The Chase (British game show)

The Chase
Genre	Game show
Created by	Danny Carvalho Pete Faherty Chris Gepp Elliot Johnson Matt Pritchard Amanda Wilson
Directed by	Ian Hamilton Stuart McDonald Richard Van't Riet
Presented by	Bradley Walsh
Starring	Chasers: Mark Labbett (2009–) Shaun Wallace (2009–) Anne Hegerty (2010–) Paul Sinha (2011–)
Theme music composer	Paul Farrer
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	5 (regular series) 1 (celebrity series)
No. of episodes	189 (regular series) 6 (celebrity series)
Production
Executive producers	Sue Allison Michael Kelpie
Producer	John Ireland
Production locations	Granada Studios (2009) The London Studios (2010–)
Running time	60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company	ITV Studios
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	29 June 2009 (2009-06-29) – present
Related
Eggheads

The Chase is a British game show broadcast on ITV and hosted by Bradley Walsh. The Chasers are Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty and Paul Sinha. Labbett and Wallace have both been Chasers since series 1, while Hegerty joined in series 2 and Sinha joined in series 4. Only celebrity editions of The Chase are filmed in front of an audience – regular editions are in fact filmed without one.

Format

A team of four contestants attempt to amass as much money as possible for a team kitty by answering quick-fire questions in a 60-second round - each correct answer earns the contestant £1,000. The money earned will go towards the team kitty, but there is one person standing in their way: a quiz genius known as The Chaser. The Chaser's job is to catch each contestant and make sure the players are not able to put the money into the kitty which the team must collectively play for in 'The Final Chase'.

Cash-builder round

Each player is given one minute to answer as many questions as possible with each correct answer worth £1,000. After the minute is up, the player's money is placed three steps down on an 7-step money board (8 steps in the first two series). The player may remain at this step and play for the money they have won, but if they so wish, they can be placed one step lower down the board for a smaller award, or one step further up the board for a greater award, with each award's value being set by The Chaser. The lower award can occasionally be a negative amount of money.

• If the player elects to play for the greater reward, The Chaser is two steps behind them and the player must answer six questions correctly to reach home.

• If the player elects to remain where they are, The Chaser is three steps behind them and the player must answer five questions correctly to reach home.

• If the player elects to play for the smaller reward, The Chaser is four steps behind them and the player must answer four questions correctly to reach home.

Once the player nominates their starting position, they must answer questions correctly in order to reach the bottom of the board (known as 'getting home') and bank their money. Both the player and The Chaser are given the same multiple-choice question with three possible answers, then must secretly press one of the three buttons on their keypad to lock in their answer. When one person locks in their answer, the other is given five seconds to lock in their answer, otherwise, they are locked out and are treated as having given a wrong answer. If the player and/or The Chaser is correct, they move one step down the board, but if wrong or if one fails to lock in before or within 5 seconds after their opponent, they must remain where they are. The Chaser's job is to catch up to the player and eliminate them from the game by capitalising on the mistakes the player makes before they can reach the bottom of the board. If this happens, the player is out of the game and the cash disappears, but if the player reaches home, their money is put into the team's prize pot which will be contested for in the final round. This is repeated for all four players.

The players who successfully outrun The Chaser proceed to The Final Chase. If all four players are caught by The Chaser, then their prize fund is set to £4,000 and the team must nominate one player to proceed to The Final Chase.

The Final Chase

In the final round, the remaining players answer as many questions as possible in two minutes to amass as many spaces as possible. To start with, they are given one space per remaining member of the team (for example, if there is only one player left, that player starts with one step, two steps for two players remaining, three steps for three players remaining and four steps for all four players remaining). After the two minutes are up, The Chaser is brought in and is told how many spaces the players collected. The Chaser is given a further two minutes of quick-fire questions to attempt to catch the team. If The Chaser gets any question wrong or can't answer it, the clock is stopped and the question is thrown over to the players. If they get the answer correct, The Chaser is pushed back one step and the clock is resumed. From series three onwards, if the players answer a Chaser's question correctly whilst the Chaser is on 0 steps, an extra step is added to the players' total. If The Chaser succeeds in catching the team, the team lose the prize pot and leave empty-handed, but if the team is not caught by The Chaser before the clock reaches 0:00, the prize pot is split equally between the remaining team players.

