The Chase's Anne Hegerty reacts to show's highest ever win: "One's always disappointed to lose"
Exclusive: The Governess gives RadioTimes.com her reaction to losing The Chase a record-breaking £100,000 in prize money
There are few quiz-masters as feared as The Chase’s notorious Chasers. But on Monday Anne ‘The Governess’ Hegerty was left stunned as contestants took home a combined £100,000 – the highest amount ever won on the show.
The money was won by four players – Diane, Luca, Tim and Gayna – who each survived their individual rounds to make it the final chase, where they bagged a £25,000 share after beating Hegerty.
No easy feat, considering that the 60 year-old has competed on quiz shows from Mastermind to Brain of Britain.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, the Chaser explained that "any time you're up against a full house, you're always at a disadvantage – they have a four-step head start and there are four of them to help on the pushbacks, especially when it's quite a diverse team.”
In the final round, the team had 21 steps on the board. There were nine opportunities to push back, of which the team executed four. The time ran out with Hegerty at 14 steps. During the game Gayna, who played last, opted to take the higher offer of £86,000, while the others stuck at their ‘Cash Builder’ amounts of £7,000, £3,000 and £4,000 respectively.
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Did she feel like they deserved to win? And how does it feel to have lost The Chase so much prize money?
“21 steps is a great target,” she says, “and they did well to push me back four times… One's always disappointed to lose, but we love to test ourselves against high targets, and it does make for great TV!”
And what of the other Chasers, who range from The Beast to The Barrister – did they have any hard words for a beaten colleague?
“Chasers hunt as a pack, as my colleague The Beast likes to say. We're always super-supportive of each other, and we never give each other a hard time over a loss. They were probably just glad they weren't facing that target!”
Even so, we can’t see the Chasers suddenly becoming any easier to beat...
The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV
