The Chase is a hit amongst ITV viewers every day but that intensity on the weekday show is nothing compared to its primetime counterpart, Beat the Chasers. Bradley Walsh will be back to host the brand new series which starts on Monday night (May 16).
The quiz show spin-off sees the brave contestants given the option of playing multiple Chasers for increasing amounts of money, but with a decreasing time advantage against them. It all starts with a Cash Builder round where they're faced with five multiple-choice questions where, for each correct answer, contestants are awarded £1,000.
The players are then given the choice of going up against two, three, four, five or all six Chasers with their potential jackpot getting higher each time. And there's also the return of the Super Offers, which were introduced last series, and gives the contestants the potential to land hundreds of thousands of pounds if they ace the Cash Builder round and can answer all five questions correctly.
But those tuning into the new series, which airs every night this week on ITV at 9pm, will see an unfamiliar face joining the line-up and one missing.
Shaun 'The Dark Destroyer' Wallace, Paul 'The Sinnerman' Sinha, Darragh 'The Menace' Ennis, Jenny 'The Vixen' Ryan and Mark 'The Beast' Labbett are all taking part and they'll be joined by Issa Schultz, aka The Supernerd, as a new Chaser. She is regular on The Chase Australia and has stepped in for Anne Hegerty.
The Governess won't be appearing in the upcoming episodes, having tested positive for COVID a day before filming began. An ITV spokesperson said at the time: "Unfortunately, Anne 'The Governess' Hegerty has contracted COVID-19, so won't be filming the upcoming Beat The Chasers. We look forward to having her back on set soon. We're thrilled The Chase and Beat The Chaser Australia's Issa Schultz is able to step in."
As well as being one of the chasers on the Australian version of the show, Issa is also an eight-time winner of the Australian Quizzing Championships and seven-time Pairs champion. He also appeared on the Australian game show The Rich List, where he won $200,000 in 2009, as well as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and The Einstein Factor.
In 2020 Issa placed 23rd in the 2020 World Quizzing Championships. The 38-year-old has said he "dropped everything" to fly from Brisbane to the UK within hours of being called about stepping in for Anne. Despite stepping into her "chilly shoes", Anne was encouraging and told her replacement: "Go for it Issa, I know you can do this," he revealed to The Sun's TV mag. He also shared how Anne has been his colleague on The Chase Australia for seven years.
Speaking the Express.co.uk at this year’s BAFTA TV Awards earlier this month, Anne shared how Issa was the perfect replacement. She said: “What happened was Issa is the only Australian Chaser who was born in the UK. So he was the one person they could put on a plane and he wouldn’t need a visa. Not to take anything away, but we could have gone down to five Chasers."
