The Chase (British game show)

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 ("home") without being caught by the Chaser.^[7]

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 (requiring five correct answers to reach home), 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 (or deducted, if they took a negative amount). 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 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.^[8][9][10]

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 (from series 3 onwards) 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.^[11] 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 (£2,000 in celebrity specials).

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."^[12]

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 Sun's 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.^[13]

Mark Labbett was the first out of two chasers and joined the show in its first series.

Shaun Wallace was the second out of two chasers and joined the show in its first series.

Anne Hegerty is the third chaser to join the show in its second series.

Paul Sinha is the fourth chaser to join the show in its fourth series.

• Mark Labbett (2009–present). Known as "The Beast", appeared on University Challenge, Fifteen to One, The Syndicate and Who Wants to be a Millionaire?;^[14] 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.^[15] On 6 June 2021, Labbett returned as the fourth chaser on the second American adaptation of the show in 2021.
• Shaun Wallace (2009–present). Known as "The Dark Destroyer", appeared on Fifteen to One, Weakest Link, Beat the Nation, BrainTeaser, Greed^[14] 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 (2010–present). Known as "The Governess", appeared twice on Mastermind,^[14] 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 (2011–present) Known as "The Sinnerman", appeared on Are You an Egghead?, Brain of Britain, Mastermind, University Challenge and Weakest Link.^[14] He is also a stand-up comedian, with a comedy series called Paul Sinha's General Knowledge broadcast on BBC Radio 4.^[16][17]
• Jenny Ryan (2015–present). 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.^[18]
• Darragh Ennis (2020–present). 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.^[19]

• Issa Schultz (2022). 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.^[20][21][22]
• Joe Pasquale (2025). 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 presenter, actor and comedian.

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A spin-off series titled The Chase: Celebrity Special featuring celebrity teams as contestants began airing on ITV in 2011. As many contestants are comedians or actors, there is a much-higher comedic element. The game is played the same way as the regular version. However, if all four celebrities have been caught by the Chaser, the prize fund during the Final Chase is £8,000 (originally £20,000). If the team is caught during the Final Chase, a consolation prize of £1,000 is awarded to the charities for each celebrity who advanced to this stage.

For celebrity specials airing at Christmas, the Chasers frequently appear in costumes adhering to a common theme, such as Panto villains, subjects of famous paintings, or characters typically associated with Christmas.

In February 2017, ITV commissioned The Family Chase, a spin-off featuring a team of four family members.^[23] The six-episode spin-off debuted on 2 September 2017.^[24] Series 2 was commissioned by ITV. This series aired from 24 March 2019 until 24 May 2020.

No further series of the spin-off have been commissioned by ITV, though it has not yet been cancelled.^{[citation needed]}

This version follows the same rules as the parent programme, but any winnings in the Final Chase are awarded to the entire family rather than individual members.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2017, a special episode of the show was broadcast entitled The Chase: The Bloopers, featuring (mostly) unseen mistakes, outtakes and gags from the previous 8 years of the show. This has gone on to become an annual comedic bloopers show where Walsh and the Chasers introduce various clips from the show. As of 21 December 2025, 9 Bloopers shows have been broadcast.^[25]

In November 2019, ITV commissioned another spin-off called Beat the Chasers. It began airing in prime-time on 27 April 2020 and features contestants attempting to beat up to five Chasers to win big cash prizes. The Chasers that featured in the show were Sinha, Labbett, Ryan, Hegerty and Wallace.^[26]

In this special isolation version of the show, broadcast on The Chase's YouTube channel and shown straight after the main show, all five Chasers are presenters and viewers at home can play along, for they are the contestants. Each series has five episodes; the first series was shown in mid-May 2020, and was hosted by Jenny Ryan. Between late-May and early-June, the second series was shown across consecutive days and presented by Shaun Wallace. On 1 March 2021, it was announced that a new series would be available on ITVX for six episodes, every Monday at 6:00 pm.^[27]

In November 2020, ITV announced another spin-off in which The Beast, The Dark Destroyer and The Governess go on a road trip around the world.^[28] On their travels, they play against child geniuses, great apes, dolphins and robots. The series takes them to the UK, the US and Japan. Episode 1 of the show aired on 21 January 2021,^[29] episode 2 aired on 28 January 2021^[30] and episode 3 aired on 4 February 2021.^[31] The series was narrated by Rob Brydon.^{[citation needed]}

On 11 February 2024, the popular British YouTube group the Sidemen posted a comedic spin-off episode of The Chase on their group channel, with clips also shared on The Chase's official YouTube channel.^[32] The video was filmed on the show's set, and also used the on-set cameras and crew whilst using the graphics and music from the TV programme. It also features a guest appearance from Bradley Walsh during a brief intermission.

