'The Chase' May Not Be as Hard to Win as We Thought It Was
Published March 4 2021, 9:16 p.m. ET
ABC’s new game show, The Chase, is actually a revival of its Game Show Network predecessor. The Chase is also based on a British show of the same name, which has been running since 2009. The American version went from 2013 to 2015, and was just recently revived to feature Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, and Brad Rutter as the Chasers. In its three years on American television, has anyone ever won and beat the Chaser?
In The Chase’s first iteration on GSN, the Chaser was one of the U.K. Chasers, Mark “The Beast” Labbett, even though when the show was first pitched to FOX, Brad Rutter was also a contender for the role. The Chase that’s currently on features the Jeopardy! GOATs as rotating Chasers. The premise of the show is that three contestants need to out-trivia the Chaser, although the contestants are given several advantages over the Chasers.
People have won ‘The Chase’ in both U.S. versions.
In the original U.S. version of The Chase, over the course of 51 games, the contestants won 16 of those games over The Beast. The highest winnings (until this year) actually went to the first team that beat The Beast, in The Chase’s second episode. Heather, Cory, and Jonathan went head to head with The Beast for a total of $180,000 split between the three of them.
Another notable winning contestant of The Chase was James Holzhauer himself, who played against The Beast in September of 2014. James took home $58,333, which was from a larger pot split with his co-contestants Jeff and Jamie. Although it was a team effort, The Beast actually tweeted that James was the best player to ever play The Chase, and the producers reportedly asked him to try out to be a Chaser, before he ever became a Jeopardy! champ.
In the current iteration of The Chase, there have actually been several winners. Of the seven episodes that have already aired, the contestants have won four of those games, giving them a higher win percentage than their Chasers.
Ken Jennings has actually never won ‘The Chase.’
Ken Jennings is considered *the* Jeopardy! GOAT, having won the GOAT tournament against Brad and James. However, in the world of The Chase, Ken is apparently not as hard to beat. In the very first episode of the new iteration of The Chase, contestants James and Kristen beat Ken, taking home $72,500 each, noticeably higher than any previous U.S. winnings.
However, as The Chase continued on, the stakes grew higher and higher. The next game won by the contestants was against The Chase GOAT himself, James Holzhauer. Contestants Daniel and Michael each won $162,500, the highest winnings per person ever on The Chase, at least in the U.S.
We can’t leave out Brad, though! Contestants Karen, Julio, and Alan won against Brad, with the highest total winnings so far at $400,000 to be split between the three of them.
It all comes back to Ken though, who lost his second Chase out of two total, bringing Ken to a win percentage of virtually 0 percent. Jen, George, and Eric beat Ken in the Feb. 11 episode of The Chase, collectively winning $350,000.
As it turns out, quite a few people have won The Chase over its three year history, but it’s worth noting that the contestants have definite advantages over the geniuses we love to watch.
The Chase two-hour season finale airs March 4 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.