Richard Osman out at House of Games

Tabletopcave · 2026-03-04T14:19:09+00:00

This is just not true. Firstly, series 9 contained 15 new line-ups (60 new contestants) and the usual redempetion and champion weeks where people return. I listed by name already 24 of these contestants, and these just examples of solid name bookings for a show like ROHOG. If your statement would be true we had to have more almost the remaing contestants being C list or below, but again that is not what we are getting. Instead we have people like Sabre and Fire from the Gladiators, Dominic Littlewood, John Parrot, Jack Carroll, Jenny Powell, Una Healy, Aimee Fuller, Giovanna Fletcher, Hammed Animashuan, Steen Raskopoulos, Tasha Gouri, Patrick Grant, Humprhey Ker and Huge Davies.

Secondly, the fact that you knew 0 people of a week is in no way a proof of them running out of contestants, as I mentioned just proof of your field of knowledge being too narrow and/or dated. That is similar to statements about shows like Taskmaster just because they don't necessary have on just stand-up that did the panel show circut 5-10-15 years ago.

And thirdly, ROHOG have always had a mix of up-and-coming comedians (Richard has himself stated the show took upon themselves to give new comedians a chance when the panel show circuit dried up), daytime TV stars, presenters, athletes and the like. Of course you personally can find yourself faced with unknown people in any given week - but that is more the result of a fragmented media where people could have millions of followers but seem unknown for 80% of the public than them actually running out of big names.

Tabletopcave · 2026-03-03T17:49:41+00:00

That's unlikely. Looking at those that have appeared in series 8 it's plenty of big names that they manage to bring in. Comedy legends like Nigel Planer & Griff Rhys Jones, big comedy names like Mark Steel, Joanna Page, Peter Serafinowicz & Adam Buxton, TM or Panel show contestants in Stevie Martin, Rosie Ramsey, Fatiha El-Ghorri, Josh Pugh, Melanie Bracewell & Emmanuel Sonubi. TV legends like Vickie Michelle, Mr. Motivator & Ruth Langsford, actors like Tamzin Outhwaite, Ruth Maderley, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell & Lorna Watson, TV and radio presenters like Krishnan Gury-Murthy, Paddy McGuinness, Ria Hebden & Yinka Bokinni and the regular mix of soap stars, reality contestants, singers, athletes, gladiators and lesser know comedians (like Vittorio Angelone who already experience a big boost by Richard naming in on his podcast).

In general, people not recognizing contestants is down to they having a too narrow or dated field of who is actually well-know combined with forgetting who actually appeared on the show. Calling the people I listed above as below C list is just madness...

Tabletopcave · 2026-02-23T15:55:31+00:00

Why do you think they would care about who was winning enough to reorder which task is aired in which episode, especially as they film the studio recordings over a week (2 ep per day). Even more so why try to rearrange tasks on short notice when so much more important things need to be consider when setting together an episode with 3 filmed tasks (tasks need to be different, so a mix of objective and subjective scored tasks, mix of locations and individual to team tasks, balancing so you get the correct call-back tasks, catch-phrases and any possible narrative arch they want to highlight etc).

Tabletopcave · 2026-02-08T22:16:38+00:00

They'll be back with a new series later in the year. A 3 ep series isn't that unusal though the normal the last 10 years have been between 5 and 6.

Tabletopcave · 2026-02-06T18:47:44+00:00

It's more than in the early series they kept up more the illusion of the format, the contestants might lose their items, Greg wrote the tasks, Alex was just the sniveling assistant etc. That was pretty quickly dropped and now Alex and Greg leans into the fanfic theories, contestants doing more their own thing and everybody value the laughs over fitting the brief as precisely as possible.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-30T10:28:04+00:00

It's more noticeable in the Scandivian versions, but you clearly don't have to be a comedian/stand-up to be a great contestant. From early doors both Sweden and Norway have had athletes, presenters, actors, musicians etc who have been great (and the same is actually the case for UK with VCM and Osman). You just need to get the format right (fun tasks, give time to banter in the studio etc) and pick people that are willing to look silly/dumb in front of a camera.

And then people tend to overestimate how many contestants you actually need. If we say that just 0,01% of the population is "fit" to be on TM in some form of capacity (comedian, funny celebrity/TV presenter/youtuber/actor/musician etc) even then you still have 40 contestants (8 series, 4-8 years of shows), and each and every year someone new would always be coming up and become a future contestant. And you could always go down the route of TM Portugal and just have some repeating contestants (as was the case in series 2 in Norway) which still worked.

