The Aussie game show The Chase has achieved overwhelming success, with the series recently receiving the highest ratings out of every entertainment show on TV.
The show, hosted by Larry Emdur, appeared on Seven in 2015, and consistently rises above its direct rival, Nine’s Hot Seat with Eddie McGuire, proving victorious in 2022 after winning 40 weeks with a total audience of 829,000.
By May 23, it attracted the largest audience of all TV entertainment programs, including those in the 7:30pm prime time slot.
The Chase, which airs at 5pm, saw a staggering 567,000 viewers across the five-city metro rankings on May 23, well ahead of Hot Seat, which raked in 408,000.
It also beat some of the other prime time broadcasts, including Ten’s MasterChef Australia, which aired to 427,000 households. Seven’s Highway Patrol that received 350,000, ABC’s 7:30 report which came in at 438,000 and Nine’s new reality show The Summit, which had 395,000 viewers.
Additionally, The Chase trumped The Project, which aired at 7pm to 307,000 viewers. The only programs that were ahead of The Chase were the Seven and Nine early evening news bulletins and A Current Affair.
Emdur, who took over on the show in 2021 after former host Andrew O’Keefe’s contract wasn’t renewed, celebrated the show’s huge win on Instagram.
He shared a photo of his TV screen showing one of the Chasers, ‘The Governess’ Anne Hegerty, and thanked fans of the show for tuning in each afternoon.
“Thank you for making The Chase the number 1 Entertainment show in Australia [Tuesday] night,” he wrote.
“We had a bigger audience between 5-6pm than the big dogs in prime time, that makes me a very proud old game show host bimbo.”
And its success over the “big dogs” wasn’t a one-off, with The Chase once again trumping the ratings over prime time programs on May 25 with 543,000 viewers, ahead of MasterChef (390,000), Nine’s NRL coverage (338,000) and Home And Away (451,000).
The show’s success comes amid reports that channel Nine is testing new formats in its 5pm slot to bump up the competition.
In April, the network denied rumours that Hot Seat was being cut, despite putting out casting calls for new game shows.
The series started airing in 2009 as a spin-off of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? which McGuire also hosted from 1999 until 2006.
However, a recent casting call fuelled rumours Hot Seat could be axed to make way for a local version of the hit UK game show Tipping Point, which airs on Nine at 3pm.
An official call-out from Endemol Shine Australia, the production company that makes Tipping Point, was released on Twitter in April, revealing the show was filming “Australian episodes” in the UK.
A move to record local episodes of Tipping Point follows similar plans from Nine to make Aussie episodes of US quiz show Jeopardy!
The network confirmed in April that British comedian Stephen Fry would host a six-part special featuring Australian contestants. Production is currently underway in Manchester, UK.
TV Blackbox editor Robert McKnight suggested the new program offerings from Nine could become a temporary “stunt” in Hot Seat’s time slot to “test the waters” among viewers.
Image credit: Instagram / Getty
