The Chase UK has earned a strong New Zealand fanbase since it debuted on our screens in 2012. What's the appeal?
A national obsession and appointment viewing, Emma Gleason wonders what’s behind it all.
An entrée to the 6pm news and a national pastime, what is it about British quiz show The Chase UK that has up to 10% of Kiwis tuning in?
Launching in the United Kingdom in 2009, the quiz show is now 17 seasons in, and its cast of formidable characters include Mark “The Beast” Labbett, Anne “The Governess” Hegerty and Paul “The Sinnerman” Sinha.
It hit New Zealand screens for the first time in December 2012, airing on Saturday afternoons, before moving to weekday mornings. By July 2014 it had secured 4.30pm, before moving to the coveted 5pm slot. In 2020 it began airing seven days a week, fortuitously timed as the country moved into our first Covid-19 lockdown on March 21.
We became glued to our screens (there wasn’t much else to do) and daily routines centred around government briefings and 6pm news broadcasts. Between them was The Chase UK.
“It trended upward 6.9% since the start of April 2020, the first full month of lockdown in NZ,” confirmed TVNZ, and growth has been steady over the time since, trending upward around 30.9% since it first moved to that all-important 5pm slot in 2016.
How does viewership stack up now, are people still tuning in?
A sizeable cohort sure seems to be. According to numbers* released to the Herald by TVNZ, each show has averaged a reach of 500,600 unique viewers (aged 5+) since April 2024, with 1.5 million unique viewers tuning in each week. Neilsen counts the typical number of people (aged 5+) watching a full episode as 275,000 viewers from July 2023 to July 2024 – a figure that captures new episodes and repeats.
While that 5pm slot is appointment viewing – more on that later – The Chase UK sits at an impressive spot on the TVNZ+ streaming app. “It boasts the second highest reach per day,” a spokesperson told the Herald, who said it reached 36,800** active accounts.
The show racks up numbers in the media too, popular on both traditional and social platforms.
Its stars make headlines, as much for the on-screen drama as the highs and lows of their private lives.
Local appearances go viral; Shaun “The Dark Destroyer” Wallace’s January visit, his third trip to New Zealand, included a surprise appearance at an Auckland pub quiz. His movements were tracked on Reddit, pictures were taken and posted proudly on social media.
Canvassing some local fans – an admittedly small sample size – revealed some motivations for watching.
Lorna declined to be labelled obsessed but described herself as a big fan. “There are few (if any) other shows that I have watched so much and as consistently.”
She was hooked from the first time she watched the show. She and fellow fans used to live-tweet during the show “back when Twitter was fun”. Her biggest drawcard is host Bradley Walsh, who is “hilarious and the consummate professional”. She “can’t bear” the Australian version of the show.
Its format is democratic, explains Dan. “The questions are great! Most are actually answerable by normal people – you don’t have to have an extreme general knowledge to do well along with the TV, and if you get it wrong, the next question comes so quick you don’t care,” he says.
“Unlike other quiz shows, the contestants don’t compete against each other, they compete against the show itself,” The fact that most episodes don’t end with a win isn’t disheartening for him. “It makes the episodes where the players DO win so great because who doesn’t love it when the apparent underdog takes down a quizzing legend?!”
Those legends are part of the appeal. The Dark Destroyer is Ralph’s favourite. “I am fairly certain – as in I am sure I’ve seen it reported in the Herald – he has the lowest success rates of all the chasers, so I feel I’ve got a chance against him,” he says. “He also just seems like a really nice guy, really down-to-earth.”
Wallace isn’t the lone reason Ralph watches The Chase UK though. “It’s mainly because it’s fun to test my knowledge, and it’s always funny when my pride gets ahead of me and I end up getting questions really badly wrong.”
The show’s 5pm timeslot is a daily routine for Eilish, who makes a cup of tea, sits down for an hour to “destress” and feeds the cats during the ad breaks. She likes to play along. “I always feel so clever when I get the answers in before the chaser and even more so if it’s correct!”
Jason Tikao moonlights as a quiz host (he’s also the nights announcer for Coast radio station) and understands the appeal. “Quiz formats are enduringly appealing because at its base level, when you watch that show, you put yourself in the shoes of the contestants, and you answer those same questions, and if the contestant gets one wrong that you know the answer to, it just makes you feel good, feel smart. It’s an instant gratification. And instant gratification will always endure.”
Tikao agrees Kiwis have an affinity for trivia. “Pub quizzes are as big as they have ever been,” he says. “What you find at these quizzes is a real sense of community.”
And with so much knowledge only a Google search away, taking things offline, or on-screen in The Chase, is refreshing. “It’s that ability to remember that random sporting moment from 1985, or who sang that song from 1992,” he says. “You pull that one out of the memory banks and you are a hero for a fleeting moment.”
There are parallels between real-life trivia events and their television counterparts. “The Chase has all the elements of a pub quiz, but with the added jeopardy of a genuine smart person chasing you and your team down,” he says. “They both have the same appeal, how smart am I? That thrill of knowing answers to questions is universal.”
The Chasers are unique, all with symbolic nicknames (and a secret Whatsapp group) and are part of what makes the show so engrossing.
“I think we love the characterisation of the villainous experts,” says Rebecca Trelease, a senior lecturer at AUT.
And the banter, that Lorna loves.
“I think that works really well for New Zealand audiences,” Trelease says. “We don’t take ourselves that seriously.”
It brings everyone on the show down to our level, she explains, which is appealing to the general public.
The contestants are a varied bunch, spanning a wide range of backgrounds and demographics in a way that’s representative of society. Trelease says the show gives us enough about them for viewers to form an idea of their identity, pass judgment, and then be surprised at what they know.
How does the format work to keep people hooked?
It helps that you can dip in and out while cooking dinner, or sit down and be glued to the whole episode. “You know what the cash amount is, you know what the goal that a chaser is going for and the time countdown at the end, it’s so explained,” says Trelease.
The sense of jeopardy, the “can you beat the clock” of it “definitely adds that element of pressure”.
There’s a flow-on effect to watchers at home. “What is really interesting is how it makes us behave with the people with us.” The interaction and participation are engaging. “That’s what’s hooking us if we’re sitting around with our parents and we’re jumping in and answering things,” she says. “It catches the ability to actually encourage the conversation and the interacting between people.”
READ: The Chase question that was so hard it stumped the Chasers – can you answer it?
So much of our media consumption is individualised now, or private, and we live in an age of on-demand streaming, where appointment viewing is increasingly less common.
Perhaps we find comfort in the fact that we’re watching something at the same time as many other people around the country, even if we don’t realise it.
It creates a kind of imagined community when you’re watching, Trelease explains.
“You can feel that you have that bonding, that community with the people on screen, the other people who are watching, we just don’t know who they are.”
Viewers can test their own trivia, or feel amazed at the recall of everyone on show. Does that help us value knowledge more, when we don’t have to remember much because we can google or ask Chat GPT?
“I can absolutely see that as a reason to celebrate and to actually lift up those people who can do that well,” she agrees. “It feels like it’s got more value now.”
*Source: Nielsen TAM; Consolidated; 31/3/24-6/7/24; TVNZ 1*; AP5+; Average Daily Reach, Average Weekly Reach
**Source: Google Analytics; All Activity; 1/4/24-16/7/24; TVNZ+ only; AP; Reach/Streams (VOD), Reach (Simulcast).
Emma Gleason is the Herald’s lifestyle and entertainment deputy editor. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, entertainment and media. Fascinated by our viewing habits, she recently unpacked our obsession with Married at First Sight NZ.
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