Taskmaster fans pick winner as new series starts on Channel 4

What did you miss?

Taskmaster viewers have already picked a winner following the first episode of the new series.

The comedy panel game show – which is hosted by Greg Davies and Alex Horne – returned on Channel 4 on Thursday (28 March) with its 17th series. The programme's latest run stars Steve Pemberton, Joanne McNally, John Robins, Nick Mohammed and Sophie Willan.

And fans are already convinced that Pemberton will be the last man standing.

What, how, and why?

The show sees celebs trying to complete a range of hilarious tasks, with Taskmaster Davies giving out the points to whoever has done the best.

The challenges have been everything from singing to a dog to trying to get a feather into a bath without touching it over the years. And Thursday's missions were as wacky as ever, with the contestants trying to do something risky with an egg and attempting to hoopla a (pretend) gorilla.

Pemberton, who is best known for The League Of Gentlemen and Inside No 9, managed to win the episode, posting on X after it aired: "I was ova (sic) the moon to narrowly win ep1."

And many fans think he could go on to win the whole thing. One posted: "Steve is gonna run away with this, isn’t he? But we will still enjoy watching them all take part." "Oh Steve Pemberton, I love you," gushed another fan.

"Steve is MY winner teamsteve4ever," said someone else. One fan said they were "already in love with Steve Pemberton’s brain".

Somebody else called the actor a "bonafide superstar" as another viewer wrote: "Go Steve!"

"EPISODE ONE OF TASKMASTER WAS SO GOOD," posted another fan. "With any luck we’ll have another house of games moment, and Steve will win every episode (Would we be surprised? We wouldn’t)."

Will else happened on Taskmaster?

Fans were also impressed by the fact the actor managed to shoehorn in a mention of his hit show Inside No 9 while he was playing.

"10 minutes into new series of Taskmaster and Steve Pemberton mentions Inside No 9 already," one fan posted, along with a red heart emoji.

Another added: "Shout out Steve already referencing IN9 & The League Of Gentlemen." "Steve already making an Inside No 9 reference, he’s so real," said someone else.

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