"), Liza Tarbuck (S06E02 - "Tarpeters"), Tim Vine (S06E06 = "We Met At Mealtimes"), James Acaster (S07E10 - "I Can Hear It Gooping"), Victoria Coren-Mitchell (S12E07 - "The Integrity of the Product"), Adrian Chiles (New Year's Treat 2 - "Basic Recipe 28"), Ardal O'Hanlon (S13E05 - "Having A Little Chuckle"), Dara O'Briain (S14E02 - "Enormous Hugeness"), Sarah Millican (S14E04 - "Crumbs in My Bralette"), Ivo Graham (S15E03 - "I Love to Squander Promise") and Lucy Beaumont (S16E06 - "Brother Alex"). This has occurred twice in only two series - 6 and 14. It has only occurred once in a series with less than eight episodes, twice in a series with eight episodes (albeit in the same series), seven times in a ten episode series, and once in a special episode. It occurred only four times in the series aired on Dave, seven times in a series or special aired on Channel 4, and to date has occurred once a series since Series 12.

* Katherine Parkinson is both the lowest-scoring contestant of a series with ten episodes, and the lowest-scoring contestant since the show moved to Channel 4. David Baddiel is the lowest-scoring contestant of a pre-Channel 4 ten-episode series.

# '''[[Recap/TaskmasterSeriesSixteen Series 16]]''': ''10 episodes, first UK broadcast 21/09/2023-23/11/2023. Contestants will be:''

#Judi Love - Series 13 (142 points)[[note]]Wrongly stated onscreen to be the highest-scoring last place contestant in the show's history; she is, regardless, the highest-scoring last place contestant since the show moved to Channel 4[[/note]]

# '''Series 16''': ''10 episodes, first UK broadcast 21/09/2023-23/11/2023. Contestants will be:''

# '''Series 16''': ''First UK broadcast TBA. Contestants will be:''

* The largest point margin between 1st and 2nd place is 11 points, which occurred in [=S08E07=] ("This is Trevor" - Joe Thomas scored 24 points and runner-ups Lou Sanders and Paul Sinha tied at 13 points), followed by 9 points, which occurred in [=S13E03=] ("I Think I've Got This" - Bridget Christie scored 25 points and runner-ups Judi Love and Sophie Duker tied at 16 points) and [=S14E02=] ("Enormous Hugeness" - Dara Ó Briain scored 30 points and runner-up Munya Chawawa scored 21 points). The largest point margin between 4th and 5th place is 9 points, which has occurred in 2 episodes ([=S04E03=] and [S06E04=]).

* Of main-series champions, Katherine Ryan and Morgana Robinson are the only two not to have won a prize task while Kerry Godliman has won the most at 4. No champion has failed to win at least one live task. Richard Herring and Morgana Robinson have both won the most live tasks (6 each, including joint wins and live team tasks).

* Of series champions who participated since Series 6, only Liza Tarbuck and Morgana Robinson have failed to win three or more episodes.

* Chris Ramsey has the highest episode score on a Series premiere (23 points), followed by Al Murray (21 points). If one-off contestants are concluded, Adrian Chiles (22 points) would have the second-best debut. Charlotte Ritchie had the lowest episode score on a series premiere (5 points), followed by Katherine Parkinson (6 points). If one-off contestants are included, then Claudia Winkleman would equal Katherine Parkinson's second-worst debut.

* As of the conclusion of Series 15, Rob Beckett is the youngest champion while Bob Mortimer is the oldest champion (30 and 58, respectively, at the time of broadcast).

The information in the following folders contains unmarked spoilers up to Series 14. '''If you haven't yet seen these series in their entirety, you are advised to watch them before opening the folders. Consider yourself warned.'''

* Roisin Conaty has ended up with a single-digit score in the greatest number of episodes (4), followed by Katherine Parkinson and Victoria Coren Mitchell (3).

