The Chase (British game show)


The Chase is a British television quiz show broadcast on the ITV network, hosted by Bradley Walsh. Contestants play against a professional quizzer, known as the "Chaser", who attempts to prevent them from winning a cash prize., there are six chasers: Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan, and Darragh Ennis. It shares similarities with the Australian quiz show The Master that first aired briefly in 2006. Labbett and Wallace have both been chasers since Series 1 while Hegerty joined in Series 2, Sinha in Series 4, Ryan in Series 9, and Ennis in Series 13. With exceptions for special episodes, only one chaser participates in a single episode.
A team of four contestants individually attempt to amass as much money as possible which is later added to a prize fund if the contestant survives their chase. The chaser must attempt to catch each contestant during their chase, eliminating that person from the game and preventing the money from being added to the collective prize fund. In the individual chase, the player must choose between a higher offer, their earned money and a lower offer. Later, in the final round, contestants who survived their chases play collectively as a team against the chaser for an equal share of the prize fund.
With a regular audience of three to five million, The Chase is one of the most successful and longest running game shows on UK television and one of ITV's most successful daytime shows ever. The show has been nominated seven times at the National Television Awards, winning in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2024. They also won for the spin-off series Beat the Chasers in 2021 and 2022. It was also nominated for the inaugural Best Daytime award at the 2021 British Academy Television Awards, and won it in 2022.
Additionally, The Chase has become a successful international franchise with many international versions. Among its most popular international adaptions are the Australian version, by Seven Network, and the American version, by GSN and ABC. Labbett and Hegerty feature as chasers on the Australian version. Labbett featured as the sole chaser on the 2013–2015 American version and joined the 2021 American version for its second season, leaving again in 2022.

Gameplay

Cash Builder and Head-to-Head rounds

Each contestant individually attempts to accumulate money for the team's prize fund through two rounds. In the first round, known as the "Cash Builder", the contestant answers as many questions as they can within one minute. Each correct answer awards £1,000. There is no penalty for incorrect answers or passes. After completing the Cash Builder, the contestant enters the "Head-to-Head" round, attempting to move the money down to the bottom of a seven-step board and into the team's prize fund without being caught by the Chaser.
The contestant is given three options by the Chaser at the start of the Head-to-Head round: play for the money earned in the Cash Builder and start three steps down the board, accept a higher offer and start two steps down, or accept a lower offer and start four steps down. The lower offer can be zero or even a negative amount if the team has already banked some money. Once the starting position is selected, the host asks a series of multiple-choice questions to the contestant and the Chaser, both of whom individually select one of the three answer options on keypads. After either person locks in a guess, the other must do so within five seconds or else be frozen out for that turn. A correct answer moves the person who gave it one step down the board, while a miss or freeze-out leaves them where they are.
If the contestant reaches the bottom of the board while still ahead of the Chaser, they advance to the Final Chase and their money is added to the team's prize fund. If the Chaser overtakes the contestant, they are eliminated from the game and the money is forfeited. If all four contestants are caught by the Chaser, they nominate one contestant to play the Final Chase alone.
Contestants who are blind or visually impaired, or who are deaf or hearing impaired, are allowed to have a helper present who can assist in conveying information to them as needed. The helper may not suggest answers or take any other active role in the game. Contestants who are unable to stand for an extended period may use a chair as needed during the game.

