Hello and welcome to another blog by me Dan Bury where today we're talking about 'Beat the Chasers' spin off show of hit ITV daytime quiz show The Chase. Which has two other spin off shows in the UK, The Chase: Celebrity Specials and The Family Chase. Since it's started in 2009, The Chase is a show that has grown in popularity and has had board games and card games made on it, quiz books written about it and is watched and enjoyed by millions.
Presented by the one and only Bradley Walsh, and the chasers being Mark Labbett, Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan, and Shaun Wallace. (The Beast, The Governess, The Sinnerman, The Vixen, and the Dark Destroyer)
For the first time ever in a brand new show, all five chasers come together to take on willing contestants who they belive are brave enough and good enough to Beat The Chasers.
This is the first time a show as big as this has ever been tried before on this sort of scale in Chase history and this series is very much a devine exercise in trial and error to see what the viewers watching at home think of it. If they like it, they'll let their opinions known by the audience figures and talking about it on their social media and amongst their friends. As that's how shows survive. If there isn't enough people watching it or it doesn't get a good enough reponse from viewers production companies won't bother commisioning another series.
In the case of Beat The Chasers, I see no doubt in my mind that this won't get a second series. It's obviously proving to be a successful hit with the viewers probably down to how different it is compared to the other spin off shows which are equally as successful as the daytime show. What makes Beat The Chasers unique is the fact that all five of the chasers are in the same room together and interacting with one another, correcting and teasing eachother whenever they get something wrong.
In this review I will express some thoughts on what I think of the show and suggestions on how Beat the Chasers could be improved.
So I'll start off by saying that in terms of how it works as a show, it relates to me as a bigger, more epic version of The Chase, the studio is massive, set out like a roman coluseium with the game area like the lions den and the chasers are up on a big podium like gods. Whether you like that sort of set up is up to you, I think all its all very dramatic and set up in such a way to be this big game show like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was when that first started. Prime time television, there's probably more bugdet put into this which enabled the production to do more things like build a ginormous set. I don't really buy all of this big, dramatic game show nonsense. I think it's uneccary to build it up as a kind of life or death, this is such a big thing.
Bradley as host is always on top form. I love his presenting style and his a huge talent. I love Bradley Walsh he's probably the best thing about it, with a different host it would be a completly different show and wouldn't be as good. Bradley's wit and humour is always on point and his banter with The Chasers is always great to watch.
The Chasers, its interesting to see them in a new dynamic and new outfits. I like the black and red colour scheme I think it suits them really well and ties in with the other variations to their outfits on the Daytime, Family and Celebrity Chase shows. Their banter with eachother again like Bradley is on point, it makes a change to see them squabling, teasting or correcting eachother if they get something wrong or they make snide remarks or looks at one another when they get questions wrong. They're quiz knowledge is matched by their 'we're better than you' attitude in their role to both intimidate and humiliate the vailiant contestants who challenges them to take them on for serious cash prizes.
The contestant cash builder is a bit cruel and unfair in the sense that one wrong answer puts you out of the game, if I were to make a suggestion I would say either introduce a life line system - so give the contestant a set number of lives where a wrong answers loses them a life and if all they're lives run out whatever money they have at the end they then take to the table to face the chasers with in the head to head. Either do that or remove the rule of get the first questions wrong and you're out. It seems a bit unfair to just kick contestants off for getting the first question wrong. It puts unwanted on the contestant and in a big studio with lights, its hard to keep calm under pressure. So getting rid of that rule I think would help put the contestants mind at ease. A life line system gives them a fair and sporting chance.
The contestants vs the chasers head to head part of the show I think can get very tense, in the way that pointless works with the clock counting down, and even though the chasers get less time than the contestants I feel their still at an advantage given their quiz knowledge and expeirence to answering questions under pressure. Mark, Paul, and Shaun in perticular are very quick on the buzzer and all the chasers have a devised team stragety between them. To spice things up, it would be quite good as a second suggestion to allow players to take on just one chaser for the money they earnt in the cash builder, rather than two being the fewest amount of chasers you can take on.
In order to make things more dramatic the chasers could offer higher amounts of money for choosing to take on all five. Between (£70 - 100 thousand pounds) four chasers between (£20 and £60 thousand pounds) and three chasers between (£10 and £20 thousand pounds) the higher the money, the more that's at stake and the better the game will be. One thing I do love about Beat the Chasers is the thrill of the contest. Winning £2,000 on Beat the Chasers is just as exciting as winning £100,000. One thing that is does get right is the contest and thrill of the actual game, and contestants back stories, as its important for people watching at home to care if the person that's on the telly wins.
Having watched it all this week, I have no doubt Beat the Chasers will be a success, as for me. I'm a fan. I'll watch it anyway. No matter what.
