Cliff Notes – Viewers rage as contestant’s ‘correct’ answer is rejected
- During a recent episode of The Chase, host Bradley Walsh rejected a contestant’s answer of "hijacked" for the question about the term "carjack," insisting the correct response was "hijack."
- Viewers expressed their frustration on social media, deeming the decision overly pedantic and questioning the fairness of the ruling.
The Chase viewers rage as contestant’s ‘correct’ answer is rejected
Bradley Walsh pulled up a contestant during Wednesday’s show (Picture: Kieron McCarron/REX/Shutterstock)
Fans of The Chase have raged online after a ‘correct’ answer given by a contestant was rejected by host Bradley Walsh for a pedantic reason.
The ITV quiz show, which started in 2009, sees four players aiming to land a huge prize jackpot by answering more questions than the show’s experts, aka Chasers.
It’s meant to be a tough quiz to crack, with hundreds of contestants not having the requisite knowledge to take home the big prize.
But one viewer was denied a point by Bradley, 64, during Wednesday’s episode, despite giving a ‘correct’ answer during the tense final round, which sees contestants answering quick-fire questions to stay ahead of the chaser.
Facing off against chaser Darragh Ennis, aka The Menace, teammates Gary, Sarah, Ailsa, and George took a fair chunk of money into the final round.
Their total was £48,000, and that was after George took the minus £9,000 offer, knocking his team’s potential takings down from a whopping £14,250 each.
George, Ailsa, Sarah, and Gary were up against chaser The Menace (Picture: ITV)
But their impressive game hit an unexpected stumbling block when George answered a question ‘correctly’, only to be told by Bradley that he’d given the wrong answer after all.
When he was asked, ‘The term “carjack” is a blend of “car” and what other word?’ George confidently answered that the other word was ‘hijacked’.
Expecting to be given the point, the hopefuls were denied it and were eventually caught by The Menace with very little between the two sides.
George was right but he was also wrong… (Picture: ITV)
Bradley Walsh wanted ‘hijack’ rather than ‘hijacked’ (Picture: ITV)
Bradley then explained that the answer George was actually looking for was ‘hijack’ – which, admittedly, is a different word, even if it is incredibly similar.
After initially explaining this to the team, the Blankety Blank and Gladiators presenter added: ‘Bad luck with hijacked! You needed hijack.’
However, viewers at home were less than happy with the result, with several taking to social media to lodge their complaints over the incident.
Reacting on X, Swalk commented, ‘Hijack – that was harsh!’ while Jonty Sapier also complained with an expletive-laden post accompanied by an angry face emoji.
Also unhappy was Rob Smith, who said, ‘Hijack … Hijacked. This show is getting [worse] every day,’ while Bye Horse was dumbfounded: ‘Hijacked instead of hijack? [No chance]!’
No matter how righteous the viewers’ anger was, The Chase is known to be a rock-solid quiz show; hence, it is still one of the most popular on TV, pulling in 3-5million viewers every day as of 2024.
In fact, it’s been watched by so many people over the years that some viewers think they’ve spotted how to work out the conclusion to each episode.
Fans think that when the Chaser is allowed to explain the thinking behind their answer, it indicates that the final round might be about to be cut very short by a victorious Chaser.
‘There’s a lot of waffle in this episode, does that mean the final chase is going to be over very quickly?’, Jason posted on X while watching the quiz play out in February.
‘The way in which *everyone* is talking the hind legs off a donkey here suggests a target of about three in the Final Chase and a lot of time to have to fill,’ user Mysterion_Voice commented.
Watch episodes of The Chase on ITV and ITVX.