Fans of popular game show The Chase are claiming the show is “fixed” after a team missed out on winning £100,000 (NZ$200,000).
Chaser Mark Labbett aka The Beast managed to run down a team of four contestants who scored 18 in the final chase with 27 seconds remaining. Not exactly a close run thing.
Normally, one would say tough luck. However, viewers were left complaining that the questions The Beast had to answer were too easy, saying the show was rigged to stop the team from winning a huge amount of money by Chase standards.
Examples of the questions viewers were calling easy included “what colour are most vinyl records?,” and “what domesticated fowl lays barn eggs?”.
Fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustration at the outcome.
“The chase is a joke. Professional quizzers getting asked the most ridiculous questions that my kids could guess,” one person said.
“Why did The Beast have his fingers on the responder buttons during the final chase? Damn easy questions those too. Far simpler than the questions given to the contestants,” said another.
“Never understood why people go for the high amount. They are never going to give away £100k far better to keep the total to around £10k and they will let you win. It’s obviously a fix,” claimed a third person.
Allegations of fixing have been thrown at The Chase before, as reported by The Daily Mail.
In another recent episode, Paul Sinha, who goes by the name The Sinnerman, was accused of stopping a team from winning £90,000 after he answered a question incorrectly.
Sinha was asked which former member of One Direction is the father of Bear Payne. He answered Ian instead of Liam, with host Bradly Walsh appearing to mishear the answer, saying correct, before moving on.
ITV who produce the show, say questions are chosen randomly from a set of three pre-set packages.