History Series / TheChase

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->''"These four players who have never met before have a chance to win thousands of pounds. There's just one thing standing in their way... [[BigBad the Chaser]]. [[CatchPhrase The chase is on.]]"''
-->-- '''Bradley Walsh'''

British GameShow hosted by Bradley Walsh (two American versions also exist; see below). As explained [[OnceAnEpisode at the start of every episode]], a team of four players, never having met before, answer trivia questions to earn cash and then compete against the day's Chaser for the chance to take home an equal share of the money the team earned overall. The name of the show comes from the format of answering as many questions correctly as the Chasers in head-to-head rounds. Considering the Chasers are certified trivia buffs who compete regularly, and the rather difficult nature of the questions, this is ''not'' easy.

For the first round, each individual team member (in turn) has 60 seconds to answer as many quick-fire trivia questions as possible, earning £1,000 for each correct answer. In the second round, they then compete against the day's Chaser for the right to take that money into the Final Chase. Starting three steps ahead of the Chaser, they can take a free step toward home for a reduction in the prize money, or take a step [[note]](Or two on the American Version; see FlawlessVictory and SchmuckBait below)[[/note]] towards the Chaser for an improved prize. Then both Chaser and contestant answer multiple-choice trivia questions. If either gets it right, they move a step down the table toward the contestant's end. If the contestant reaches home, they advance to the Final Chase and their money goes into the team's prize pot. If the Chaser catches up, both the contestant and the money are out of the game.

In the third round, the Final Chase, the surviving team members answer as many quick-fire questions on the buzzer as they can in two minutes. Each correct answer moves them one step ahead, and they receive a one-step head start for each surviving member. The Chaser is then given two minutes to catch the team, and each pass or miss gives the team a chance to push them back one step by answering correctly. If the team is caught, they leave with nothing; if not, the surviving team members split the prize pot equally.

The original two Chasers were Mark Labbett ("The Beast") and Shaun Wallace ("The Dark Destroyer"), with Anne Hegerty ("The Governess") joining in 2010, followed by Paul Sinha ("The Sinnerman") in 2011 and Jenny Ryan ("The Vixen") in 2015. All five are renowned quizzers of a similar calibre to ''Eggheads'', including a ''Series/{{Mastermind}}'' winner in the form of Wallace.[[note]](In fact, all five have competed on ''Are You an Egghead?'', with Wallace reaching the Series 1 final and Hegerty reaching the Series 2 semi-finals; Labbett and Ryan even faced each other in Series 1 (Ryan won), as did Hegerty and Ryan in Series 2 (Hegerty won).)[[/note]] Darragh Ennis, who appeared as a contestant in 2017, became the show's sixth Chaser ("The Menace") in 2020. A primetime spin-off, ''Beat the Chasers'', also launched that year, featuring singular contestants competing in a timed, head-to-head duel against multiple Chasers.

An American version, with Mark Labbett (promoted as "[[RedBaron The Beast]]" as opposed to his real name) as the single Chaser and Brooke Burns hosting aired on GSN for four seasons from 2011 to 2015. The rules were changed slightly, with only three people per team, a $5,000 per question Cash Builder, occasional six-figure "Super Offers"[[note]](even higher than the increased offer, but the player had only a one-step head start and needed ''seven'' correct answers to bank the money)[[/note]], and a Live StudioAudience. Two episodes into the second half of the fourth season, GSN announced that the program would not be renewed, citing that it was too expensive to continue producing. The American version was also seen in Britain on the Challenge channel, where it's billed as ''The Chase USA''. The third and fourth seasons would later be made available for streaming on Creator/{{Netflix}}. Creator/{{ABC}} rebooted the series for primetime in January 2021 with the ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' trio of James ("The High Roller") Holzhauer, Ken ("The Professor") Jennings, and Brad ("The Buzzsaw") Rutter as Chasers and Sara Haines replacing Brooke Burns as host. This version has a much bigger Cash Builder, worth $25,000 a question, and also adds a room called the "Chasers' Lounge" where the two non-playing chasers can watch the game and provide color commentary.

''The Chase Australia'' began airing on Australia's Seven Network in September 2015. The Australian version is hosted by Andrew O'Keefe and features Anne Hegerty and local Chasers Matt Parkinson ("Goliath"), Issa Schultz ("The Super Nerd"), and Brydon Coverdale ("The Shark"). Mark Labbett joined the lineup in 2016, after the GSN version’s end, and Cheryl Toh ("Tiger Mum") debuted in 2019. Each correct answer in the cash-builder round earns $2,000.