* 2 episodes: '''Rob Beckett'''*, Desiree Burch, Bridget Christie, Daisy May Cooper, Alan Davies, Jenny Eclair, Sian Gibson, Ivo Graham, Alice Levine, Joe Lycett*, Rose Matafeo, Ardal O'Hanlon, Richard Osman*, Charlotte Ritchie, Frank Skinner*, '''Liza Tarbuck''', Tim Vine, Mark Watson*, '''Josh Widdicombe'''*, Katy Wix, Munya Chawawa, John Kearns
* 1 episode: Lolly Adefope*, David Baddiel, Jo Brand, Doc Brown*, Asim Chaudhry, Paul Chowdhry*, Roisin Conaty*, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Hugh Dennis*, '''Noel Fielding'''*, Dave Gorman*, Tim Key*, Jessica Knappett, Jamali Maddix, Al Murray*, Katherine Parkinson, Jon Richardson*, Mawaan Rizwan, '''Morgana Robinson''', '''Katherine Ryan'''*, Paul Sinha, Joe Thomas, Johnny Vegas, Mike Wozniak, Fern Brady

* Out of 15 series, seven have included at least one contestant failing to win any episodes, including the first three series, Series 5, Series 7, Series 13, and Series 15. Both Romesh Ranganathan and Aisling Bea did tie with the most points in at least one episode during their respective series, but lost those tiebreakers. Of these series, only in Series 5 has more than one contestant failed to win an episode. Series 15 (Spring 2023) is the most recent one in which at least one contestant has failed to win an episode. Apart from Ranganathan and Bea who lost their tiebreaks, Frankie Boyle had the closest opportunities at winning at least one episode, placing 2nd in 4 different episodes of his series.
* 22 episodes have ended with at least two contestants tied with the most points, and a winner had to be determined through a tiebreaker task. Two episodes ("No Stars for Naughty Boys" in Series 4 and "The Barrel Dad" in Series 8) have ended with a 3-way tie. The majority of the tasks used to break the tie were prerecorded except on three occasions ("The Poet and the Egg" in Series 1, "My Eyes Are Circles" in Series 7, and "Dog Meat Trifle" in Series 10) which were decided in-studio. Series 4 and Series 10 are tied with the greatest number of episodes to break a tie (3 episodes apiece). Series 2 and 3 did not air any tiebreaker tasks. Series 4 is the only one which saw every contestant compete in at least one tiebreaker task for a chance to win that episode.

* Josh Widdicombe and Lou Sanders are to date the only contestants to ever win an episode without winning or joint-winning any of the tasks in that episode (Josh won Champion of Champions episode 2, "I've Sinned Again" and Lou won Series 8 episode 2, "A Novel About Russian Gulags").
** In Series 15 episode 4, "How Heavy is the Water?", Jenny Eclair won an episode without scoring five points in any of the tasks, though she did still win one task with just four points.

* The smallest point margin between 1st and 5th place is 1 point, which occurred in [=S13E04=] ("Shoe Who" - Ardal O'Hanlon and Chris Ramsey were tied at 17 points and Bridget Christie, Judi Love, and Sophie Duker were tied at 16 points). The largest points margin between 1st and 5th place is 20 points, which occurred in [=S14E02=] ("Enormous Hugeness" - Dara Ó Briain had 30 points and John Kearns scored 10 points). This episode also has the largest points gap between 1st and 4th place (16 points), which equals [=S11E04=] (Fern Brady scored 14 points in the former, while Lee Mack scored 7 points compared to Sarah Kendall's 23 in the latter episode).
* The largest point margin between 1st and 2nd place is 11 points, which occurred in [=S08E07=] ("This is Trevor" - Joe Thomas scored 24 points and runner-ups Lou Sanders and Paul Sinha tied at 13 points), followed by 9 points, which occurred in [=S13E03=] ("I Think I've Got This" - Bridget Christie scored 25 points and runner-ups Judi Love and Sophie Duker tied at 16 points) and [=S14E02=] ("Enormous Hugeness" - Dara Ó Briain scored 30 points and runner-up Munya Chawawa scored 21 points).

