The Chase presenter Bradley Walsh talks Weakest Link rivalry
The ITV host has spoken about the two shows clashing when The Chase first launched.
It's been 13 years since The Chase first arrived on our screens and while it feels as though it was yesterday, many forget that the show originally competed with BBC One's The Weakest Link.
Bradley Walsh has now opened up about The Chase's initial rivalry with The Weakest Link, saying that the Anne Robinson-hosted show differed to his as it was "constantly putting people down".
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com for The Big RT Interview ahead of the new run of Beat the Chasers, Walsh said that he only realised how popular The Chase was while he was out shopping shortly after it began.
"The amount of people that came up and said, 'Hey Brad – we've seen your new show. The Chase is great. We really, really like it,' and I said, 'Oh wow, thank you very much indeed.'
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"They said, 'No, no, no – it's the best thing we've seen for a long time. So much better than The Weakest Link,' which we were up against at the time."
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He continued: "That was a pretty funny comment because The Weakest Link was a good show but the problem with it was it was constantly putting people down and not being very pleasant.
"Our show is not like that. It's always a very uplifting show and you know we have a lot of fun."
The Weakest Link first aired on the BBC in 2000 with Anne Robinson as its host, and while it came to an end in 2012, the show was brought back last year with comedian Romesh Ranganathan as the new presenter.
Although the original show was known for Robinson's icy attitude towards contestants, Ranganathan explained ahead of the reboot that he would be making a few changes to the show – and wouldn't be using the iconic line, 'You are the weakest link, goodbye.'
Beat the Chasers begins on ITV and ITV Hub on Monday 16th May at 9pm. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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