Suurmestari (Finnish for 'Grand Master') is a Finnish comedy panel program on MTV3 that started on April 12, 2020, based on the British Taskmaster television format.[2] Competitors perform various tasks that they receive from the Grand Master.
The Grand Master is portrayed by Jaakko Saariluoma, and Pilvi Hämäläinen [fi] serves as the judge. In the each episode of each Season, there are four regular contestants with different fifth changing competitor each episode. Competitors perform tasks for points and the one with the most points wins. In each episode, the prize is different items from the competitors that the competitors have brought with them. The winner of each episode gets all the items brought in. The overall season winner, which is one of the regular contestants, wins the "Grand Master Statue", and is the contestant of the season. Tiebreaker tasks are not featured in Suurmestari.
The first series took a summer break on 17 May 2020, with three episodes from the first production season not shown, and the remaining episodes were shown on MTV3 and the streaming service on MTV from 13 to 27 August 2020. More episodes were released on 17 May 2020.[3] The first season was a great success, and for that, on August 27, 2020, a second season of the series was announced for spring of 2021.[4]
Suurmestari has won the Golden Venla award of the "Best Game Show" four consecutive times in the row; in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.[5][6][7][8]
In 2024, the series will get an Spin-off show, called Juniori Suurmestari (Junior Grand Master), where instead of well-known finnish comedians or actors, ordinary finnish children aged 8-13 get to compete for series of surprise rewards.[9]
The third Season was announced by MTV in October 2021. The recordings of ten episodes were held during November 2021.[34] The regular contestants of the Season are Mikko Penttilä [fi], Jenni Pääskysaari [fi], Riku Rantala and Anna-Maija Tuokko [fi]. Season premiered on MTV in April 2022.[35] The season was won by Riku Rantala with record-breaking 180 points. Mikko Penttilä finished second, Jenni Pääskysaari third and Anna-Maija Tuokko last place.
The fourth Season was announced by MTV to start on 18 March 2023, with the regular contestants being Eija Vilpas, Fathi Ahmed, Kalle Lamberg [fi] and Pirjo Heikkilä [fi].[46] The season was won by Kalle Lamberg. Fathi Ahmed finished second, Pirjo Heikkilä third, and Eija Vilpas last place.
^The title (No hands!) is actually the official title of the episode in the finnish program info.
^This episode aired only on 20th May, 2023, as the Men's Ice Hockey Championships 2023 began the week before, and Finland played their opening game.
^In this episode, there was the first ever team task in the show's history; Tola and Ritala were a pair, and Lonka, Nordman and guest Ernest Lawson formed a trio. Guest appearance in this task was made by Esko Kovero.
^Due to guest contestant Jenni Kokander's illness during the studio filmings, former contestant Mikko Penttilä serves as the studio guest for her.
^The awards are for the previous year, not on the current year. The year announced on the table is the Year of the Season which was rewarded.
