One of The Chase’s brainy Chasers took to Twitter yesterday to vehemently defend the ITV show after viewers accused the final of being “fixed”.
Anne Hegarty, nicknamed the Governess, denied contestants Peter and Warjinder £60,000 after she beat their score of 20 in the final chase on yesterday evening’s show.
The pair had managed to push her back so she needed two correct answers to catch them with seven seconds remaining.
Anne managed to do this at the very last moment – but some viewers thought she was given extra time.
They noticed that the timer appeared to freeze with one second to go, giving Anne the opportunity to get her final correct answer in and stop Peter and Warjinder gaining the huge cash prize.
Presenter Bradley Walsh couldn’t believe how close it was.
“Oh my goodness, one second on the clock!” he exclaimed as Anne claimed victory.
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He then told the disappointed contestants: “I am so sorry I have to take away £60,000. You have been caught and The Chase is over. It doesn’t get more exciting than that, right down to the wire.”
The pair took the defeat well, with Warjinder congratulating Anne’s performance, telling her: “well done Anne, you were on a roll!”
Anne told them they were worthy opponents and she was “very relieved” to win.
But while Peter and Warjinder were gracious losers, viewers at home were outraged on their behalf – and took to Twitter to say they thought they were cheated out of the prize money by the slow moving timer.
“Sorry @itv but that final second was WAY longer than the previous ones #Fix #TheChase,” one wrote.
Another said: “And they say gameshows arnt fixed? Would of won £60k too, that has to be the longest 1 second remaining ever! @ITV #thechase #fix”
A third agreed, saying: “Biggest fix on TV #TheChase. You have absolutely robbed warjinder and peter there you snakes, give them their cheques @ITVChase #fix #thechase.”
A fourth wrote: “@PotatoITV will you be giving these contestants £30k each as you clearly fixed this! How long is a #thechase second as clearly longer than a normal one! #fix #notthefirsttimethishashappened @Ofcom will you look into this?”
Anne so overwhelmed with tweets sent directly to her over the issue that she responded to defend the show.
She said that the footage viewers saw was actually a re-take, as the wrong music had been played when she won the round fair and square in the first take.
“The last couple of seconds were a retake, for technical reasons, of a Final Chase I had ALREADY WON. The contestants understood this. I watched the adjudicator explain it to them,” she wrote.
She explained that when an ending is that close, the sound engineer responsible for playing the music can sometimes press the wrong button – and play the melody that denotes the contestants have won, instead of the tune that means The Chaser was victorious.
Anne said this is what happened on this occasion, and as she had answered the question in the first take with half a second to spare, they then had to reshoot with the correct music played, after the adjudicator was satisfied Anne had indeed won.
Anne said the retake and subsequent edit meant the clock had appeared slow when it was broadcast, but at the time it was all legit.
She wrote: “When an ending’s that close, they sometimes bring in wrong music. Then, after adjudicator checks tape and confirms Chaser win, they have to retake the end with right music. Sometimes timing’s a little different because we’re not machines. But win is fair.”
Anne had to carry on defending this position as viewers continued to tweet her to say they only “believed their own eyes” when it came to what they saw on the show, and didn’t believe she won fairly.
“But your own eyes are not showing you the ORIGINAL last second, which ended up on the cutting room floor owing to the music issue,” she explained again.
She added in response to another complainer: “Because, as I’ve explained, the ending you saw was not the original ending. In that one, I won with about half a second to go. Then we had to retake it for purely technical reasons, not to change the result.”
She said that it was completely fair as the “adjudicator will have spent about five minutes examining the tape, winding it back and forth.”
Soon Anne showed why she’s developed a reputation as “the Governess” who is not to be messed with, as she became exasperated with the continued tweets crying “fix”.
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“I am SICK of replying to people about this. Look for my replies yourself,” she snapped.
You’ve been told viewers! Anne won fair and square!
Did you see yesterday’s The Chase and believe the contestants were robbed? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think!