Taskmaster could have been a mainstream BBC show, airing after Strictly Come Dancing.

The Corporation was one of several rival broadcasters clamouring for the programme when it ‘outgrew’ its original home on Dave, executive producer Jon Thoday has revealed.

But he said that such a high-profile slot would have involved too much pressure to change the show for a Saturday-night BBC One audience.

So instead it went to Channel 4 – which had put up some early development money  to turn what had been an Edinburgh Fringe project into a TV show.

Thoday also revealed that the show did not initially find a home on Channel 4 as the director of programmes at  the time called a pilot ‘the worst thing I've ever seen’ – so instead it aired in Dave.

Speaking at a session run by trade website Deadline at the SXSW festival in London, Thoday said: ‘We wanted to do it for Channel 4 right from the beginning.

‘Part of the agreement we made with Channel 4 [when it moved from Dave] was that it would be the same show,’ he added, before creator Alex Horne interjected: ‘Yes, although the first series was in Covid, so everything was different!’

Thoday – the joint founder of production company and management giant Avalon – explained: ‘I think if you move a show, you have to stay true to the show. 

‘Quite often, if you do it, a channel will say they want to put their stamp on it, but actually Channel 4 are incredibly supportive. We moved, really, because we'd outgrown where it was on UKTV – they had a fairly limited demographic whereas Channel 4 has a much wider one 

‘Lots of channels wanted it, but we chose Channel 4 as a place that we thought would be a great home.’

Horne added: ‘There are even little things like if it went to the BBC it wouldn't have adverts. And I think for our show the breaks actually help. We have these segments… maybe it's because what it's what we've known, but it meant we didn't have to change it to suddenly be a BBC hour or BBC half-hour – it stayed exactly the same.’

Thoday added: ‘We could have, for example, gone to the BBC and played after Strictly on a Saturday night and I feel that had we done that, there would have been pressure to change the show and we didn't want to do that.’

He also spoke of how the show has found a US audience via YouTube, following the failure of short-lived adaptation for Comedy Central in 2018, which featured Reggie Watts as the Taskmaster.

‘Ultimately, we woke up one day and thought we’ll just put the show on YouTube, which is exactly the same show that we have here.’

‘From that day till now it’s grown every week… to the point where a lot of the traditional channels would actually like to have Taskmaster, but we like the fact that we’re in 3 billion homes.’

The Taskmaster YouTube channel has more than   2.2million subscribers, with the most-watched video, a compilation entitled ‘times contestants found loopholes’ racking up 11million views.

Thoday also said that success meant Horne and Greg Davies had been invited to perform a live version of the show at the iconic 17,500-capacity Hollywood Bowl ‘It is an ultimate accolade of comedy,’ he said. ‘Monty Python played it.’

Asked what would happen if a US broadcaster approached Avalon with a ‘truckload of cash’ to put it exclusively on their platform, Thoday said: ‘‘My guess is that I'd say "how much?" and then I'd speak to Alex and he'd say we'd like to stay on YouTube’.

But Horne suggested it was a direct financial decision. He said that although there was advertising revenue from YouTube, and the exposure that meant they could tour the show in the US, the main attraction was not being ‘beholden’ to a broadcaster.

‘Comedy Central, who did the American one, were interesting to work with but we had to do what they wanted,’ he said. ‘Whereas on YouTube we do exactly what we want. No one's telling us what to do. Which is creative freedom, which is amazing.’

The comments come before the conclusion of series 21 on Channel 4 tonight – which will be followed by the announcement of the series 22 contestants.

» Watch the full session on Deadline.

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