Not to be confused with [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]]'s [[Series/ChaseGameShow Cha$e]]. Also read ''Series/WinBenSteinsMoney'', which was a ring-in game show that also offered contestants a chance to beat the titular quizmaster for some quick cash.

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!!This show contains examples of:
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Occasionally, Bradley - or a contestant - will get this reaction from one of the Chasers.
--> '''Paul''': ''[after a [[LittleKnownFacts particularly lengthy lecture]]]'' But other than that, it was a bit of a guess.
--> '''Contestant''': ''[to Bradley]'' [[DeadpanSnarker Bet he's great on a night out.]]
--> '''Bradley''': He's actually very-
--> ''[[[SelfDeprecation He's cut off by Paul's laughter.]]]''
--> '''Bradley''': Actually, you can't top that. Well played.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Several of the Chasers' nicknames.
** Beastie Boy, Man-Mountain of Maths (Mark)
** Dark Destroyer (Shaun)
** Sarcasm in a Suit (Paul)
** Bolton Brainiac, Bolton Bombshell (Jenny)
** Dublin Dynamo (Darragh)
%%* AdvancingBossOfDoom: The Chasers all function as this during the personal and final rounds.
* AllOrNothing: Escape the Final Chase, win the cash. Otherwise, it's a victory for the Chaser, and the team earns absolutely nothing. Lose your head-to-head chase, and your only chance to take home any money is if everyone else on the team wipes out too.
* AscendedExtra: Three years after appearing as a contestant on the original UK version, Darragh Ennis became its sixth Chaser.
** James Holzhauer went from being a contestant on the GSN version to a chaser on the ABC version.
* ABeastInNameAndNature: Mark Labbett goes by "The Beast" due to his genius-level knowledge of trivia, and perhaps also his imposing figure at the time of the show. As a Chaser, he is basically the antagonist of the episodes he's in, as the players have to compete against him to win.
* BerserkButton: The easiest way to drive the Chaser up the wall, during the Individual Chase rounds, is to get the correct answer after admitting that you have no idea what the answer is. Especially if it happens for all the rounds, and especially still if you're playing for the Top Offer.
** Cocky contestants are also liable to attract the Chaser's ire, whether [[InsufferableGenius they are actually knowledgeable]] or not.
** On a more serious note...poor sportsmanship. The Chasers are mainly hamming it up for the camera, but one of the few times Mark has honestly seemed ''genuinely angry'' at a contestant was when the contestant was pulling mocking faces during Mark's round of the final chase. When the team subsequently won, Mark sourly noted that they were good players, but lousy sports.
* BigEater: Mark "The Beast" Labbett is a large man, and as such is subject to jokes about his equally large appetite during the Chasers' introduction.[[note]]Earlier in life, he ate so many sugary foods that he had to have all his upper teeth removed; he now wears dentures in their place.[[/note]]
* BigEntrance: Whenever the Chaser enters the studio, an epic music plays, and the entire room turns red.
* BigYes: Bradley delivered one, shown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsuWyrATXY here]]
* BorrowedCatchphrase: With Bradley in one of his usual [[{{Corpsing}} laughing fits]] (induced by Paul and contestant Andrew), Andrew [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxKbDXRHESc turns to the camera]] and says "We'll be back after the break, folks." And then the ''show cut to a break.''
* TheCastShowOff: The Chasers like to show off their trivia knowledge, and Mark even more than the others. At the end of the head-to-head round, the Chaser would occasionally give details about how and why the answer is correct. In the more usual display of this trope, Shaun will occasionally break into song.
* CatchPhrase:
--> '''Bradley''': Let's put some money on the table...
--> '''Bradley''': For [amount] pounds, [[TitleDrop the chase is on]].
--> '''Bradley''': I'm sorry [contestant], you have been caught and for you, the chase is over.
--> '''Bradley''': Can anyone take money from our chasers? Come and have a go if you think you're clever enough.
--> '''Bradley''': Stop the clock; that is wrong. (When the Chaser misses a question in the Final Chase)
--> '''Bradley''': Money's in your hands. (Said to the team in the Final Chase, when the Chaser doesn't have any chance to catch up in the remaining time)
--> '''Shaun''': It's just another day at the office.
--> '''Shaun''': (on a roll or just annoyed) [[SeriousBusiness Next question, Bradley.]]
--> '''Mark''': (with regard to the higher offer) Come up and play.
--> '''Mark''': [higher offer] says you can't beat me/I'm better than you.
--> '''Brooke''': Unleash the Beast!
%%* CelebrityEdition: Every so often.
