For centuries, the communal experience of gathering to determine which individual is the best has driven society to some of its most ingenious ideas. As far as reflecting the plight of the common man, nothing has quite the same impact as a well-constructed game show. As an art form, they’re seemingly disposable, only ever able to appeal in the moment you watch them. The predictability hurts most series’ chances for immortal syndication in the same way that a sitcom would. And yet, there is an art form that has driven the best series for decades, making networks dedicate whole summers to this “cheap” form of entertainment where a (usually) cash prize is offered at the expense of exposure to do parlor tricks whether they be intellectual or physical.
Going into Game Show Theory, I will say that I am not a scholar in the field. I did not go to school, spending hours in the lab determining the formula for what makes a show work. I am merely someone who has been watching them since I was a child, finding what does and doesn’t work. I eagerly await every new show hoping to discover something fresh and exciting. More often than not, they’re at best a B-Tier show that I watch because they’re comforting. However, the quest for perfection is something that I’ve been searching for and have only really found once.
To put it simply, every series that I will explore in this column has to compete with the gold standard of Jeopardy!. It isn’t just the brilliant iconography in set design, music cues, and timeless host Alex Trebek (R.I.P.). It’s in what it accomplishes within a single episode compared to just about everything else. There needs to be pressure when competing for victory, where you’re relying just as much on wits as not buckling under pressure. There are three rounds moving quickly, a need for mathematical skill to be applied to random wagers. If you’re someone with a great personality, you’re even capable of becoming a star outside that half-hour, celebrated for your love of trivia. No game show comes close to capturing so succinctly in every single episode what Jeopardy! does, even in 2021 when they’re cycling through guest hosts who are doing mostly admirable jobs.
That is why I wanted to start with one of ABC’s latest Summertime Game Shows. Back for a second season, The Chase is a British export that fits the bill nicely. Moving to Sunday nights at 9 P.M., the show is structured not unlike Jeopardy!, but with a few clever twists. Whereas the stalwart series is about one winner, The Chase gives contestants a chance to compete as a team, collecting money through challenges both as individuals and as a group. There’s a fun catch to everything: you get to compete against Jeopardy! royalty.
For me personally, The Chase’s biggest appeal is how tied to Jeopardy! it initially was. While the show was not conceived by the same people, the American counterpart was sold on being hosted by Ken Jennings (a.k.a. “The Professor”), Brad Rutter (a.k.a. “The Buzzsaw”), and James Holzhauer (a.k.a. “The Gambler”). Together they highlight the potential success that one can achieve on Jeopardy!, each reflecting personal records held ranging from longest winning streak to highest earnings. They even competed in the only episodes that the Trebek-era Jeopardy! aired in primetime as part of the Greatest of All Time Tournament. If you had to have three hosts for The Chase, this was a pretty good way to go.
For me, The Chase feels like a place where Jeopardy! can offshoot major winners and have some fun challenging new faces for an episode. There’s low commitment and I think a month of random hosts like Buzzy Cohen, Austin Rodgers, or Alan Lin could be used as a serviceable marketing ploy. After all, this is more about feeling like you’re better than Jeopardy! royalty and that’s the biggest appeal of the American version. Given that the trio has had years of chemistry through various gatherings, the show had a natural flow almost immediately and it made season one particularly exciting, even if it fell into some traps of modern day game shows.
At the end of the day, a successful game show is one that feels accessible to the home audience. There has to be some plausibility that the person sitting on their couch can be on the show and stand a chance at the top prize. You dream of being the first person to overcome difficult hurdles, celebrated for craftiness. In this regard, The Chase is perfect while holding enough intimidation. If you don’t know a question, it’s onto the next one. Most people likely won’t even know what’s going to be asked when they attend an episode, meaning that garden variety trivia will come in handy. The thrill of needing to access parts of your brain that are as much about pop culture as they are international diplomacy is something that never goes out of style.
The Chase is broken up into three noteworthy sections. Every episode begins with three individuals paired together to take on the host, a.k.a. “The Chaser.” The goal is to metaphorically outrun them with each round growing more difficult. Each contestant starts by announcer Sara Haines asking as many questions as 60 seconds will allow, establishing a bank that grows $10,000 for each correct answer. There are no deductions, only contestants wincing as they realize seconds too late what the correct answer is. The Chaser may chime in after with a few taunts to undervalue his opponent. For what it’s worth, Jennings, Rutter, and Holzhauer each are witty enough to make even the most debilitating blow an enjoyable transition into the next segment.
From the cumulative wins, the contestant meets The Chaser at a board. They need to travel down a series of rungs to “Bank” while The Chaser starts three rungs behind. To add a twist to this segment, The Chaser will provide cash values that decrease if you move closer to Bank and higher when further. The two hosts who are not The Chaser may chime in from a backstage room with their opinions on each move as if giving the audience insight into how a mastermind truly works. Their eagerness reflects that of the ideal audience member, desperately wanting to see a high stakes game where it comes down to luck. It’s the type of TV that game shows are built on. There needs to be that push, and it’s here that The Chase usually finds its appeal.
Each question during this round is multiple choice. Every right answer for each person moves them closer. If The Chaser catches up, the contestant is automatically eliminated. As many as three can advance, though it’s not uncommon to see everyone eliminated. In this picture, The Chaser caught them early, meaning that nobody won. If even one manages to succeed, they move onto the next round which is called “The Final Chase.”
To be honest, most of what came before qualifies as milquetoast compared to The Final Chase. The first two rounds are more directly trivia and building sympathy for the contestants through personal Q&As, trying to deflect embarrassment with jokes about wrong answers. Everything has moved slowly up to this point, the tension not quite there for the audience. Sure there will be some fun over questions asked, but The Final Chase is where everything ratchets up and suddenly it’s do or die time, where the remaining team must work together to make their final push.
