“The Lightning Bolt” was originally to be called “The Professor”. I wonder why the change?
There are eight chasers, including The Beat and The Governess who don’t appear as much as they used to, are around three too many chasers for my liking.
Oh @TV.Cynic didn’t include the cap with the Supernerd
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It might keep things fresh, with the chasers each having a different personality. Personally I don’t mind if there is a few of them as long as they are entertaning and engaging. The UK version also has 6 chasers, while Australia now has 8, but TBH I think they might give The Beast and Governess half a load of episodes each, to reduce travelling, so we would see two of them less often.
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The upfronts mentioned two new Chasers:
The Lightning Bolt is Brandon Blackwell, who has appeared on the revival of The Chase USA. He is a former World SpeedQuizzing champion and one of the highest scoring players ever on University Challenge.
My early suspicions would be that he will have a role similar to Shaun Wallace, where he will appear for a run of guest appearances rather than as a full-time addition.
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Will be an actual “Guest Chaser” like Shaun Wallace, only temporary.
I suspect 7 brought forward Brandon The Lightning Bolt’s appearances because they are losing in the ratings to Tipping Point in the first 2 weeks so far. Per James and others on Twitter, Brandon filmed in mid 2023.
Although there is a bit of arrogance by Channel 7 by showing The Chase Australia repeats at the end of the week, while that may work against Eddie McGuire’s show, it’s not working thus far against Tipping Point Australia. Plus they still have over 100+ episodes in the can going way back to Late 2022.
I do feel sorry for those that filmed with David ‘The Professor’ Poltorak back in late 2022, thus that have won against him would have a even longer wait for their prize money. Whether David follows Cheryl and Mara onto FT status is unknown, but I’m tipping he’s also temporary and may potentially move into the question writer role for The Chase Australia (same role as his old job at Millionaire Hot Seat).
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For a while it was five (Mark, Anne, Issa, Brydon and Matt) and I quite liked this as you saw each of them once a week. I don’t know why Seven felt the need to keep adding unless it was to do with cost (I seem to use that word a lot on this site) to keep flying Mark and Anne over - I imagine that can’t be cheap
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It initially started with 4 chasers in Australia. Mark didn’t join TCA until TCUSA (original run on GSN) finished up at the end of 2015.
Or they anticipated early interest in TP and it was planned to counteract it establishing itself.
Has The Chase actually lost viewers or is it that TP has just attracted new ones?
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I’ve said it here more than once and other MS members have also said it, the ‘final chase’ is one of the most appointment viewings on TV, it’s almost addictive, even if no longer a novelty or groundbreaking as such like it was to local audiences back around 2016 (and flipped the timeslot on its head after considerable consistent losses to Nine’s Hot Seat going back to 2012 after the original DOND with AOK essentially died).
If Seven can at least hold onto that final ~10min, that’s something positive ratings/commercial wise they can work with and is still lucrative to spot buying advertisers in that last ad break and leading right into Seven News at 5:59pm, regardless of TP’s new impact and results.
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When they split coded it, it was the last 30mins which always rates well, the 1 code gives the average throughout so it is lower and again harder to compare between 2023 & 2024
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Would the Chase work better if cut down to 30mins?
Which makes the TP v Chase ratings recently very fascinating and perhaps telling indeed
No.
With four contestants answering their 60 second questions and then the multiple choices, its suited to the one hour version.
The show has had the very random 30 minute editions (due to sporting coverage) over the years, but that version had only two contestants from memory. It was different, but wasn’t my cup of tea.
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I do think 5 is about right. Not sure now it’s established Anne and Mark add much to the Aussie version - better to establish the team really. Considering they’ve not long introduced the Smiling Assasin it seems a bit soon to introduce another new Chaser, never mind two.
A good time to try Beat the Chasers again, though seems they’d have to rebrand it in case people think it’s a reference to The Chasers War on Everything. Probably end up being something like “The Chase: Beat the Team”
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I saw something pop up after the show finished today stating ‘all answers correct at the time of filming’ is this always the case or was there an answer in todays episode which is no longer correct?
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Been used since the new episodes started at the end of January. Can’t remember if they have added them to Friday repeats though.
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The Lightning Bolt strikes
Australia faces the fastest Chaser on the planet
Get ready for an electrifying challenge as The Chase Australia welcomes the fastest Chaser on the planet, The Lightning Bolt, from 5.00pm Monday, 26 February on Channel 7 and 7plus.
A regular in high-level quiz competitions worldwide, Brandon Blackwell aka The Lightning Bolt is a World SpeedQuizzing Champion and is one of the highest-scoring players of all time on the prestigious British quiz show: University Challenge.
Brandon, a familiar face on The Chase America, joins a formidable line-up of Chasers: Goliath, The Beast, The Governess, The Smiling Assassin, The Shark, The Supernerd and Tiger Mum.
The Lightning Bolt, having secured second place in the under-30 World Quizzing Championship in 2020, is known for his lightning-fast intellect.
“I’ll beat you before you even turn up,” says Brandon with a grin.
Can Australia weather the storm of The Lightning Bolt’s unmatched speed?
The Chase Australia is an ITV Studios Australia production for the Seven Network based on the original ITV quiz show.
The Chase Australia Continues 5.00pm weekdays January on Channel 7 and 7plus
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Soon there’ll be more chasers than contestants.
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Tonight 4 contestants played for $107,000, got 17 steps, only got 1 opportunity for a push back and got caught with 21 seconds left. Massive blow
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