* ChristmasEpisode: Except for 2016, ''The Chase'' has held celebrity episodes around Christmas every year since 2012, usually during their "Text Santa" marathon. Unlike other episodes, each of the celebrities faces a different Chaser, with one of them (2012-14) or the fifth (2015 on) playing the Final Chase. The Chasers have dressed either in formalwear, or in costume as follows.
** 2012 -- [[{{Pantomime}} Panto]] villains[[note]](Mark was the Giant from Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk, Anne was the Queen from Literature/SnowWhite, Paul was [[Literature/PeterPan Captain Hook]], and Shaun was one of the [[Literature/{{Cinderella}} Ugly Sisters]])[[/note]]
** 2013 -- Traditional Christmas characters[[note]](Shaun was WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer, Paul was an elf, Mark was [[Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas the Grinch in a Santa suit]], and Anne was a Christmas angel)[[/note]]
** 2014 -- Sequin-covered formalwear based on their usual outfits, while Bradley and the contestants wore suits and dresses
** 2015 -- Everyone onstage wore a HomemadeSweaterFromHell[[note]](All five Chasers appeared thusly dressed in the intro, but only Mark played the episode)[[/note]]
** 2017 -- Characters from ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''[[note]](Shaun as the ghost of Jacob Marley, Paul as Ebenezer Scrooge, Mark as Tiny Tim, Anne as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Jenny as Mrs. Cratchit, and Bradley as Bob Cratchit)[[/note]]
** 2018 -- Bands that charted #1 hits at Christmas[[note]](Shaun as Elvis Presley, Jenny as Madonna, Anne as Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls, Paul as Freddie Mercury of Queen, and Mark as Noddy Holder of Slade)[[/note]]
** 2019 -- Characters in movies about, or released at/near, Christmas[[note]](Shaun as John [=McClane=] from ''Die Hard'', Paul as Buddy from ''Elf'', Mark as Santa Claus from ''Miracle on 34th Street'', Jenny as the Wicked Witch of the West from ''The Wizard of Oz'', Anne as the Mother Abbess from ''The Sound of Music'')[[/note]]
** 2020 -- Subjects of famous paintings[[note]](Anne as Marilyn Monroe, Mark as King Henry VIII of England, Paul as King Charles II of England, Shaun as the Mona Lisa, and Jenny as the Girl with a Pearl Earring)[[/note]]
* TheComicallySerious: Shaun, whose studious Dark Destroyer persona is often played off against the ridiculous things going on at Bradley's end of the set. Taken to new levels in one of the Christmas specials, where he comes out dressed as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, glowing nose and all, still maintaining his usual persona.
* CommercialBreakCliffhanger: Done quite often towards the end of a close-run personal chase.
* ConfettiDrop: Confetti is used at the end of the Christmas Specials to simulate a snowy scene, but otherwise this trope is averted.
** However in the spin-off ''Beat the Chasers'', this trope is played straight, as Confetti will fall whenever a contestant wins the top prize by defeating all 5 Chasers.
* ConsolationPrize: In the celebrity specials, if the team fails to outrun the Chaser, they still get £1,000 each for their chosen charities.
* ContinuingIsPainful: If all of the players are caught out by the Chaser, they still have a chance to take home some money in the Final Chase. However:
** Only one person (chosen by the team) is allowed to answer the questions.
** That player only gets a one-step head start rather than four/three (since it's one step for every person playing the Final Chase).[[note]]Or none at all in the American ABC version[[/note]]
** That player is playing for the entire team.
** On the British version, the money at stake is enough to give every team member the value of one Cash Builder question. On the Australian and American ABC versions, the chaser names the prize, to be divided evenly among all the players.[[note]]This can be substantial; Ken Jennings offered $250,000 if a team's solo player could beat him.[[/note]]
** However, as noted by a couple chasers, sometimes they are better off this way as an earlier, stronger contestant who just had a stroke of bad luck in their personal chase is better than a later contestant who didn't do well in their cash builder and thus would fall apart in the final chase so that the team can go home with something.
** Sometimes invoked by the Chasers, if its within the last couple seconds and they can't answer a question knowing they can't recover from it, they will simply let time run out rather than waste time being wrong as they still have to stop the clock for the team to answer and possibly push back.
* {{Corpsing}}: Happens every now and then, and the producers always ThrowItIn for comedic value [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctVGRgNt0e8 Bradley's face]] is a joy to behold, especially funny as the mirth spreads to even the Chaser!
** On at least one attempt by the question writers to crack Bradley up which leads to him [[AvertedTrope remaining completely stoic]], Bradley ends the segment with, "to those of you who are regular viewers of the Chase, [[LampshadeHanging well held, Brad]]." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lglWa50BHk And ends on a goofy grin]].