* Rob Beckett [3], Bob Mortimer [5], Kerry Godliman [7] Richard Herring [10], Morgana Robinson [12] and Dara Ó Briain [14] are champions who have won or joint-won the final live task of their series -- for Beckett, Godliman, Herring, and Robinson, winning the final live task was crucial to their victories. Noel Fielding [4], Liza Tarbuck [6], Lou Sanders [8], Ed Gamble [9], and Mae Martin [15] did not earn any points in the final live tasks for their respective series, although Noel did earn a bonus point (the Series 4 and 9 final live tasks were scored on a winner-takes-all basis and both Liza and Lou were disqualified in their final live tasks).

* As of Series 15, seven of the champions have been men, seven have been women, and one has been non-binary. Sophie Duker is so far the only champion from a non-white ethnic background, although four champions have also been from a non-UK background (Katherine Ryan [2] and Mae Martin [15], Canadian; Sarah Kendall [11], Australian; Dara Ó Briain [14], Irish; Morgana Robinson [12] is Australian-born but grew up mainly in the United Kingdom).
** As of Series 15, Canadian contestants have a 100% win record in UK Taskmaster, as do Australians.
* Josh Widdicombe, Liza Tarbuck, and Richard Herring are to date the only participants in a Champion of Champions episode to be seated in the same chair that they occupied during the main series they competed in. Though their Champion of Champions has not aired yet, Dara Ó Briain and Sophie Duker will also sit in the same chairs. Conversely, Mae Martin will be the first contestant to move more than one chair away from their original main series chair, moving from fifth seat to second seat; every other contestant has at least been adjacent to their original seat.
** By a weird coincidence, the champions' seating positions in Champion of Champions III were known even before the S15 winner was revealed, as every S15 contestant's name came alphabetically after Dara and before Morgana, Sarah, and Sophie.

* As of Series 13 (2022), Alice Levine, Charlotte Ritchie, John Kearns, and Ivo Graham are the only last-place contestants who have managed to win more than one episode; only Alice Levine required a tiebreaker to win at least one of her episodes. Lolly Adefope won one episode and lost a three-way tie in another episode. Four last-place contestants (Nish Kumar, Judi Love, Phil Wang, and Joe Wilkinson) have failed to win any episode at all; Phil Wang, Judi Love, and Frankie Boyle are, to date, the only contestants to take part in a 10-episode series and never win an episode, although Frankie did not place last in his series.

* Of this group, only Lolly Adefope, David Baddiel, Nish Kumar, and Judi Love have never ended an episode on single-digit scores. Their respective lowest scores were 12 (in one episode), 10 (in 4 episodes), 12 (in 4 episodes), and 10 (in 2 episodes) points.
* Victoria Coren Mitchell placed low enough that she has both the greatest points deficit between herself and the winner of her series (47 points between herself and Morgana Robinson) and the biggest deficit from her nearest competitors (40 points between herself and Alan Davies and Desiree Burch, who placed joint third). Next closest are Katherine Parkinson (44 points behind the winner, 21 points behind 4th place) and Phil Wang (43 points behind the winner, 32 points behind 4th place). Conversely, Lolly Adefope scored high enough that she had the smallest points deficit from her nearest competitor (4 points below Hugh Dennis, who placed fourth) and from the winner of her series (19 points below Noel Fielding).

* When average scores of each contestant are calculated, Lolly Adefope, Alice Levine, Fern Brady, John Kearns, Judi Love, and Joe Wilkinson are the only lowest-scoring contestants not to appear in the bottom ten. Instead, Jamali Maddix (Series 11) would be the only non-last place contestant to appear there (he came fourth in his series). Calculating the lowest scoring contestants' average scores would rearrange the ranking thus:

** As of Series 15, Canadian contestants have a 100% win record in UK Taskmaster.