Taskmaster Portugal to return with a second season, but the same fixed cast

This week saw the announcement that a second season of the successful Portuguese adaptation of Taskmaster would be starting production later in the summer, and that the fixed cast for the season had already been chosen.

However, breaking with convention, the new season's cast will not feature a set of completely fresh faces for viewers to get to know. Instead, it has apparently been decided that the cast from the first season were such a hit, that they should all get to battle it out together again.

That's right - prepare yourself for another season full of screams of 'MAAAAARKL!!' as Inês Aires Pereira, Gilmário Vemba, Jessica Athayde and Toy return to see who can win Vasco's golden head a second time around.

It's a strange decision, in my opinion. One of the great things about Taskmaster is that you get to know a fresh set of personalities throughout each season, some of whom you may never have heard of before.

I can only presume that this decision was driven by the fear of the TV executives responsible for the show, who have stumbled across a hit and are now terrified to change anything about what they believe made the first season a success.

I hope the decision to retain the fixed cast with whom people are already very familiar with doesn't, ironically, prove to be the downfall of the show.

One interesting tidbit from the media coverage of the announcement was that there will be ten episodes in the season, this time around, instead of eight. I can imagine that some people might get weary of another 15 hours of the same old faces, of Inês' constant twerking, of Gilmário's frequent innuendos about the size of his penis.

Of course, the fifth seat on stage will continue to be occupied by one new face every week, and they reportedly have no shortage of volunteers for that role.

Production is due to begin in either late August or early September. It is unclear whether they are aiming to air this second season at the end of 2022, or in early 2023, but I'll post an update if and when I hear anything further.