BBC1 is in pole position to scoop Taskmaster from Dave, Broadcast understands.

The BBC’s flagship channel is believed to be in eleventh hour negotiations for Avalon’s hit format – which ended its ninth series last night with an Ed Gamble victory and an overnight series average of 500,000 (2.5%).

Avalon has reached an impasse with UKTV over the five-year old show after negotiations to renewal its expiring deal and line up a 10th series stalled.

C4 has previously been linked to the show and is believed still to be interested in landing it, but BBC1 has emerged as the most likely home following a bid led by director of content Charlotte Moore and controller of entertainment Kate Phillips.

If an agreement with BBC1 can be reached, the show would move from a BBC Studios commercial entertainment channel to a PSB sibling.

Any deal which involved Taskmaster departing from Dave would have echoes of The Great British Bake Off manoeuvre in 2016, when baking format transferred from BBC1 to C4 due to a dispute with producer Love Productions over its value.

BBC1 previously aired edited repeats of Dave’s earlier hit Dynamo: Magician Impossible.

Avalon’s previous BBC1 format The Button, which was also fronted and co-created by Horne, aired in a Friday 8.30pm slot to 1.7m (7.9%) in 2018 and did not return for a second series.

Avalon, the BBC and UKTV declined to comment.