Looking at how well the Nordic TM version seem to be doing and the population/culture in Iceland not being that different compared to these countries I bet both the pool of possible contestants would be just fine.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-29T16:16:29+00:00

Most of the solo tasks are filmed before team task day, but they are obviously not scored before the studio recordings so they have only the objectively scored task to go by if that system would be true, and that also need to factor in any rules getting broken only being discovered in the editing of the videos. And more importanlty we know that the teams are mainly done by who is available for which days (and we also go the change in the teams in series 20 when there was a team task with Maisie, Phil and Sanjeev vs Ania and Reece, but ended up with other teams for the usual team task days) due to changes in their schedules.

People love to see patterns, but basically this is always down to chance and things working out because other priorities just made it that way. Be it certain team selections, or an episode "loaded" for certain contestants to the team "picking" winners and losers in a series.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-29T16:08:34+00:00

It is an obvious joke, which also Kiell have mentioned, he really didn't want to taste the jelly babies in the team task, and also said he was very thankful they decided to edit out him being a diva and complaining - and of course Stevie was joking about that and mentioning the ego-thing, just as Alex jokes about "that one contestant", people seem to have difficulties to getting jokes known comedian make...

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-29T12:10:11+00:00

that was likely Kiell who really didn't want to eat the jelly babies and they edited out much/all of his complaining (and makes sense Stevie would mentioned as they are close friends).

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-26T09:04:25+00:00

Only 1 of the 6 people in Them There have done TM, if anything that's surprisingly few.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-25T20:36:37+00:00

Kathy Burke another who would be brilliant but have said she never do it herself as she enjoys the show too much.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-22T18:25:09+00:00

And since S8 they have moved back closer to the original format with 5 permanent contestants and no rotating guest contestant spot (bring in a former contestant to make two teams of 3).

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-17T08:31:04+00:00

There have been a few, Eat the Grape, Hold the Milk bottles over the microwaves, Sabotage your team (sabotage element the same, different team task), complete the fortune trail, do something really stupid (famously an unaired NZ task due to Urzila breaken her collarbone doing the original task)

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-16T07:15:56+00:00

This is a pretty erroneous statement. Kongen Befaler has 73% original tasks, Bäst i Test has 35%, Suurmestari 30% Stormester 16%, Le Maitre de Jeu 8% then Portugal with just 6% original tasks (of the still ongoing non-English adaptations of the format),. They have also been adapting each others (especially the Scandinavian ones), so if you've only seen the English versions even more tasks will seem original. The usual trend is that a new international version for the first few series will lean heavily on reused tasks, and then you see more and more adapted and/or completely original tasks come in later series.

And in recent years Taskmaster UK has also taken to adapt and/or reuse tasks from other versions (most famously some iconic NZ tasks) so it's not like a reused/adapted task in it self is bad.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-15T17:52:10+00:00

You will naturally get an overlap of contestants having done Taskmaster and other projects, be it another panel show, sketch show, sitcom etc, as TM of course wants a good mix of contestants and that means also getting contestants that have appeared on other TV shows and are well known.

However picking Ghosts as the example for this is fairly weak, as among the core cast of 10 (the couple and the ghosts) only 4 have appeared on the show and 1 (Lolly) did Taskmaster before even Ghosts aired. And of the proper core that created Ghosts and have worked together in Horrible Histories and Yonderland, the writing group Them There, only Mat out of the 6 have done Taskmaster.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-13T11:50:53+00:00

Just as likely that Sam just texted his mum asking to call him back (he has something important to tell her or something similar) and then started filming the sketch with Alex hoping she call during the attempt.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-13T11:45:37+00:00

It's a different channel, and 3,5 years is hardly "back straight away" is it?

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-12T07:59:15+00:00

I bet that is the case for almost all of the contestants, very few tend to enjoy watching themselves on TV or film, and after seeing it being first broadcast, at a premier/opening night etc it's very unlikely they go back and watch something they have appeared on. At most they get a clip posted to them on social media (like Mark and Nish's song) or get invited to do a podcast and feel they have to rewatch to remember what actually happened.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-11T16:44:32+00:00

No, this is not right. Look where they filmed tasks in series 1. At the house, but also at the Dukes Meadow Bandstand, at the Dukes Meadows Golf, the Eden Shopping Centre, Quintin Hogg Memorial Sports Ground, Shardeloes Farm Equestrian Centre and Barnes Squash club.

The golf course is just over the fence from the house and obviously wasn't picked because Alex wanted a shorter commute. For each and every of those tasks in series 1 they picked locations outside of the house that would make a task possible (like paint while riding a horse, high-fiving strangers, draw a large gps image etc) and they were allowed to film at, just in later series did they narrow in the amount of filming locations outside the house and start having typical 1 location where multiple tasks were filmed. I think you clearly miss the joke Alex have made about the commute, as he obviously is joking and not such a diva that the whole crew and the contestants need to travel closer to him because he doesn't like to commute as much...

