Junior Taskmaster's Mike Wozniak thought hosting gig was a prank

Working alongside Rose Matafeo, who leads as the Junior Taskmaster, Wozniak admitted to RadioTimes.com that when he was approached for the gig, he first thought it was a prank! And given this is Taskmaster, who can blame him?

"I was almost disappointingly lackadaisical to the point where I just assumed [that] this is some sort of prank. I'm part of a prank," he explained, with Matafeo agreeing.

Wozniak continued: "But I'll say, 'Yes, of course I will', because I'm not doing anything useful. I'm just doing the odd gig and walking my dog, Johnny, and [I'm] absolutely available.

"And then to my amazement, it was a real job, and it did happen, and there was a start date, and I had to wipe the egg stains off my suit, go back to work."

The spin-off series, which begins on Channel 4 tonight, features a group of youngsters aged between 9 and 11 who go through a series of heats, which is slightly different to the show's original format.

Wozniak further explained the changes to RadioTimes.com and said: "In terms of just the viewing experience, the big one is it's a tournament. So there's five heats, there's 25 contestants in total and then two semis and a final, so that gives it something else."

As with the tasks being different, there is one thing that did remain the same: Competitiveness.

"You have five new kids every episode and then fan favourites come back and it's quite intense," Matafeo said.

"It's more competitive in a way. [But] they are also very supportive of each other, there's nothing really nasty about that. So it's kind of the best of both worlds."

Reflecting on her stint on Taskmaster, Matafeo said: "I think [on] my series there was a full spectrum of competitiveness. You go from Jo Brand to Ed Gamble, so it's really very different.

"I think we had a few kids who had the spirit of Jo Brand, [with a] very wise and worldly kind of vibe to them."

Junior Taskmaster airs weekly from 8pm on Friday 8th November on Channel 4.

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