Bradley Walsh has confessed he cheated in order to get The Chase made as he squared off against some of the boffins in a make-or-break contest before the show ever began airing.
The 61-year-old host has been the presenter of The Chase ever since it started airing way back in 2009 – and also presides over there celebrity special editions of the show, and the Beat The Chasers spin-off.
On the show, members of the public for teams of four in the hopes of winning a cash prize by answering general knowledge questions against one of the chasers – Mark ‘The Beast’ Labbett, Shaun ‘The Dark Destroyer’ Wallace, Anne ‘The Governess’ Hegerty, Paul ‘The Sinnerman’ Sinha, Jenny ‘The Vixen’ Ryan or Darragh ‘The Menace’ Ennis.
But during the pilot making point of the hit show, Bradley put his future on the line by taking on one of the chasers for a round himself and said the show could only be made into a full series if he won – as show makers believed the Chasers would be too intelligent for anyone to win against.
Confessing all on Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp on Monday, Bradley said: “I’ve gotta fess up as well.
“When we first did the job, the only two choices that were first there were actually The Beast and The Dark Destroyer, right? And we were doing an office run through, and this is to get the job up and running.
“And I said ‘this is ludicrous. these questions are so easy.’ And they said ‘what do you think you could beat the Chaser?’
“I said ‘if I beat the Chaser, we'll make a series, let's do that.’ And they went ‘yeah, alright, if you can beat the Chaser.’ Because they thought that general public won't be able to beat these gurus, right?
“And I went ‘Oh I'll definitely beat them, if I can beat them, we’ll make the series, alright?’”
Bradley went on: “And this is absolutely true - what they didn't realise was the sheets with the questions and the answers on were lying face down on my end of the desk, I could see the print through and I could read the answers backwards and I read them.
“So every time they come in on the head to head as if they were at the table, I’d smash both of them.
“And as I walked away, I took the piece of paper and put it on the the other table so no one saw it. So I'd actually cheated.”
Bradley’s ballsy move paid off for everyone as The Chase has gone on to be one of ITV ’s biggest hits.
The show airs weeknights on the main ITV channel and has spawned five spin-offs and has also been replicated in 19 other countries around the world including Australia and the USA.
So far, over 1,860 episodes have aired in the UK – while the show has made stars of the six high IQ Chasers, including Anne Hegaerty who went on to be a contestant on I’m A Celeb in 2018.