The Final Chase

The contestants who have won their head-to-head chases blindly select one of two question sets for themselves, with the other set put aside for the Chaser, and then have two minutes to answer as many questions as possible on the buzzer. Any answer given by a contestant who has not buzzed-in is automatically ruled wrong; if only one contestant is participating in this round, the buzzer is not used. Every correct answer moves the team one step ahead of the Chaser, and they are given a head start of one step per contestant participating in this round. The contestants may not discuss or confer on any questions during this portion of the round and may pass as often as desired. There is no time limit on individual questions; the host will only ask a new question after someone has either answered or passed on the current question.
The Chaser is then given two minutes to answer questions from the unused set in an attempt to catch the team, moving one step forward per correct answer. If the Chaser passes or misses a question, the clock stops and the team is given a chance to discuss it and respond; a correct answer pushes the Chaser back one step or moves the team ahead one step if the Chaser is at the starting line. If the Chaser catches the team before the time expires, the prize fund is forfeited and the contestants receive nothing. During celebrity editions, a consolation £1,000 is donated to each celebrity's chosen charity in this case. If the Chaser is unable to catch up to the team, the participating contestants split the prize fund equally. If all four contestants are caught in their head-to-head chases and the one they nominate wins the Final Chase, each contestant wins £1,000.

Production

Three episodes are filmed in a day, each one taking around an hour and a half to film. According to Walsh, "It runs like clockwork." The Final Chase can be stopped and re-started if Walsh stumbles on a question. He told the Radio Times, "If there is a slight misread, I am stopped immediately – bang – by the lawyers. We have the compliance lawyers in the studio all the time. What you have to do is go back to the start of the question, literally on videotape where my mouth opens – or where it's closed from the previous question – and the question is re-asked. It is stopped to the split second."
Between March 2020 and late June 2020, production of the series was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the series was already on a previously scheduled production hiatus at the time of the suspension. In an interview with The Suns TV Mag, Walsh said that the show was "at least 100 episodes behind schedule" due to lockdown; during the production hiatus, repeats were shown in the programme's regular timeslot.

Chasers

Main

  • Mark Labbett. Known as "The Beast", appeared on University Challenge, Fifteen to One, The Syndicate and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?; runner-up on The People's Quiz, runner-up on Brain of Britain, and part of a winning team on Only Connect. He was also the sole chaser on the first three seasons of the first American version of the show on GSN and was one of six on the Australian version of the show. On 6 June 2021, Labbett returned as the fourth chaser on the second American adaptation of the show in 2021.
  • Shaun Wallace. Known as "The Dark Destroyer", appeared on Fifteen to One, Weakest Link, Beat the Nation, BrainTeaser, Greed, and The Waiting Game; winner of Mastermind and a finalist on the first series of Are You an Egghead?. Wallace appeared as a guest chaser on the Australian version of the show in 2018.
  • Anne Hegerty. Known as "The Governess", appeared twice on Mastermind, Fifteen to One, Today's the Day, Brain of Britain, and Are You an Egghead?. Hegerty is also a chaser on the Australian and New Zealand versions of the show.
  • Paul Sinha Known as "The Sinnerman", appeared on Are You an Egghead?, Brain of Britain, Mastermind, University Challenge, and Weakest Link. He is also a stand-up comedian, with a comedy series called Paul Sinha's General Knowledge broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
  • Jenny Ryan. Known as "The Vixen", appeared on Mastermind, Are You an Egghead?, Fifteen to One, and The Weakest Link; part of a team that reached the semi-finals of University Challenge and was part of a winning team on Only Connect.
  • Darragh Ennis. Known as "The Menace", appeared on Rebound, and part of a winning team against Paul Sinha on The Chase in 2017. Ennis is a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University studying insects.

    Guest

  • Issa Schultz. Known as "The Supernerd", 11-time winner of the Australian Quizzing Championships and seven-time pairs champion. Appeared on Australian game shows The Rich List, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The Einstein Factor as well as being a Chaser on the Australian and New Zealand versions of the show. He appeared in the fifth series of the original UK Beat the Chasers as a substitute for Anne Hegerty after she tested positive for COVID-19.
  • Joe Pasquale. Known as "Maverick", appeared as a one-off guest Chaser in the final episode of the seventh series of Beat the Chasers as a substitute for Darragh Ennis. Maverick's identity was kept a secret until the very end of the aforementioned episode when he revealed himself to be the well known television presente.r, actor and comedian.99