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I watched an episode of “The Chase” yesterday. In the final round, Mark Labbett was asked “In boxing, a southpaw leads with which hand?”
Labbett answered “left”, which is incorrect. Which meant Bradley Walsh stopped the clock and asked the same question to the team to see if they could answer correctly and push the chaser back a step.
What else could they answer? It seemed a bit unfair on the chaser. Questions in that final round should not be a 50/50 choice!
Yes that does seem a bit much! When it’s something like ‘which decade’ the Chaser is likely to be close with their incorrect guess so they are giving you a clue if you don’t know but at least there are two sides you can go.
There was another name one recently where the unfortunate contestant said ‘Alan Titmarsh’ but in fairness the Chaser was similarly close later on with their answer which also wasn’t given so it does seem that it is consistent.
I saw another Chase classic on Saturday. One of the contestants was asked in the cash builder round “The tragedy written by John Webster is ‘The Duchess Of’ what?”
The contestant answered “Of Malfi” and Bradley Walsh replied “No, Malfi”. If you watched closely, there was a slightly awkward edit which suggests the clock had been stopped and the lawyers consulted.
I thought it was very harsh. It is quite clear what the contestant meant. When Anne Hegerty took her seat on the Chaser’s podium, she remarked it was “unlucky” – which sounded like a coded way of saying she disagreed with the decision.
That’s ridiculous, only the meanest of lawyers/adjudicators could refuse that. I hope they either won, or lost by more than one.
I’m sure Paxo has accepted questions answered in that way on University Challenge so if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for The Chase.
It was in the cash builder, so it did not affect the final chase. But it meant there was £1,000 less in the bank.
If I had been the contestant, I would have been fuming and tempted to walk out.
Yes I’d be tempted to do the same. I’m sure an unusable episode would cost them a lot more than a grand so you’re in front if you walk off.
On an episode of “The Chase” tonight, a contestant was asked in the cash builder round “In horse racing, the fillies triple crown is comprised of the 1,000 Guineas, the St Leger and which other race?” The contestant quickly said “pass”.
I suppose it was a niche question. However, the contestant scored £9,000 in the cash builder. That is a well above average score. Only contestants with very good general knowledge get that sort of total, so it was little disappointing he had not even heard of what was once a famous race.
Later on, another contestant was asked “Red Alligator and Red Marauder won which famous horse race?” She looked very unsure but said “The Grand National”, presumably the only horse race she had ever heard of. They all count!
I wonder if “The Great National,” “The Grand Nation,” or “The National Express” would have been deemed close enough to be the correct answer – the day is coming.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"£9k is a great total, can’t have got much else wrong. Even if they’re quick I don’t think they usually get more than 10 or 11 questions in. Perhaps thrown by the word ‘fillies’?
As you say, clearly a very good player and I’m surprised they didn’t at least try saying the Derby (or even the National!) The quiz show strategist in me hates the ‘pass’, particularly if the question is something like ‘what colour?’ or ‘which planet?’. Just say one and you might be right. Be careful though or you’ll end up in Private Eye’s ‘Dumb Britain’.
The “pass” is a bad decision in “Mastermind” when in the event of a tie the contestant with the fewest passes is declared the winner. If a contestant does not know the answer, they should just say anything random instead.
I am sure there was one contestant who said “Smith” instead of pass but he was not much good and did not win.
I think the theory in Mastermind is that passing allows you to move on to the next question quicker as the host doesn’t tell you the answer there and then. The questions are generally quite long winded though so I can’t imagine it makes much difference in practice. If you pass enough to get an extra question in, I can’t imagine you’d be troubling the winner’s enclosure anyway. They don’t seem to be allowed to interrupt either.
Latest one from “The Chase”:
Bradley Walsh: Which racehorse surpassed Sea Bird’s Timeform rating in 2012?
Contestant: Pass
I suppose I should not be disappointed. Although when Walsh told the contestant the answer was Frankel, he looked annoyed with himself which suggested he had at least heard of the horse.
Presumably it wasn’t Bob Champion from the celebrity episode that I just caught the end of!
Latest from “The Chase”:
Bradley Walsh: The oldest of the five classic horse races is run at which racecourse?
Contestant: Aintree
In fairness it’s not one you’re going to guess right if you don’t know, and at least they didn’t pass! Fairly standard pub quiz trivia though and they could at least have guessed a flat course.
I saw the very end of Pointless today, their adjudicators are clearly more lenient than those on The Chase. They had to identify any player who had capitaned either side in at least one Ashes Test and had the standard three chances to win. The first two were close but no cigar with two and one point respectively.
For their last answer they clearly said Pat Cummings but it was put up as Pat Cummins, he was a pointless answer and they won. I am not convinced that would have got past The Chase’s legal people.
The same contestant then had a racing question as the first in her head to head against Paul Sinha:
“Why could the Queen not present the trophy for the Ascot Gold Cup in 2013?”
A: She was abroad
B: She was unwell
C: She owned the winnerThe contestant chose A. Sinha got it right.
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