* CouchGag:
** Bradley's/Andrew's initial introduction of the Chasers before the initial appearance of the Chaser of the day.
** Brooke's [[Series/TopGear Stig-like]] introductions of the Beast.
* CurbStompBattle: Whenever only one player survives to the final round, the Chaser usually ends up winning with a considerable amount of time left. However, there have been some subversions where either the solo contestant emerged triumphant or the Chaser barely makes it halfway to the target:
** In January 2013, a solo contestant faced Mark in a 15 point final chase. There were numerous pushbacks, and Mark lost with only one answer to go. The contestant's winnings were £60,000 (a little over $91,000) the largest single win ever!
** In Series 1 Episode 2 of the US version, where a full-house team (3 contestants in the US) faced Mark in an 18-step final chase. After some dreadful mistakes, Mark lost with two steps to go. The contestant's winnings? $180,000 (about £118,000) - more than Mark has ever lost to a team in the UK version, and the highest cash prize in GSN's history.
** In the US version, one contestant, with a bank of $125,000, managed 7 total pushbacks, forcing The Beast to outright surrender in the end, making only 10 steps out of 19.
** The episode airing September 2, 2014 was an embarrassment for the Beast, where the players not only managed to make $175,000 and a record 26 steps in the Final Chase (with most of those due to one player, future ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' mega-champ and Chaser James Holzhauer), but for the first minute of the game, the Beast got so many questions wrong that he never got past 2. Needless to say, it was an unprecedented landslide for the players.
** Season 2 Episode 38, Australian version: Nick marks history as the first Australian player to win with a one-man team. Even more impressive is the fact that he's facing the Governess, whose very page information stated that she's never been defeated by a one-man team before.
* DavidVersusGoliath: Matt Parkinson, one of the Australian Chasers, is nicknamed "Goliath". As such, whenever a contestant named David comes up, host Andrew O'Keefe predictably lets loose a HurricaneOfPuns.
* DeadpanSnarker: The Chasers, to an extent. It's Paul's schtick specifically, however.
** Anne occasionally gets in on it as well - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx3Bmxe0JfY here's an example]].
* DifficultySpike:
** The Final Chase. The questions not only come much faster, but the scores the contestants need for the team to stand a good chance of winning are often extremely high depending on how good a form the opposing Chaser is on. The questions are harder too, for both 'teams'. There's a reason most of those who make it to this point lose.
*** In addition, the Final Chase becomes much harder for teams with fewer contestants than with those with more. This is due to two main factors, extra contestants cover for subjects not known by the others and, most importantly, more contestants means a greater head start. [[DoubleSubversion On the other hand]], players who are good enough can actually ''benefit'' from playing alone in the Final Chase, due to not having to worry about time-wasting buzzing [[note]](If only one player is in the Final Chase, the buzzers are not used and the player can answer anytime.)[[/note]] or teammates AND winning more money, as Raj Dhuwalia (a former two-time ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' champion) proved on the American version when he [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomped]] The Beast for a $125,000 bank; being the only person in the Final Chase meant he got all that money for himself.
*** For the chaser, the Final Chase is meant to be difficult for them as they have to rely on themselves for the answer and, most importantly, can be forced to answer additional questions due to push backs.
* DoubleUnlock: The players have to win their Personal Chase just to qualify for the Final Chase. Then, they have to win the Final Chase to get the cash.
* EasyModeMockery: Taking the low offer results in a lower potential prize, and the Chaser will often mock the player for taking it if they did well in the Cash Builder ([[DirtyCoward or talked themselves and other contestants up during previous rounds]]).
** [[AvertedTrope There are occasions where this doesn't happen]], particularly with poor players in situations where the numbers are dwindling; often knowing how good you aren't is more important than knowing the questions themselves, and you can't win anything if you get caught. On at least one occasion, a player took a (negative) low offer and made it home, and the team went on to win the Final Chase by exactly one step -- the head start for having that extra player in the game.
** [[InvertedTrope Mark will sometimes chastise a player]] for ''not'' taking the lower offer, especially if it was early in the game (and therefore had no chance of being negative) and the player had a weak Cash Builder. For him, sometimes taking the middle offer is the ''worst'' thing to do.
** Mark once declared a ''negative'' low offer to a contestant to prevent them from betraying the team. The guy ''[[TooDumbToLive actually took it.]]'' His team immediately turned against him and Mark caught him in one of the few times where a contestant elimination on the show was ''positive.''
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Series 1 only had Mark and Shaun as the Chasers. The early episodes were also quite subdued by comparison. A lot of the gags were absent, and the Chaser of the day was revealed in the intro. The arrival of a Chaser to face the first contestant was preceded by a profile of just him. Funnily enough, the ABC version uses this style of intro at present, though it had three Chasers.
