Lando - constant battle between knowing he's here to make good television and wanting to win. Physical tasks so-so, mental tasks hit or miss, depending on whether he figures out the gimmick, otherwise resorts to brute force. 5s across the board for creative tasks and prizes, gets bodied during live challenges. Will end up in Greg's lap at some point. If the task is going badly, he sulks and either appeals to the crew fishing for help or jokes/flirts with Alex and is so effective in his endeavors that he gets introduced to Alex's wife and children while attending Greg's birthday party after the series wraps up.
Oscar - tries to be nonchalant, will spiral more than once. Watched all of the episodes to prepare himself, and despite looking under the table or reading the back of the task, still gets beaten, wasting too much time trying to find clever way out of tasks. Solid at physical challenges, "only" good at mental challenges which is a sore spot for him, horrible at anything creative, ripped to shreds during prizes with indefensible, blandest objects and lukewarm attempts to defend himself. Good at stage challenges, wins most of them. Famously terrible at team tasks.
Max - the rage motivated approach to tasks patented by Rhod Gilbert, the fake idgaf-ness of James Acaster. Despite binging the entire series twice in preparation and knowing the most efficient solution to any task given, he decides to do things in his own, frankly puzzling and bizarre way, insisting it's quicker. Mostly works out, the times when it doesn't end up in YouTube's compilations set to funny music and memed to the death. Too busy fighting other contestants on stage to win, prizes hit or miss, good at artistic challenges, to everyone's surprise. No team task has gone well for him.
Isack - Kerry Godliman's school of bosh! I did it!, brute forcing through everything. Varied results, too inconsistent to form opinion.
Lewis - Was actual fan of the show before being invited to take part. Competent to the point of annoyance. On a level with everything, makes it look effortless. Usually remembers all the typical traps, searches the room first, opens the task last, stalls reading your time starts now. Takes failures with grace while serving face. Kind of mid at prizes, tho. Think John Robins.
Charles - Despite thinking he'd be chill, he puts all his weight into every single task with admirable determination albeit to mixed results. Joe Wilkinson's levels of bad luck resulting in the unraveling of John Kearns. Words I am stupid uttered statistically twice per task, he's just not that great at mental challenges. Victim of targeted special assignments that feel like torture and last minute eliminations on technicalities. Turns into Ed Gamble on stage. Will argue with Alex about rules and throw hands upon being hit with all the information is on the tasks. Will argue with Greg about scoring. Will argue with fellow contestants and especially his teammates. He's set to make an appearance on the Gamechanger next.
Carlos - not that bad but he gets distracted chatting/arguing with Alex/other contestants, usually not even about the task, a'la Jason Mantzoukas, and despite being warned, he wears nice clothes which further mess with his results. Gets elevated in rankings due to Greg's barely concealed crush bias and being overscored on every task where Greg's opinion dictates the result. Think Nick Mohammed.
Alex - nails every mental task. Mid with physical. Nonchalant enough not to let it bring him down. Solid contestant that flies under the radar because he's not flashy with his wins or spectacular with his failures. Also subjected to special tasks but obliterates them. Still ends up 4th due to underscoring on more creative tasks where it's up to Greg. His every prize has something to do with Lily or George.
George - Comes in with low expectations but quietly hoping for good results, clearly sandbagging. Avoids meltdowns through gritting his teeth and self-deprecating jokes. Can successfully argue his case out of last place for prize tasks. Will prioritize results over good television but gets dragged down in team assignments, sometimes by his own design. Will occasionally pull Victoria Coren Mitchell at some mental tasks and Noel Fielding at some physical ones.
Kimi - Ivo Graham's way of making everything harder than it needs to be + Stevie Martin's tendency to jump in without thinking while being self aware enough to mourn the instinctive stupidity. Promises to be more careful with thoughts and emotions, fails immediately. Always opens the task first and looks at his surroundings second.
Hulk - Came expecting to be humiliated and shamed, ended up having great time despite results which were mid. Good at prize tasks, the rest is kind of meh, will try to unionize and help out other contestants on the stage because he's nice. Think Jenny Eclair + Sally Phillips.
Gabi - Remains positive in the face of adversity. Decent at mental tasks, flopping through physical tasks, locks in when grouped with Nico. Good at creative tasks, hit or miss with prizes. Famously bad in the Lab. He and Nico are like Sue Perkins and Susan Wakoma. The Taskmaster Hotel task was made for them.
Fernando - literally Julian Clary except actually competitive. Puts no effort whatsoever in prizes. Takes every opportunity to take a shot at Alex. Behaves like it's a chore to be there but secretly very happy when he wins. Tries to sabotage during team tasks for no other reason than drama. Production loves him. Attempts to influence Greg's decisions, campaigning for underscoring other contestants. Is somewhat successful at this. Overscored for artistic tasks while still being decent at them.
Lance - either Sam Campbell's annoyed why are we here, just to suffer experience or Mel Giedroyc's oh, look, oh, brilliant! one. Scored 5 on every prize task. Scored 3 on every live task. Has a fun statistic where he does well with food based tasks.
Bottas - Hugh Dennis treatment where he's frankly very okay at everything with sort of Lee Mack/Mike Wozniak vibe but gets bullied and underscored by Greg and will not fight it which lowers his stocks. Amazing at team tasks, always on the winning side, no matter what it is.
Checo - tries to be positive while being eaten alive by trying to play fairly and straightforwardly. He gets robbed of points and made into a laughing stock via small print. However, it endears the public to him. Really good at physical tasks, mental and artistic mid. Think Richard Herring paired with Daisy May Cooper while in the team. Always on the losing side.
Esteban - easy to trick but entertaining to watch. Great chemistry with Alex. Unfortunately paired with Pierre which is their downfall. Think Nish Kumar and Mark Watson kind of competency. On his own, good job with physical tasks but always ties final score with Pierre. Record for most tiebreaker task aired in the series. Jock version of Joe Lycett.
Ollie - Lolly Adefope: eager but not a great contestant, has a bully-able way about him and Greg will pick on it and needle him. Undermined by enthusiasm to just get to it without planning or fully understanding the task. Good at anything physical, tho, especially in a team.
Pierre - weirdly excited to be there and having nice time, despite luck luster results which makes him entertaining to have on screen. Ends up failing hard at mental challenges but in funny way and doing from ok to well with anything physical and creative. Tries unsuccessfully argue his cases during prize tasks and digs himself into a hole by saying something stupid which will have his points docked.
Franco - not exactly a good contestant in terms of results, ends up fan favorite for nobly suffering through it and being charming. Often awarded pity points by Greg. Public always cheers on him during stage challenges. Prizes get underscored because he's always trying to bring something nice instead of focusing on the objective. Kind of Mark Watson, in terms of eagerness and game prowess. People fight about him in Reddit threads.
Liam - permanent confusion of Lucy Beaumont, stumbles his way into 3rd place purely by not being a disaster.
Arvid - charisma powered performance with mixed results but enough rizz to flop with dignity intact. Effortlessly cool, even if he's not fully locked in during the tasks. Kills it in front of the audience. Ends up 2nd. Think Munya Chawawa.
