One task that “Taskmaster” couldn’t quite, erm, master is making it beyond a single episode on the CW.
The U.K. panel game show has been dumped from the network’s Sunday schedule after it premiered to terrible numbers last weekend. Sources with knowledge of the situation say the network is in discussions with the show’s producers and is evaluating its options, one of which could be to move the series to its CW Seed streaming service.
Hosted by comedian Greg Davies and creator Alex Horne (who act as the titular taskmaster and the taskmaster’s assistant respectively), the show debuted to a 0.1 rating among adults 18-49 and only 212,000 viewers. While a 0.1 isn’t necessarily a disastrous number in comparison with CW’s other summer fare (its lead-in, Canadian acquisition “Fridge Wars,” scored the same rating), that total viewership figure is one of the lowest CW has managed in what is a cold summer for broadcast TV ratings overall.
For comparison, fellow British acquisitions “Bulletproof” and “Killer Camp” are also averaging a 0.1 rating so far in their CW runs, but the former is drawing 350,000 viewers on average and the latter 452,000. Not quite killer, but twice the audience that “Taskmaster” mustered.
News of “Taskmaster” being dumped by CW comes less than a week after it won the BAFTA for best comedy entertainment programme. The show has been an undeniable success across the pond, running for nine seasons on Dave, before it was snapped up by Channel 4 last year.
In its place, CW will air reruns of the fifteenth and final season of “Supernatural,” ahead of the debut of its very last episodes in the fall.
As for “Fridge Wars,” the cooking competition show, which sees professional chefs attempting to make restaurant quality dishes from ingredients found in a family’s refrigerator, is staying in the CW kitchen for the foreseeable future. The network has announced it will continue to air in the Sunday 8 p.m. time slot for the next few weeks.
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