* EvilWearsBlack: Most of the Chasers' outfits are primarily black. Anne sometimes wears a blouse under her suit that's so dark gray as to be nearly black, and Paul wears a black shirt under his white suit.
** On the ''Beat the Chasers'' specials, all the Chasers wear black outfits with red accents - and they absolutely ''do not'' mess around once the head-to-head round starts.
* ExtraTurn:
** Played straight on the Final Chase when the Chaser gets the question wrong, giving the players a chance to push him/her back (or move themselves ahead if the Chaser is still on the starting line).
** Subverted in the head-to-head rounds, as taking the extra turn lowers the player's potential prize.
* FlawlessVictory: The American GSN version raised the stakes with occasional six-figure "Super Offers" that could run as high as $250,000. However, these offers gave a head start of only one step and fell into SchmuckBait territory, since one wrong answer by the player would knock them out of the game unless Mark missed the same question. (No one ever took the Super Offer.)
** A more straight example would be if a contestant answered all of their questions correctly during their personal chase. A chaser can't catch anyone who doesn't answer incorrectly. That had happened before in the British version when [[https://youtu.be/bd9wfbWFL4w Colin answered every question correctly in both his Cash Builder and his head-to-head round against Paul Sinha]].
** On the flip side of things, during the Final Chase, players cannot push back a chaser who answers everything correctly. Of course, the chaser still has to catch up before time runs out, but while it's easy to see if the contestant(s) score on the lower end of things, a flawless chase by said chaser becomes important if they have to score over 20 points. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIJE7gXIiMA On one occasion, Mark defeated a team scoring 26 with no wrong answers and 3 seconds remaining, visibly exhausted after the chase and acknowledging that he got lucky]].
* {{Foil}}: The chasers in the UK are given "opposite" personas: "icy" Anne and "fiery" Jenny, "witty/annoying" Paul and "humourless/boring" Shaun, and "brash/cocky" Mark and "reserved" Darragh (these last two also have completely opposite body types). If a contestant expresses a preference for -- or fear of -- a particular Chaser and their opposite number comes out instead, the Chaser will almost certainly comment on their contrasting characteristics.
** Bradley is often this for several of the Chasers, particularly Shaun and his very stoic personality.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Darragh Ennis appeared on the show as a contestant in 2017 and became the sixth Chaser three years later. During his team's Final Chase, he provided 14 of their 19 correct answers. As of March 2021, he's the only Chaser who hasn't lost a Final Chase.
** Ditto for James Holzhauer in America, though he first proved himself worthy [[Series/{{Jeopardy}} elsewhere.]]
* GeekPhysique: "Supernerd" Issa Schulz has a lanky figure that Andrew O'Keefe frequently compares to a pencil, stick insect, etc.
** Mark Labbett is at the other end of the scale: 6'7" and 380 pounds. They don't call him "The Man-Mountain of Maths" for nothing.
%%* GettingCrapPastThe Radar: The question writers are fond of this.
* HardModePerks: The higher offer is higher for a reason. Questions are much harder, and many contestants trip up on these questions. And the Chaser is two steps behind you to start off. Contestants rarely survive the higher offer Personal Chase. The U.S. version took this UpToEleven and added a rare SUPER offer on a few occasions, which was usually at least double the high offer and could run to six figures. However, [[NoDamageRun the player started out only one step ahead of the Chaser and needed seven correct answers to bank the money.]] Throughout the show's run, nobody accepted the challenge of the Super offer.
** ''Beat the Chasers'' relies even more strongly on this trope. The more Chasers you decide to play against, the higher the offer goes, often topping out at 20-50 times the Cash Builder total if you take on all five.
* HoldTheLine: In the Final Chase, the exact number of questions the contestants get right doesn't really matter. As long as the Chaser can't match their score within two minutes, they'll win the money.
* HollywoodNerd: Issa “Supernerd” Schultz, in case you couldn't tell.
* HomeGame:
** A BoardGame adaptation was released in 2012.
** A brilliant app version was later released.
* IceQueen: Anne is famously known for her cold demeanour and DeathGlare, hence her ''other'' nickname, "Frosty Knickers".
* IconicOutfit: Each Chaser has one.
** Mark's black suit/tie and white shirt.
** Shaun's all-black suit/tie/shirt.
** Anne's dark gray suit and white blouse with a matching ribbon tie.
** Paul's blindingly white suit and black shirt with no tie.
** Jenny's black dress with pink leopard-print trim around the shoulders/neckline/sleeves.
** Darragh's black velvet suit, white shirt, and bolo tie.
* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: Bradley gets a ''lot'' of mileage out of Paul's bright white '70s suit. [[SelfDeprecation Paul does as well.]]
