Tara Ward relives the nightmare of discovering that The Chase was not on – twice – last week.
There are certain things in this world that we can always rely on, like death, taxes and a 5pm episode of The Chase. The British quiz show has been a permanent fixture on TVNZ1 for the past 13 years, screening every single night come rain, hail or shine. It’s seen us through natural disasters, general elections and a global pandemic. It’s a show that signifies the end of the day and the beginning of a relaxing night ahead, a brainy palate cleanser before the soul-destroying barrage of depressing information commonly referred to as “the six o’clock news”.
But last week, the unthinkable happened. Monday, November 10 may have seemed like an ordinary day, but come five o’clock the fabric of the universe seemed to unravel. The Chase was, in fact, not on.
The Chasers are fuming too (Photo: TVNZ)
When I turned on my TV anticipating my daily dose of trivia hijinks, what I saw shocked me to my quizzy core. Instead of host Bradley Walsh leaning on his podium to ask Nigel from Shitterton what he did in his spare time, I stared into the acrobatic eyes of Te Karere newsreader Scotty Morrison. Instead of The Beast slamming his hand down in anger when he got a vital question in the final chase wrong, there was something called Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals. I had just found my own tipping point, and it involved the discovery that something was evidently quite wrong with my television.
The hour that followed was an unsettling one. Instead of spending it by shouting embarrassingly incorrect quiz answers at The Menace, I had to talk to my children. I prepared an evening meal without The Governess rolling her eyes at me or The Dark Destroyer destroying. The food tasted like disappointment. Amid the depths of my despair, I wondered if the long-running quiz show had a) run out of episodes, b) run out of Chasers or c) finally caught New Zealand, and for us, The Chase was over.
All was briefly forgotten when on Tuesday and Wednesday The Chase screened as normal. Then, on Thursday, it happened again.
I don’t like Mondays
Who was responsible for denying the nation its daily fix of the best show on television? The culprit was the cricket. New Zealand played the West Indies in two afternoon T20 games last week, and TVNZ’s coverage finished on both days at 5pm. After Te Karere delivered its daily 30-minute news bulletin, there was just half an hour to fill before 1News At Six, so Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals slid in into the void like a big heavy counter ready to ride up all over our hopes and dreams.
But what about justice for The Chase, the quiz show that has become a national obsession? I can hear the furious clickety-clack of the comments section now: “Nobody watches broadcast TV any more!” they’ll rant. “What a sad little life you lead!” they’ll spew. Well, they’re right on both counts, but also, more wrong than the time Paul “The Sinnerman” Sinha thought tennis player Andy Murray started tying haggis to his shoes in 2015.
Figures provided this month by TVNZ reveal that so far in 2025, The Chase UK and its various spinoffs (including Beat The Chaser and The Chase Australia) have reached 3.18 million viewers, or over 63% of all New Zealanders aged 5+. That’s two out of every three of us, watching at least one of four different versions of The Chase or the 100+ episodes available on TVNZ+. Even the homegrown version of The Chase is a huge hit with New Zealand viewers. Hosted by Paul Henry, the premiere episode of The Chase NZ screened earlier this month and shot to the top of the ratings, surpassing local TV stalwarts 1News and Country Calendar to become the most watched terrestrial show of the week.
If the coalition government is looking for a fast track project to win over voters, they should legislate that The Chase must screen at 5pm every day, no matter what else is happening in the world. Nothing should come between a country and its love of general knowledge, and even chucking up half an episode – it doesn’t matter which half, really – would be better than nothing. Even the Black Caps would probably agree. After all, ‘tis better to have Chased and lost, than never to have Chased at all.
The Chase screens (usually) on TVNZ1 at 5pm and streams on TVNZ+.