The Chase

The Chase is an award-winning British game show broadcast on ITV and hosted by Bradley Walsh in which contestants play against an opponent who plays for the bank, known as "The Chaser". 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.

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 contestants are not able to put the money into the kitty which the team must collectively play for in "The Final Chase".

Personal Chase
Each contestant comes up one at a time and is given one minute to answer as many questions as possible with each correct answer worth £1,000.

After the minute is up, the contestant's money is placed three steps down on a seven-step money board (eight steps in the first series). The contestant may remain at this step and play for the money in their bank, but if they so wish, the contestant may also 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 contestant elects to play for the greater reward, The Chaser is two steps behind them and the contestant must answer six questions correctly to reach home. If the contestant elects to remain where they are, The Chaser is three steps behind them and the contestant must answer five questions correctly to reach home. However, if the contestant elects to play for the smaller reward, The Chaser is four steps behind them and the contestant must answer four questions correctly to reach home. Once the contestant 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 contestant 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, or else they will get locked out. If the contestant and/or The Chaser is correct, they move one step down the board, but if either is wrong or ran out of time, they must remain where they are. The Chaser's job is to catch up to the contestant and eliminate them from the game by capitalising on the mistakes the contestant makes before they can reach the bottom of the board. If this happens, the contestant is out of the game and the cash disappears, but if the contestant 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 contestants. The contestants who successfully outrun The Chaser proceed to The Final Chase. If all four contestants are caught by The Chaser, then their prize fund is set to £4,000 (£20,000 in celebrity episodes) and the team must nominate one contestant to proceed to The Final Chase.

The Final Chase
In the final round, the remaining contestants answer as many questions as possible in two minutes to amass as many spaces as possible. To start, they choose between two sets of questions: set A and set B. If they choose set A, they answer that set of questions and The Chaser answers the set B questions, and the same vice versa. The contestants are then given one space per remaining member of the team. In the case of all four contestants being caught, then the one nominated person will receive a one step head start, as opposed to having no head start at all. To answer a question, the contestant must press their own buzzer and only he or she can answer it. In the event that there is only one contestant in The Final Chase, that contestant is not required to press the buzzer.

After the two minutes are up, The Chaser is brought in and is told how many spaces the contestants 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 is unable to answer it, the clock is stopped and the question is thrown over to the contestants. If they get the answer correct, The Chaser is pushed back one step and the clock is resumed. From series 3 onward, if the contestants answer The Chaser's question correctly whilst the Chaser is on zero steps, an extra step is added to the contestants' total. If The Chaser succeeds in catching the team, the team loses the prize pot and leaves empty-handed, but if the team is not caught by The Chaser before the clock reaches zero, the prize pot is split equally between the remaining team contestants. If there is only one contestant, they get the entire prize fund for themselves.

On the celebrity episodes, if the team is caught during The Final Chase, a consolation prize of £1,000 is awarded to each of the remaining celebrities (those who succeeded in their individual chases or, if everybody was caught in their individual chases, the entire team).

Chasers

 * Mark Labbett (2009–present) — Appeared on Mastermind, University Challenge, 15 to 1, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (twice, winning £32,000 and £16,000), 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", "Beastie Boy" and "The Man Mountain of Maths". Ranked 81st in World Quizzing Championships 2012.


 * Shaun Wallace (2009–present) — Appeared on 15 to 1, Beat the Nation, Brainteaser, the UK version of Greed, The Waiting Game, winner of Mastermind, finalist on Are You an Egghead?. Nicknamed "The Dark Destroyer", "The Barrister", "The Legal Eagle", and "The Mastermind Champ". Ranked 286th in World Quizzing Championships 2012.


 * Anne Hegerty (2010–present) — Appeared on Mastermind (twice), 15 to 1, Today’s The Day, and Brain of Britain, Semi-finalist on Are You an Egghead?. Holds the rank of Grand Master in the UK quiz rankings. Nicknamed "The Governess" and "Frosty Knickers". Ranked 48th in World Quizzing Championships 2013.


 * Paul Sinha (2011–present) — Appeared on Are You An Egghead?, Brain of Britain, Mastermind, University Challenge and The Weakest Link, ranked 20th in the National quiz rankings (as of 2 July 2011). Nicknamed "The Sinnerman" and "Sarcasm in a Suit". Ranked 28th in World Quizzing Championships 2013.

Episodes
See the main page: The Chase (episodes)

Ratings
On 4 December 2012, The Chase received 3.6 million viewers, the highest ever for regular editions, and by the following week, The Chase had become ITV's most popular teatime hit since The Paul O'Grady Show in 2005. On 21 January 2013, The Chase managed a peak audience of 5.1 million, a new all-time high. Episodes featuring celebrities have managed shares from 3.13 to 4.58.

In its 5:00pm timeslot, The Chase airs against another game show on BBC One, Pointless, which was launched in August 2009, two months after The Chase's debut. The two programmes usually receive similar ratings (e.g., in September 2012 The Chase had 2.44 million viewers versus 2.27 million for Pointless). However, between October 2012 and January 2013, The Chase beat Pointless in the ratings each week. For two weeks in February 2013, Pointless received a higher share than The Chase (3.53 million viewers to 3.41 million, and again 3.58 million viewers to 3.30 million).

United States
In May 2012, the U.S. TV network Fox ordered two pilots to be recorded in London for consideration in its line-up. Walsh was the host for both pilots, while Labbett was The Chaser for one, and Jeopardy! champion Brad Rutter was The Chaser for the other. In April 2013, GSN announced that they had ordered eight episodes. Brooke Burns (formerly of Dog Eat Dog) was named the host, and the program began airing on 6 August 2013 at 9:00PM Eastern. Although not affiliated with production of the U.S. version of the show, Jaci Stephen revealed via her Twitter account on 9 April that Labbett would be The Chaser. On 1 July 2013 (prior to the show's premiere on GSN), GSN announced that a second series of eight episodes had been ordered.

Merchandise
A board game of the show was released in 2012. On 12 December 2012, a version for iOS was released by Barnstorm Games. The app features all four Chasers and can be played by up to four people, as in the actual show. The only difference between the app and the show is that four choices are presented for questions in the cash-builder and The Final Chase rounds. The app is designed for both iPhones and iPads.