* InsufferableGenius: Brydon "The Shark" will not hesitate to let the players know how much he's better than them. Andrew describes his range of emotions going from "smug to smug".
* KarmaHoudini: Any contestant who talks a big game, earns a lot of money in their Cash Builder, then takes a minus offer and makes it back safely, is generally considered to be this. From the Chaser's perspective, this also includes anybody who isn't good at all to ''guess'' their entire way back home.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: In the Final Chase on one of the celebrity editions, Mark Labbett got a question he had no idea about (on ''Series/CoronationStreet'' with one second to go, and immediately conceded the whole round and congratulated the team rather than passing.
%%* KubrickStare: Shaun generally slips into this during the Final Chase if the team start gaining the upper hand.
%%* LampshadeHanging: How Paul gets the occasional answer. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjSFwjmLPDM An example.]]
* LargeHam: Mark is the most expressive of the Chasers, and his face contorts to a very obvious display of disappointment if he missed a question he thinks he knows. He was much more of a ham on the U.S. version, sometimes pounding his desk when he lost.
%%* LittleKnownFacts: Paul occasionally throws these in when he explains an answer, with the others also doing this on occasion. It works as a rare interesting form of {{padding}} if the show is running fast.
* LosingHorns: Inverted. If the horn sounds on the Final Chase, it's a win for the team.
** On ''Beat the Chasers'', this is played both ways, if the horn sounds during the Chasers' turn, the player wins and vice-versa.
* MixedMetaphor: The opening spiel includes the line "There's just one thing standing in their way: the Chaser". Well are they standing in their way, or chasing them?
* {{Narcissist}}: Discussed. During the introduction for the Chasers, Andrew O'Keefe enjoys pointing out how much Brydon "The Shark" Coverdale is in love with himself.
* NightmareRetardant: [[invoked]] Discussed in one of the Australian episodes, where a contestant expresses her fangirl crush on Goliath. The latter is not happy that someone finds his effort to be scary and intimidating as "cute".
* NintendoHard: The questions can often be ''brutally'' difficult compared to other game shows. Amplified by the fact The Chase gives ''far'' lower amounts of money than other game shows unless the players go for the even harder high offers, especially the "Super" Offers on the U.S. version, which required a 7-answer FlawlessVictory to just stay in the game if taken (unless the Chaser missed a question).
** [[UpToEleven Taken even further]] on ''Beat the Chasers'' as you don't have the luxury of a team to back you up. Not only that, but to play for a higher payout, you have to give the chasers a higher safety net by allowing more chasers into the game with more time on their side of the clock.
* NonStandardGameOver: Used in the Cash Builder on ''Beat the Chasers''. Miss the very first question, and you're out the door with nothing.
%%**This is due to the fact that the Cash Builder ends either when you get a question wrong or you get all five right - and the first offer is always facing two Chasers for the money you got from the Cash Builder.
* NotSoAboveItAll: The Chasers' typical Stoic Mastermind schtick fails on a couple of occasions. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctVGRgNt0e8 Example]].
* NumberOfTheBeast: Bradley often mentions Mark's exact height when he appears. He's 6'6".
* ObviousRulePatch: In the first two series, if the Chaser missed a question of the Final Chase while still at the starting line, they couldn't be pushed back. From series three onwards, the team can instead move ahead by giving a correct answer in this situation.
* PetTheDog: There were two examples from Mark Labbett in a June 2010 edition: after one player only earnt £4,000 in the cash builder round, she decided to gamble and take his higher offer of £26,000. Despite losing, he applauded her for being the bravest contestant he'd ever faced. At the end of the show, the two remaining contestants built up a 26-step Final Chase, but he caught them with 3 seconds to go, and he apologised to and praised the contestants.
* PowerTrio: The chasers on the 2021 ABC version -- three ''Jeopardy!'' champions with seven-figure winnings totals.
* PunnyName: Darragh Ennis's nickname is the Menace. Which makes him [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUK D Ennis the Menace]].
* RedBaron: All the Chasers have [[IHaveManyNames several]] titles to make them appear more intimidating.
