The Chase Australia

The Chase Australia
Genre	Game show
Created by	Danny Carvalho Pete Faherty Chris Gepp Elliot Johnson Matt Pritchard Amanda Wilson
Directed by	Ian Hamilton Stuart McDonald
Creative director(s)	Michael Kelpie
Presented by	Andrew O'Keefe
Starring	Matt Parkinson Brydon Coverdale Anne Hegerty Issa Schultz Mark Labbett (2016–)
Theme music composer	Paul Farrer
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1[1]
No. of episodes	65[1]
Production
Executive producer(s)	Sue Allison Martin Scott
Producer(s)	Jennifer Stephenson David Hall
Location(s)	Melbourne, Victoria
Running time	60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company(s)	ITV Studios
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	Seven Network
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Original release	14 September 2015 (2015-09-14) – present

The Chase Australia is an Australian television quiz show based on the British program of a similar name. It is broadcast on the Seven Network and hosted by Andrew O'Keefe.^[2][3] Four contestants play against an opponent, known as the "chaser", who plays for the bank.^[4] Like the UK version, there are five chasers on the show; they are Matt Parkinson, Brydon Coverdale, Anne Hegerty, Issa Schultz and Mark Labbett.^[5][6][7] The show premiered on 14 September 2015.^[8][9]

Background

In mid-2014 it was reported that the Seven Network had considered producing a local version of The Chase on the back of good ratings for the British version of the show which has been airing in the 3:00 pm timeslot since August 2013. A pilot episode on the UK set was made, but ultimately it was decided not to proceed.^[10]

However, interest in a local version was renewed in May 2015 and in July the Seven Network commissioned the show to eventually replace Deal or No Deal and Million Dollar Minute in the 5:00 pm timeslot in a bid to revive ratings for its struggling 6:00 pm nightly news.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Gameplay

Cash Builder and Head-to-Head rounds

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 $2,000.^[15] This element is known as the "cash builder". After the minute is up, the money earned from the cash builder is placed three steps down on a seven-step money board. The contestant may remain at this step and play for the money in their bank. However, the contestant may also be placed one step lower down the board for a lesser award, or one step further up the board for a greater award, with each award's value being set by the chaser.

If the contestant elects to play for the greater reward, the chaser starts two steps behind and the contestant must answer six questions correctly to reach home. If the contestant elects to remain at the standard starting position, the chaser is three steps behind 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 and the contestant must answer four questions correctly to reach home.

Once the contestant nominates their starting position, questions must then be answered correctly in order to reach the bottom of the board and bank their money. Both the contestant and the chaser are given the same multiple-choice question with three possible answers. Each must then 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 be locked out. For every correct response, the contestant will move one step towards the bank. Additionally, the chaser also moves one step down the board for each correct answer. No movement is made (either by the contestant or the chaser) if an incorrect answer is given. The chaser's job is to catch up to the contestant and eliminate him or her from the game by capitalising on the mistakes the contestant makes before he or she can bank their money. If this happens, the contestant is out of the game and no money is added to the team's total. However, if the contestant successfully banks his or her money, this is put into the team's prize pot which will be contested for in the final round. In the case the contestant chose to play for a negative amount and wins his or her Head-to-Head round, the contestant remains in the game but the team's total pot is reduced by the negative value. 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, the chaser offers a certain amount of money and the team nominates one contestant to proceed to the Final Chase.

Final Chase round

In the final round, called the "Final Chase", the remaining contestants have two minutes to answer as many questions as possible. During the commercial break, the contestants choose one of two question sets, A or B, with the other set being put aside for the chaser. Also, the contestants are given a head start of one space per contestant participating in the round. The contestants must press their own buzzer to answer a question and only the one who pressed their buzzer first can respond; if any other contestant responds the question is treated as an incorrect answer, regardless of whether it was answered correctly or not. The buzzer is not used if only one contestant is in the Final Chase. Every correct answer moves the contestants ahead one space.

After the two minutes are up (and following a short news update) the chaser is also given two minutes of quick-fire questions to attempt to catch the team. If the chaser gets a question wrong or passes, the clock is briefly stopped and the question is thrown over to the contestants; if a correct answer is given, the chaser is pushed back one space. If the contestants answer the chaser's question correctly whilst the chaser is at the starting line, an additional space is added to the requirement for the chaser. If the chaser succeeds in catching the contestants before the clock runs out, the contestants lose the prize pot and leave with nothing. If the contestants are not caught by the chaser, the prize pot is split equally between those contestants participating in the Final Chase. If there is only one winning contestant remaining, the contestant wins his or head to head round amount.

