Having just finished watching all 17 series of Taskmaster, I decided to rank all of the contestants as I watched, and now have a complete list of all 85 (!) that have participated in the show to date!

Will commence the countdown shortly and revisit some of my favourite moments from the show ~

Oooh this should be good!!

 

I’ve tried to go something similar when I’ve done rewatches. So hard though taking lots of factors into account.

 

Jamali for last place please!

Interesting! I don't think I could even begin to rank them all, there's so many that I really enjoyed that I'd be gushing over the 40th placed person like they were the winner

Jamali for last place please!

:thinking:

 

Interesting! I don't think I could even begin to rank them all, there's so many that I really enjoyed that I'd be gushing over the 40th placed person like they were the winner

To be honest I'm kind of surprised how low down some people have ended up being despite loving them! Very difficult, but I think it's ended up accurate.

81. Paul Sinha [series 8]
82. Charlotte Ritchie [series 11]
83. John Kearns [series 14]
84. Paul Chowdhry [series 3]
85. Doc Brown [series 2]

Rock bottom of the list takes us back to the early days of the show with its reduced episode count. Series 2 contestant Doc Brown finishes last; a largely forgettable character in his series that didn't wow me at all. When you're in a series with big hitters like Katherine Ryan it's going to take a lot to stand out. Some of them did, while Doc just blended in with the golden furniture of the studio and the plastic sheeting of the lab. Skip forward one series and Paul Chowdhry is just ahead. John Kearns really didn't stand out for me. A very quiet presence in the studio that didn't offer much, and I wasn't massively entertained in the tasks either. Rounding off this section, two contestants I was majorly disappointed by. Obviously the Sinha Man himself should have been amazing, and while he provided some good laughs in the studio for the prize tasks and commentary on the tasks, there wasn't much more to him than that. Charlotte Ritchie (like a few more yet to be revealed) just looked like she was neither here nor there in the studio and had done the tasks and wanted the series over with. A shame because I've loved her other work that I've seen.

In the case of Paul Sinha, I think his Parkinson's was setting in around then. He announced it mid-way through the series' broadcast.

John Kearns bottom 5?!?!

 

Definately one of the best TM contestants. The sabotage task and then Dara and Fern treating him with contempt for the rest of their tasks.

 

The sailor hat, the crying of Wolf with a V and the endless crushing defeats :D

 

Top 10 contestant for me

 

Don’t disagree with Paul though. I know some fans love him. Outside of ‘bast*rds crying innit’ he brings little

 

I don’t kind Doc - it’s interesting hearing him on the podcast. He didn’t really enjoy his experience, but I think he did have some good moments; the nursery rhyme, ‘not an eggs man’ and everything around the bridges :D

Edited June 25, 20241 yr by ElectroBoy

The sabotage task was fun for sure, but I just didn’t warm to John much at all. Knew that was gonna be a controversial start :kink:

The sabotage task was fun for sure, but I just didn’t warm to John much at all. Knew that was gonna be a controversial start :kink:

 

:lol:

 

Its interesting seeing other people's thoughts though; I look forward to seeing where you've placed others :D

I liked John too - although he’d be somewhere in the middle for me I suspect. I’m going to look at who I think I’d rank bottom 10

76. Richard Osman [series 2]
77. Jamali Maddix [series 11]
78. Fern Brady [series 14]
79. Dave Gorman [series 3]
80. Asim Chaudhry [series 6]

Four of the same series lose another contestant each already, with series 6's first casualty being Asim Chaudhry. Alongside an otherwise stellar cast, Asim was the weak link for me and didn't really provide many laughs both in the tasks and in the studio. ElectroBoy will be happy to see Jamali dropping out before we get any deeper into the results, however I must say he did get a few chuckles out of me throughout the series, notably the weather task. I've already spoken about Fern in the Taskmaster thread itself, and realise that she is autistic, but she did fall into the category of those that seemed disinterested or like they'd fulfilled their commitment in the tasks and just wanted the studio shows over and done with as quickly as possible. Richard Osman is a strange one too, because I do generally like him but while I was compiling the list he just ended up going further and further down the more I sorted everybody else out. He was quirky, fun and sharp but ultimately only my 76th favourite contestant oop.

Aww poor Fern. I quite liked Richard... but am struggling now to think of anything stand out he did :D

 

Asim has grown on me when i've re-watched Series 6, but he wasn't great. Alice usually comes in for a lot of stick about not trying etc, so i'm glad she hasn't taken a space in the bottom 10. She had a fair few decent tasks, but Greg seemed to enjoy putting her last after a while - bit like Sophie in the last series (Wolfy was robbed!)

