Atle Antonsen steps down from Kongen Befaler after police investigation

This week has not been a pleasant one for fans of Kongen Befaler, after it was reported on 15 November that Atle Antonsen had been accused of racially abusing a young black author and social commentator in an Oslo bar, and was under investigation over the incident by the police.

The entire future of the show was suddenly unclear after the news, just weeks after it had been announced that both a two-part Christmas special for 2022 and a seventh season for 2023 had been commissioned.

The live studio filming sessions for the Christmas special had even taken place at Drammens Theatre just a couple of days before the revelations about Atle's behaviour.

No-one was quite sure what the consequences of the situation might be for the show, while the police investigation remained underway. Then, on 18 November, it was announced that the Oslo state prosecutor's office had dropped the case against Atle.

The latest news, today, is that Atle has stepped down from his role on the show for the planned seventh season, and also that the scheduled Christmas special will not be airing.

It does appear that the show's producers intend to find a replacement host for the next season of the show. I guess we will just have to wait and see, to find out whether its possible for someone new to effectively fill the shoes of a well-established Taskmaster, though.

This is bad news for everyone involved, of course: not only for the victim of Atle's behaviour, and for his own career, but also for everyone else who works on or was scheduled to appear on the show. Let's hope that Kongen Befaler can recover from this situation, and continue to be as strong an adaptation as it has been to date.