Fellow YouTuber Stephen "Stephen Tries" Lawson hosted, while Sidemen members were the Chaser and contestants: Vikram "Vikkstar123" Barn was the Chaser (nicknamed "The 123"), while the contestants competing in pairs were Olajide "KSI" Olatunji, Simon "Miniminter" Minter, Joshua "Zerkaa" Bradley, Tobi "TBJZL" Brown, Ethan "Behzinga" Payne and Harry "Wroetoshaw" Lewis.^[33]

The Chase is highly popular with critics and viewers. Despite early criticism,^[8] opinion has improved over time. Some critics, as well as the chasers,^[4] put the show's success down to Walsh as host and his many memorable moments, some of which come from questions or answers which often leave him in fits of highly contagious hysterics. Labbett also said that the sense of fun and the variety of chasers is a major factor.^[4] Sinha said, "The format has been brilliantly thought out. No matter the relative strengths of the players, it is resolutely a team game, with a dramatic climax."^[34]

In October 2011, a clip of Walsh laughing uncontrollably at the name of German skiier Fanny Chmelar went viral.^[35] By July 2013, the clip had been viewed 6 million times.^[36] According to Sinha, this clip helped double the show's audience and make it the highest-rated daytime programme.^[37] In January 2024, Walsh met Chmelar on Michael McIntyre's Big Show and apologised for laughing at her name.^[38]

The British series was viewed by an average audience of 313,800 in New Zealand in 2021. According to Massey University honorary research fellow Brian McDonnell, New Zealanders watch the show for Walsh and to support the underdog contestants, despite some questions being centered on British culture.^[39]

The Chase has also been criticised on several occasions, such as the Final Chase, when it is alleged that Walsh asks the chasers' questions more quickly than those of the contestants.^[40] In an interview with the Radio Times, Walsh repudiated those claims: "We have lawyers on the floor to watch all of this. I read [the questions] at the same speed for both." He went on to say, "Don't forget, if I've got Mark Labbett answering questions for two minutes and I've got a team answering for two minutes, the team aren't going to be quicker. Simple as that, because they have to press the button [before answering], which is why they get a head start based on how many people are in the final. If you've got three people in the final chase that's a three-step head start–that's about a twelve-second advantage."^[41]

There have also been a number of games where the chaser has won with an answer right on the final buzzer, which some viewers have perceived to be out of time;^[42] spokespeople have asserted that an independent adjudicator – a representative from Beyond Dispute Ltd^[43] – always checks each show and makes the final call on whether answers were in or out of time.^[44]

On 6 April 2016, on an episode where Labbett was the chaser, a glitch occurred whereby the clock froze at 10 seconds and then increased to 11 seconds, giving Labbett an extra second. Although the contestants were far ahead and there was no chance of them being caught (and would win a £27,000 pot), a spokesperson for the show told OK! Online the following day that an error occurred during the editing process, but gameplay was otherwise not affected by it.^[45]

On 4 March 2019, an episode was broadcast where Walsh asked a question about which band had the fewest members, with the possible answers being the Proclaimers, the Pretenders or the Prodigy. Many viewers criticised ITV for deciding to air the episode hours after it was announced that Prodigy frontman Keith Flint had died by suicide.^[46][47]

On 26 January 2022, Labbett lost the final chase and, after briefly congratulating the winners, stormed off the set punching the wall on his way out. This left Walsh to apologise to the audience, though in a rather sarcastic tone, stating "I apologise to all the kids watching, that's not how you should take defeat." Labbett subsequently apologised for his behaviour via Twitter, as well as revealing that his mental health at the time of recording the particular episode was not very good, consequently affecting his behaviour. His fans online supported him through this, one of which was fellow Chaser, Paul Sinha. Sinha commented, "You should never have to apologise for the crime of “being human”. I’d have been nowhere on those questions."^[48]

During its first two series, the show averaged 1–2 million viewers, then more than 2 million during series three. By December 2012, The Chase had become ITV's most popular "teatime" programme since The Paul O'Grady Show in 2005, with more than 3 million viewers an episode.^[49] In January 2021, The Chase managed a peak audience of more than 5 million, an all-time high.^[50] Almost every episode is now seen by between 4 and 5 million viewers, and regularly features on ITV's Top 15 weekly broadcasts.^[51]

In its timeslot, The Chase airs at the same time as BBC One's Pointless,^[52] a game show launched in August 2009, two months after The Chase's debut.^[4] The two programmes usually receive similar ratings (for example in September 2012, The Chase had 2.44 million viewers versus 2.27 million for Pointless).^[53] 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).^[54]

This table lists all international variants in the television game show franchise The Chase that have been broadcast since the debut of the original British version of the show on 29 June 2009.

Legend:   Currently airing     Reinstated and currently airing   No longer airing     Upcoming  

Legend:   Currently airing     No longer airing     Upcoming    

A board game based on the show was released in 2012 by Ideal.^[132] In 2013, a card game based on the show was released by Ginger Fox.^[133]

On 12 December 2012, a version for iOS was released by Barnstorm Games. The app features four chasers (excluding Jenny "The Vixen" Ryan and Darragh "The Menace" Ennis, both of whom had not yet appeared on the programme at the time of release) and can be played by up to four people, as in the actual show. The only differences between the app and the show are that four choices are presented for questions in the Cash Builder and the Final Chase rounds and that no Final Chase is played if all four players are caught in their head-to-head chases. The app is designed for both iPhones and iPads.^[134] An updated version, The Chase: Ultimate Edition, was released in 2017 and features five chasers (excluding Ennis) and host Walsh. In 2020, the app was updated now to feature Ennis.^[135] In 2023, a free app entitled The Chase: World Tour was launched and features chasers from the British, American and Australian versions of the show.^[136] In 2025, the app was updated to include five chasers from the Croatian version of the show, Potjera.