I don't think I ever got the impression Alice didn't try? :o she took the piss a lot for sure and was clever with the tasks, but I think that added to her appeal for me!

Yeah I liked Alice… but then I really like My Dad Wrote a Porno :D she did really well the first 2 eps and then just nosedived. But then I think it just became a thing for Greg to put her/ Asim in last place. But there’s usually a couple each season Greg can be a lil overly harsh on :D

71. Sarah Kendall [series 11]
72. Roisin Conaty [series 1]
73. Lucy Beaumont [series 16]
74. Ardal O’Hanlon [series 13]
75. Romesh Ranganathan [series 1]

The very first series of the show sees not just one loss in this batch as Roisin Conaty and Romesh Ranganathan drop out. Roisin was funny, and I liked her banter with Greg a lot throughout - I think it helped that they had a lot of natural chemistry and they knew each other very well, but alas she's definitely not up there with the very best of Taskmaster's contestants. Romesh was good and certainly had quirky, very entertaining, dry comedic moments, but again just not quite up there. Ardal provided some laughs in series 13, but alongside the likes of Chris Ramsey and Judi Love he always ended up being my least favourite of the bunch. I said it in the main thread, but sometimes for me Lucy Beaumont was just too stupid to find entertaining, but one thing I'll give her credit for that made me absolutely HOWL laughing was her Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes task. Finally, we say goodbye to the first winner as Sarah Kendall tops this section. Like the others, she did have some great moments but I just wasn't ever 100% sold.

Aww I loved Ardal on there. Funnily on rewatches he’s probably one of my faves from that series now :D

 

Sarah is a funny one as I didn’t mind her, but she was winning so early on from doing very little other than getting the task done when the others just failed. I don’t know if she’d be my least favourite winner though, she’d probably be in my bottom 5 - my least fave would probably be Mae.

 

Roisin was poor most of the time but I did like her. I think I’d have had Sara Pascoe down here as barring a couple of tasks she didn’t really stand out. Ramesh I enjoyed - mainly due to Greg winding him up throughout

 

Lucy I agree with you!

Ohhh I loved Sarah but can see why she wouldn't rank high for everyone.

Sarah is a funny one as I didn’t mind her, but she was winning so early on from doing very little other than getting the task done when the others just failed. I don’t know if she’d be my least favourite winner though, she’d probably be in my bottom 5 - my least fave would probably be Mae.

I feel like every winner apart from John Robins has kind of gradually built up points and not been a total runaway when they've done series scoreboard updates. John was just inevitable from the beginning and Greg seemed to love making sure everyone knew how far ahead he was :lol:

66. Mae Martin [series 15]
67. Kiell Smith-Bynoe [series 15]
68. Iain Stirling [series 8]
69. Guz Khan [series 12]
70. Katy Wix [series 9]

Another one bites the dust as Mae Martin is the next winner to drop out - I liked them a lot at the beginning but as the series went on I just found myself gradually going into a major decline with them and wanting the series to be over so I just didn't have to watch them any more, oop. Greg spoke a lot about John Robins being a Taskmaster superfan coming onto the show and taking part, but I feel like it's a more true analysis of Mae. From the same series, I only really knew Kiell prior from being Johnny's boss in an episode of Friday Night Dinner, and he didn't do much to wow me, and sometimes came across too competitive to enjoy, but his interactions with Greg and Alex were great. Iain Stirling is one that I feel I should have loved on the show, but I just didn't. He absolutely got drowned out by some iconic contestants in that series. Guz Khan was enjoyable throughout series 12 which had an incredible cast all round, while the less said about Katy Wix is probably best. A Torchwood: Children of Earth icon, but here she was just a bit of a damp squib that didn't really contribute anything exciting or hilarious besides her stressful teapot in one of the prize tasks.

Katy I thought was great and very left-field. Its a shame she had a 2 episode absence though. Series 9 is such a strong series overall though and all of them bring something.

 

Mae and Kiell were definitely the two I least liked in Series 15. I didn't mind Mae to start with, but yeah some of Greg's decisions were very odd

 

Iain I wasn't really a fan of at the time, however on re-watches he doesn't grate as much. The breakdown with Lou in the team tasks always makes me laugh though :D

 

Guz is another who i've liked a lot more on rewatches too. He would've won too had Morgana not nabbed a couple of 'bonus points' by Greg early on.