The Chasers

• Mark Labbett: (2009–present). Runner-up on The People's Quiz, runner-up on Brain of Britain, represented Wales from 2005–2007 at the European quiz championships, Nicknamed 'The Beast' and 'Beasty Boy'.

• Shaun Wallace: (2009–present). Winner of Mastermind, Finalist on Are You an Egghead?, appeared on The Waiting Game. Nicknamed 'The Dark Destroyer' and 'The Barrister'.

• Anne Hegerty: (2010–present). Semi-finalist on Are You an Egghead?, holds the rank of Master in the UK quiz rankings. Nicknamed 'The Governess' and 'Frosty Knickers'.

• Paul Sinha: (2011–present). Ranked 20th in the National quiz rankings (as of 2 July 2011). Nicknamed 'The Sinnerman' and 'The Sinner Winner'.

Episode results

Series 1
Episode	Chaser	Contestants surviving/amount banked	Final Chase result Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR.

Celebrity series 1
Episode	Chaser	Celebrities	Celebrities surviving/amount banked	Final Chase result Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR. Template:TCSR.

Total series winnings

• Series 1 - £50,500
• Series 2 - £215,900
• Series 3 - £233,600
• Series 4 - £225,300
• Series 5 - TBC
• Celebrity Series 1 - £248,000

Average winnings per episode

• Series 1 - £5,050 (10 episodes)
• Series 2 - £5,397.50 (40 episodes)
• Series 3 - £5,840 (40 episodes)
• Series 4 - £5,632.50 (40 episodes)
• Series 5 - TBC
• Celebrity series 1 - £41,333.33 (6 episodes)

Average winnings per win

• Series 1 - £16,833.33 (3 wins)
• Series 2 - £21,590 (10 wins)
• Series 3 - £25,955.55 (9 wins)
• Series 4 - £21,820 (9 wins)
• Series 5 - TBC
• Celebrity Series 1 - £62,000 (4 wins)

Chaser records

Chaser	Wins	Losses	Win percentage	Highest score	Highest Winning score	Lowest Losing score
Anne	46	12	79.31%	26	26	13
Mark	52	17	75.36%	27	26	11
Paul	21	8	72.41%	27	22	14
Shaun	36	17	67.92%	24	23	9

Contestant records

Category	Record
Highest Amount Won (per contestant)	£25,000
Highest Amount Won in Non-Celebrity Episode (per contestant)	£25,000 (two contestants shared £50,000)
Highest Amount Won by One Person Alone	£12,000
Biggest Winning Total	£100,000 (four contestants, celebrity edition)
Biggest Non-Celebrity Winning Total	£50,400 (four contestants)
Smallest Winning Total	£7,000
Biggest Losing Total	£70,000
Highest Score in the Final Chase	28
Lowest Score in the Final Chase	8
Highest Winning Score	28
Lowest Winning Score	15
Highest Final Chase Score by One Person Alone	23
Lowest Final Chase Score by four People	16
Highest Amount Banked	£100,000
Lowest Amount Banked	-£9,000
Highest Amount Banked by One Person	£67,000 (Phil Tufnell)
Biggest Winning Margin	13 (contestants scored 22, Chaser scored 9)
Quickest Defeat	Caught with 1:27 remaining.
Weakest contestant	Keith Newbery – All questions wrong; nothing banked. (also missed both his questions in the chase; Anne got them right and eliminated him)

Transmissions

Original series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	29 June 2009	10 July 2009	10
2	24 May 2010	19 July 2010	40
3	3 January 2011	25 February 2011	40
4	5 September 2011	28 October 2011	40
5	3 January 2012

Celebrity series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	29 October 2011	10 December 2011	6
2	2012	2012	6

External links

• The Chase at itv.com.
• The Chase at UKGameshows.com.