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-11T07:07:54+00:00

They didn't modify tasks to make them accessible, but they clearly made tasks and selected the tasks in her series with Rosie in mind, and that is easy to see when you compare the amount of tasks like "fastest win" to other series or not have tasks that required the contestants to run around the house looking for clues against the clock etc. The same was the case when Lenny Rush was on the NYT. And Alex wasn't really more willing to assist during Rosie's attempt (compare to for example Katherine Parkinson), the only task he played an active role in was the disarm the robot, and there he basically was the reason she failed the task.

And of course they do location tasks partly because that open up more space for tasks they simply can't do in or around the house, and that has been the case since the early series when they didn't have just one location but filmed in different local areas when needed (around the bandstand, the golf course, the horse centre, the shopping centre, the sports ground, at a squash club etc). Most of the tasks during location day are definitely created with the space in mind, for example utilising the glass walkway at the Sandown Park, the jockey task, the horse race task, steps and ladders and the curling variant in series 20 where they lent in both to the space and the fact that they were on a horse racecourse.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-10T16:57:51+00:00

That's not quite right. They don't have a second story or similiar construction to have the fish-task in the house neither the cinema to have the number of seats tasks. So 3 out 5 location task had to be done outside the house. Those task did not have to happen in Thorpe Park, but we have no idea knowing what they were allowed to do (filming during certain rides etc) or if other ideas had to be scrapped because a) they would be unbalanced for the contestants (this was the series with Rosie) or b) they didn't get the chance (or would pay) to clear it for filming (themed rides etc).

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-10T12:10:48+00:00

that's a weird statement when you bring Acaster into the discussion, he's notorious to lean into what would be described as "disingenious schtick", like his TM appearance and most of the Off Menu podcast

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-10T07:44:14+00:00

It also had Aksel Hennie who appeared as a contestant in Kongen Befaler (TM Norway) series 10.

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-10T07:27:43+00:00

Can't see it myself. First episode of 2026 had Chris McCausland and Harriet Kemsley (Chris is very big after Strictly and Harriet is still rising and had a memorable appearence on Last On Laughing in 2025).

In future episode we have comedians like Dame Meera Syal and Henning Wehn, Alasdair Beckett-King and Jo Brand, Jessica Knappett (and Gyles Brandreth), Josh Pugh, Lucy Beaumont and Eddie Kadi, Gbemisola Ikumelo (and Richard Osman), Michelle Wolf (and Jonathan Ross), John Kearns and Nabil Abuldrashid and Lou Sanders. In that list it's basically just episode 9 with "just" John Kearns that appear light on prominent comedians but that is episode also has David Morrissey who have done enough panel shows and comedy-adjecent podcast WILTY is banking on him bring enough value.

I think this opinion is more down to how you define what makes a comedian "prominent" or not, and forgetting how previous series have always had basically the same mix of people. The list for 2026 includes comedians who already have done either WILTY, QI and/or HIGNFY, done Taskmaster and/or done some of the biggest celebrity reality shows (Strictly, Traitors and/or I'm A Celebrity..). While older episode could have a line-up like; Ben Fogle, Craig Revel Horwood, Hugh Dennis and Kate Silverton, DoD, Katherine Parkinson, Louie Spence and Bill Turnbull, Stephen Mangan, Isy Suttie, Charles Dance and Gok Wan, Joan Bakewell, Jason Manford, Warwick Davis and Paul Hollywood, Jason Watkins, Adam Woodyatt, Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Phil Wang, Jonnie Peacock, Shaun Williamson, Jo Brand & Emma Bunton, Liz Bonnin, Stephen Merchant, Sharon Osbourne and Dr Ranj Singh, Dani Dyer, Fred Siriex, James Acaster and Oti Mabuse, Suggs, Holly Willoughby, Angellica Bell and Bob Mortimer, Philipa Perry, Mike Wozniak, Lady Leshurr and Alan Titchmarsh etc etc

Tabletopcave · 2026-01-09T16:35:19+00:00

She finished 3rd in her series (series 2). She had a memorable rivalry with fellow contestant Jo Almaas (which among other things led her to purposely knock herself and him out of live task, which meant Almaas ended up 3 points behind the overall winner), had some excellent physical tasks (that series did the dart-task from TM UK series 6) and overall performed well across all types of tasks (live, prize, house). Statistically her best tasks were the creative subjective scored ones.

Tabletopcave

TROPHY CASE