Happy Anniversary The Chase!

The Chase is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary today with a special ‘Double Trouble’ show even though, er, its birthday was the 29th June. Still though, congrats to one of the most successful formats of the modern era, a tight quiz with a loose sense of humour.

Of course a look back in the archives suggest we weren’t quite so enamoured with it initially, as the post on the 29th June 2009 will attest (sadly the old comments were under a different system which has since disappeared) as it only managed “a little bit great” on the Jim Bowen Great-o-meter, although illustrating it with a picture of Lorraine Chase was quite funny. Hopefully this quote from 10th September won’t ever see the light of day again as it would probably be faintly embarrassing for the writer:

This is worthy of a wider mention I think, thanks to Milky Jack for pointing out this article in Broadcast Now suggesting that The Chase and Divided are set to come back for longer runs.

I sort of feel sorry for The Fuse, I think it’s probably the better format (although both are not brilliant, The Chase could do with a little polishing in that regard), but if you will insist on whooping contestants and Austin Healy…

It’s a shame there’s no sign of Spin Star, we were going to apply for it. Shouty Balls is unlikely to return.

As I always like to point out around The Chase’s birthday, in an alternate universe Austin Healy is the biggest name in light entertainment, the story was that two ITV departments got two weeks to air their own teatime quiz and the one that did the best would get a full commission. You can read what we thought about The Fuse on the 13th July post, although crikey if we thought it was better it certainly doesn’t come across.