What are Taskmaster contestants paid?
Ever watched a beloved comedian eat a raw onion or shave their head for five points and wondered what they're getting out of it? The honest answer involves surprisingly little money — and occasionally costs the contestants their own possessions.
The short answer
Taskmaster has never confirmed its fees. Industry estimates put contestant pay at roughly £3,000 to £5,000 per episode as a baseline — around £30,000 to £50,000 for a full ten-episode series — with bigger names able to negotiate above that. There is no cash prize whatsoever for winning.
What the winner actually gets
A trophy of Greg Davies's golden head glued to a small plinth. That's it. The series champion takes home the bust, the bragging rights, and a place in Champion of Champions — no cheque attached.
Episode wins are stranger still. Each episode's prize task requires all five contestants to bring in an item of their own on a theme, and the episode winner takes all five home. Famous entries include:
- A blank cheque worth up to £20,000 — Lolly Adefope's series 4 gambit for the "most cash" task (backed up by £2,000 in an envelope she was sitting on).
- A personalised song from Dick and Dom — an actual prize on the show.
- A tattoo — series 1's Josh Widdicombe had "Greg" inked on his foot for a £20 present task, permanently.
- 89kg of pennies — Joe Lycett's £250 contribution to the most-cash round.
So a bad series can genuinely leave a comedian lighter: their stuff goes home with someone else.
Why they do it anyway
Exposure, mostly — and it's enormous. The show is one of Channel 4's most-streamed titles, and its YouTube channel has racked up over 1.4 billion views, with hundreds of thousands of new North American subscribers in 2025 alone. A strong series can transform a comedian's ticket sales and profile overnight. As Greg Davies put it when Channel 4 renewed the show for six more series:
"I am delighted the comedian meat grinder remains open for business," Davies said in the announcement.
For the record: at the show's 2010 Edinburgh Fringe origin, the very first task was to put the most money into Alex Horne's bank account — Mark Watson deposited £200. On Taskmaster, the money has occasionally flowed the other way.