** From the original UK show:
*** The Beast, the Man-Mountain of Maths - Mark Labbett (the only chaser to appear on the first four seasons of the American version)
*** The Dark Destroyer, the Legal Eagle - Shaun Wallace
*** The Governess, Frosty-Knickers - Anne Hegerty
*** The Sinnerman, the Smiling Assassin - Paul Sinha
*** The Vixen, the Bolton Brainiac - Jenny Ryan
*** The Menace - Darragh Ennis
** From the Australian version:
*** Goliath, Colossus - Matt Parkinson
*** The Shark - Brydon Coverdale
*** Supernerd - Issa Schultz
*** Tiger Mum - Cheryl Toh
** From the American version:
*** The Professor - Ken Jennings
*** The Buzzsaw - Brad Rutter
*** The High Roller - James Holzhauer
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrkQPC3XiXQ&t=28m35s Season 3 Episode 9]], contestant Steve's [[EasyModeMockery low offer]] was ''negative £2,000''; in the Beast's words this was to "prevent him from stabbing his team in the back". Steve actually accepts the negative offer, and is chased down within five questions, [[EnemyMine much to the glee of his team]].
%%* RulesSpiel
* RunningGag: The GSN version includes lots of digs at Labbett's weight - many of them by him.
-->'''Contestant''': You may be an expert quizzer, but I could beat you in a race.\\
'''Beast''': Not if it's to the cake trolley, you couldn't.
** In the ABC version, Rutter and Holzhauer will take jabs at Jennings for his popularity, especially when the subject of Jeopardy comes up.
* SelfDeprecation: All the Chasers to some extent.
--> '''Anne''' ''[on [[ItMakesSenseInContext the image of her as a pole dancer]]]'': Terrifying image, isn't it?
* SchmuckBait: Those United States "Super Offers" that started at a guaranteed $150,000 and went up were really tempting, but anyone who took this was asking to be eliminated unless they were as smart as the Chaser due to there being no room for error on this ruleset.[[note]](The player only got a one-step head start and needed seven correct answers to bank the cash.)[[/note]] Throughout the US show's five-season run, no one accepted the "Super Offer". And even if they did go for it, they still needed to win the Final Chase or it was all for naught.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Anne Hegerty, "The Governess", was the only female chaser until Jenny Ryan joined the UK roster in 2015. She was the sole female chaser in the Australian version until the occasional addition of the Tiger Mum from 2019 (who herself practically became a regular in the meantime). Toh is currently one, as she's the only female Chaser in the Australian version due to the coronavirus situation preventing Hegerty (and also Labett) from gaining a work visa for Australia.
* SmugSnake: In one episode, a young man named David, fourth on the podium, spent the whole show encouraging the other contestants to take the low offer. Paul Sinha was infuriated by both this and his mocking of the Chaser's banter, but when David was left alone, he gave him the chance to put his money where his mouth was and offered £40k after a mere £3k cash build up. He took it, got it, and came very close to beating Sinha in the final chase, earning himself a standing ovation from a genuinely impressed Chaser.
** There have been many contestants over the show's run who proudly drop that they play in pub quizzes, only to learn the hard way that The Chase is a ''very'' different ball game regarding the question difficulty and the caliber of the Chasers.
* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: The "Running out of Time" variant pops in up in the Final Chase. Additional instruments are added as time goes on. It starts with a beat, with instruments added with about 1:33, 1:07, and :30 seconds left to go.
* SpeedRound: The whole show, essentially.
** Each contestant starts with the Cash Builder Round, where they must answer as many questions as possible in 60 seconds.
** The Individual Chase round has five-second time limits for each question, the countdown starting when either the contestant or the Chaser answers first.
** The Final Chase is a two-minute round of rapid-fire questions, first for the contestants, and then for the presiding Chaser.
** The head-to-head in ''Beat the Chasers'', with alternating questions to both sides (contestant and Chasers) and a separate clock for each.
* SpinOff: The ''Beat the Chasers'' specials, which began airing April 2020. One contestant builds up a prize pot, then decides how many Chasers (from two to all five) to face at once in a timed showdown of alternating quick-fire questions. More Chasers equals more money, but also more time on their clock. The ''Beat the Chasers'' format was so successful that it began to expand internationally as a separate program later that year. The Australian version, the first to feature a tournament format, premiered in November 2020; versions of the program in Finland and the Netherlands have also been announced. The Netherlands version, which is entitled ''Beat the Champions'', would be the first international version of the program to air in a country that did not have a localized version of its parent show.
* SpiritualSuccessor: The ABC version is being framed as one to Series/{{Jeopardy}}, with the Chasers being the show’s three greatest champions, inspired by their camaraderie in the ''G.O.A.T Tournement'' of 2020. This is summarized poignantly with its opening dedication to Creator/AlexTrebek.
%%* TheStoic: Ostensibly, the Chasers are this. Shaun more than the others.