It’s honestly where the show is at its best. First, the contestants are assigned to do two minutes of trivia. Based on the total number of final contestants, they will have extra spaces added (for example: one person equals one extra space). Much like the first round, it’s about answering quickly, acquiring as many spaces from Bank as the contestants can. For those more invested in the Jeopardy! universe, they may be able to determine while this is going on which Chaser will move further down the board faster. Usually, if contestants get above 25 spaces, there’s a good chance they’ll win when The Chaser goes through those two minutes. Otherwise, it’s nail-biting TV that can go one of two ways.
The one twist is that where the contestants aren’t penalized for wrong guesses, The Chaser is. When a question is deemed wrong, Haines will say “Stop the clock!” and allow the contestants to push The Chaser back a square. Do it enough and The Chaser may lose confidence. Still, this isn’t a guarantee that everything is over. To watch The Chaser speed through trivia remains an addictive piece of TV, like watching an encyclopedia flipping to the right paragraph in milliseconds. It plays into the very function of gambling, where the high is much more earned in the uncertainty, where you dream of being the lucky one to escape The Chaser’s grasp. Not everyone will, but it’s thrilling when they do.
The Chase is a really good show and a nice addition to ABC’s Summertime Game Shows. For those looking for a fun way to pass time, maybe picking up a few tidbits of trivia along the way, it’s one of the better options, especially compared to the lighter shows like To Tell the Truth, Celebrity Family Feud, or Match Game. Even among ABC’s current game shows that ask trivia like Card Sharks and Press Your Luck, The Chase is above the rest solely because trivia is the core of the series. There is no additional piece of precision to deal with. All you have to do is trust that your brain isn’t going to peter out, or if the guy next to you won’t blow a few questions. If anything, The Chase is as much about personal wits as it is trust.
If there are any issues, it’s one that has largely plagued mainstream game shows over the past 20 years. While this isn’t always a demerit, I personally believe that the hour-long game show has killed a lot of otherwise enjoyable shows. The most noteworthy example of this was the Regis Philbin-era Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?, which often received criticism for drawing out the tension by having contestants take minutes to strategically answer a multiple choice question. Sometimes it was good TV and the first few years were appointment viewing, but it left behind an unfortunate legacy on every game show to follow.
To be fair, not every new series has moved to this format. Fox’s recent launch of Name That Tune features two episodes in their hour format. However, other shows like NBC’s The Wall have been ruined by this need to build tension. What should work in 30 minutes needs to be padded, drawing out pacing instead of cutting it into something more direct. Jeopardy! works because there is very little room for dead air. You’re onto the next question before you have time to kick yourself over a wrong answer. Too many game shows rely on the delicacy of asking contestants how they felt about answering certain questions, and while it does something to empathize with players, it doesn’t always make for brilliant TV.
The Chase comparatively isn’t bad. There is enough of a structure here that allows the hour format to constantly progress. With that said, I do think there’s a way to make this sustainable in a half hour format if it ever wants to move to the Game Show Network or Buzzr. Quite simply, only choose one contestant instead of three and make each commercial break the end of segments. The only place where this may fail is in The Final Chase, if just because it’s been proven that The Chaser is often way too smart for a contestant. Because of that, I am not as bothered by the expansion, though hour-long game shows as a trend remains tiresome for shows that struggle to fill every second with something meaningful.
Before I close out, I thought that I would talk about certain developments regarding the show in season two. For whatever reason, The Chase has decided to get a FOURTH host. To some, it would be a marketing ploy meant to draw in viewers. However, I have to ask just who exactly is out there asking for this one. Who is asking for Mark Labbett (a.k.a. “The Beast”) to join the American series? It makes sense that they want to pay homage to the British series that it’s based on, especially since he is considered a beast of trivia, but I have to be honest. Three episodes in and I think it’s a poor fit.
No offense to Labbett. He is very intelligent and I can see how he works in the U.K. version, but there is a clash of personalities. For starters, I initially worried that three hosts were too crowded before understanding the appeal. For the hosts who were not The Chaser, they were friends watching TV in the backroom. They brought some spice. With Labbett in the mix, it feels incongruent simply because of his personality. Like most British personalities, he has a superiority complex that clashes with American ideology, making the comparatively modest commentary of the Jeopardy! winners difficult to appreciate. Sure, he occasionally says something insightful about strategy and there’s something fun about that, but I still don’t understand why this needed to happen at all.
Is there enough of an audience for that? I guess there is and I’m sure it will work in time, but it kind of ruins my hope that this was a show for Jeopardy! winners to challenge themselves as hosts. I would be fine if it rotates between all of the winners perceivably over the years to come. Instead, it already feels like it’s threatening to just be something more generic, possibly even hijacked by Labbett in an attempt to make him another unnecessary British crossover. Let him keep his show. We don’t need him here. My only theory for why they invited him in is because Jennings will potentially leave the show to become a full-time host of Jeopardy!, especially as he’s the most recognizable face in the show’s 21st century era of history.
Is The Chase the best game show on TV right now? It’s tough to say. It fulfills enough to be a B-Tier series that caters to Jeopardy! fans who have an attachment to the hosts like myself. Beyond that, I don’t know that it’s quite essential viewing yet. It feels like a series like The Weakest Link that I’ll pop on if nothing else is on, enjoying the escapism and random trivia. There’s enough spontaneity and unpredictable components in it that it’s going to keep the viewer on edge. It’s a fun hour of TV and a great way to flex your brain during the summer months. What could possibly go wrong?
The goal of Game Show Theory is to analyze shows both old and new. If you have one that you’d be interested in hearing my opinions about, feel free to share and I’ll do my best to check it out.
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