Chasers

• Brydon Coverdale (2015–present)—Appeared on several Australian quiz programs, including Million Dollar Minute where he won $307,000 in 2014, becoming the first grand champion of Pass the Buck where he won $38,788 in 2002. He also won a total of $32,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, appeared on The Weakest Link in 2001, Deal or No Deal in 2005 and was a quarter-finalist on Letters and Numbers in 2011. Nicknamed "The Shark".
• Anne Hegerty (2015–present)—Appeared on several British quiz programs, including Mastermind (twice), Fifteen to One, 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. Ranked 40th in the World Quizzing Championships 2014. Best known in Australia for being one of the chasers on the original UK version of the show. Nicknamed "The Governess" and "Frosty Knickers".
• Matt Parkinson (2015–present)—A championship winner on the television game show Sale of the Century in the 1990s and a frequent member of the "Brains Trust" on The Einstein Factor in the 2000s. Nicknamed "Goliath".
• Issa Schultz (2015–present)—Three-time winner of the Australian Quizzing Championships in 2011, 2013, and 2014, and has held the Pairs title since 2012. Appeared on The Rich List where he won $200,000 in 2009. He also appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The Einstein Factor. Nicknamed "The Supernerd".^[16]
• Mark Labbett (2016–present)—Appeared on Mastermind, University Challenge, 15 to 1, The Syndicate and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (twice, winning £32,000 and £16,000);^[17] runner-up on The People's Quiz, runner-up on Brain of Britain, part of a winning team on Only Connect, represented Wales from 2005–2007 at the European quiz championships. Ranked 134th in the World Quizzing Championships 2014.^[18] Best known in Australia for being one of the chasers on the original UK version of the show as well as the chaser on the US version of the show. Nicknamed "The Beast", "Beastie Boy", "The Man Mountain of Maths" and "The Transatlantic Giant".^[5]

Ratings

Since debuting in September 2015, The Chase Australia has generally performed well in the ratings, often beating the second half of the Nine Network's Afternoon News and Millionaire Hot Seat, which follows immediately after, in the important 5:00 to 6:00 pm timeslot. The debut episode drew 520,000 for its first half-hour, and 720,000 for its second half-hour which went up against Millionaire Hot Seat.^[19][20] This in turn has resulted in a minor resurgence in ratings for Seven News, which continues to trail Nine News on the eastern seaboard, but otherwise still leads the Adelaide and Perth markets.^[21]

Transmissions

The Chase Australia airs at 5:00 pm on weeknights. Additionally, in New Zealand, episodes of The Chase Australia air twice weekly—on Monday and Tuesday nights at 7:00 pm—on TV One.^[22][23] From March 2016, The Chase Australia will air on UK TV channel Challenge.^[24]

Special episodes

On 19 September 2015, a special episode aired during Channel Seven's Saturday Night Footy pre-game telecast where Brian Taylor, Sam Lane, Matthew Richardson and Alex Rance played against Brydon Coverdale. The team won $10,000 for charity.^[25]

On 8 October 2015, another special episode aired during Channel Seven's Sunrise where presenters David Koch, Samantha Armytage, Natalie Barr, and Mark Beretta played against Matt Parkinson. In this format, one person would play in the Cash Builder round, and the next person would play for the money earned in the individual chase. $1,000 instead of $2,000 was awarded for each correct answer in the Cash Builder. The questions were biased towards the Sunrise presenters as they would cover things personal to them. The team won $10,000 for charity.

On 3 and 5 of November 2015, two special half-hour episodes aired to fit in with Channel Seven's coverage of the 2015 Spring Racing Carnival. These two episodes were only broadcast in Victoria and New South Wales. This format involved two contestants instead of four. Each contestant would play the Cash Builder round, and the contestant that earned the highest amount of money would play for the combined total of the two contestants in the individual chase. The Final Chase was played as per usual.

On 10 and 13 January 2016, two new episodes of The Chase Australia aired during primetime at 7:00 pm. One of the episodes included a "negative money offer" for the first time in the Australian series.^[26]

Merchandise

An iOS app for the show, developed by ITV Studios Ltd, was released on 27 November 2015. It features three chasers (excluding Anne Hegerty and Mark Labbett) 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 three choices are presented for questions in the Cash Builder and the Final Chase rounds, no Final Chase is played if all players are caught in their individual chases and if the chaser gets the first question wrong in the final chase, no pushback is executed. The app is designed for both iPhones and iPads.^[27] A board game has also been released.

References

External links

• Official website