* StudioAudience: Only in the Celebrity versions, the ''Beat the Chasers'' specials and the first four seasons of the US version. A laugh track is added to normal shows. A few foreign versions actually have live studio audiences (Australia) and they are as useless as ever as on any game show barring ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaireMillionaire''. A few versions (the Croatian and the Serbian ones) don't even bother with the canned reactions and just film without any outside reactions besides the usual host-contestant-Chaser banter and the background music.
* SuddenlySignificantRule: On the Game Show Network run in the US, the five-second shot clock in the Individual Chases. If Brooke said something to the effect of, “Remember, you and the Beast must lock in within five seconds of each other” before the first Individual Chase, it was almost certain that one of the contestants (usually the first contestant) would get locked out by the time limit. Averted on the UK version, because unlike the Game Show Network version, there is a [[SongsInTheKeyOfPanic short piece of music that kicks in immediately when someone enters their answer.]]
* SwappedRoles: The premise of ''Beat the Chasers''. It's one contestant against the team of Chasers, how many he or she faces is up to them.
* TakeThat: On the US version, Mark chastised a contestant for not knowing what 2^3 + 3^3 is (even though the contestant got it right). Even though Mark is a math genius, he downsized the contestant further saying "My second grade students should know that. If they don't, I'll have words with them."
* ThatCameOutWrong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxKbDXRHESc Tom and the Great Big Sausage.]]
--> '''Paul''': Is that the one where he had an accident with his chocolate factory, Bradley?
* TitleDrop: The GameShowHost typically opens the episode by saying "''The Chase'' is on".
* {{Whammy}}: The Chaser's low offer can be anything below what the player won in the previous round, including negative figures. (This also means that if the player won nothing, a rarity, a minus cash offer will definitely be the low option, even if there's nothing in the bank[[note]] This has happened at least once, and in this scenario, the negative figure would be a cash penalty that would be applied to the final bank total prior to the Final Chase[[/note]].) This is an unusual iteration of this trope, as the player can refuse it.
** Averted on ''Beat the Chasers''; the base offer (to face two Chasers) is always whatever amount the player won in the Cash Builder, and it grows with every additional Chaser. [[NonStandardGameOver Unless they got the first question wrong...]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Often happens when a player takes the low offer (especially if it's a negative amount, which sometimes leads to the other players rooting for ''the Chaser.''). ''[[DesignatedVillain Especially]]'' [[DesignatedVillain if they previously encouraged everybody else to go high or have themselves earned a lot of money in their Cash Builder, proving they can do it]].
** One example is a lady who took an offer of ''minus £11,000'', after encouraging everyone else to go high all game.
--> '''Bradley''': What does YOLO stand for, again?
--> '''Both safe contestants, ''and'' Anne''': [[IronicEcho You only live once.]]
** Note that sometimes, this can be inverted and the player may be encouraged to take the low or even negative offer. This is generally acceptable if the extra body will give them another step ahead of the Chaser in the Final Chase, they can afford to take the low/negative offer, a previous contestant has been eliminated and/or they aren't that good.
* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwGFX5pgXw Fanny Chmelar.]] (Also counts as BilingualBonus.)
-->'''Bradley''': I'd be straight down the court in the morning if that was my name!
----

The original two Chasers were Mark Labbett ("The Beast") and Shaun Wallace ("The Dark Destroyer"), with Anne Hegerty ("The Governess") joining in 2010, followed by Paul Sinha ("The Sinnerman") in 2011 and Jenny Ryan ("The Vixen") in 2015. All five are renowned quizzers of a similar calibre to ''Eggheads'', including a ''Series/{{Mastermind}}'' winner in the form of Wallace.[[note]](In fact, all five have competed on ''Are You an Egghead?'', with Wallace reaching the Series 1 final and Hegerty reaching the Series 2 semi-finals; Labbett and Ryan even faced each other in Series 1 (Ryan won), as did Hegerty and Ryan in Series 2 (Hegerty won).)[[/note]] Darragh Ennis, who appeared as a contestant in 2017, became the show's sixth Chaser in 2020. A primetime spin-off, ''Beat the Chasers'', also launched that year, featuring singular contestants competing in a timed, head-to-head duel against multiple Chasers.

--> '''Mark''': [higher offer] says you can't beat me.

** On the ''Beat the Chasers'' specials, all five Chasers wear black outfits with red accents - and they absolutely ''do not'' mess around once the head-to-head round starts.

** Played straight on the Final Chase when the Chaser gets the question wrong, giving the players a chance to push him back (or, if the Chaser isn't on the board, advance one step).
** Subverted in the Personal Chase, as taking the extra turn lowers the player's potential prize.