The Chase Around The World

So we reached the final of The Chase Around the World on Thursday evening. All that remained was to see who would take away the moolah and whether the show would stick the landing. Well, both will be revealed here, so if you haven’t seen the final yet and don’t want to know yet, then look away now.

For the final, then, our three remaining pairs were in Athens. Athens holds very special memories for me. As a kid we never went away anywhere as a family for various reasons, most of them to do with my late father, and I was desperate to travel. In the summer of 1982 when I turned 18 I used proceeds from my evening and weekend job and bought a return flight to Athens. For a large part of two unforgettable weeks I backpacked and island hopped down to Crete and back, spending a couple of days in Athens at the start and again at the end of the trip. Great days. Every edition of the show has been very picturesque and this was no different.

The twist in the final was that at each stage of the final, the contestants actually got to face the Chasers in person, and some of the quizzes involved even more strenuous challenges to answer the questions. And, for the final challenge, the pairs were split. The first pair to be reunited at the finish with Bradders won. And that team was Steven and David. That was probably fair. In terms of the weekly contests they had won more of them than either other couple and had probably been just about the most consistent on questions asked throughout the series.

I’ve often mentioned that I have a misanthropic disinterest in learning about contestants in quiz and game shows. Despite this though I did find myself getting to like the teams in the show, and I have no qualms that if there could only be three teams through to the final, then these were the best three. I wouldn’t have felt disappointed if dad and daughter Ashwin and Nikita, or sisters Kati and Amy had won and I think that this is because of some smart decisions made by the programme makers. At the heart of many quiz and game shows is something of the structure of a morality tale. We feel pleased seeing the most deserving contestant win through having demonstrated worthiness in overcoming challenges, and all three of our pairs had done this at different times during the series. For the previous shows of the series before the final it would have been easy to have foregrounded the Chasers a lot more, and maybe have a longer Beat the Chasers endgame, to capitalise on the Chasers’ popularity. The fact that the show didn’t do this allowed more time to be spent on the contestants’ efforts in the show with the result that this increased the chances that we, the viewers at home, would invest more in them. Smart move. Likewise, not asking the contestants to carry out any sneaky or underhand moves against each other – smart move.

Did it “The Chase Across the World” stick the landing? Yes it did. I have really enjoyed this summer show. I really hope that we’ll get another series of it, and I don’t mind if another series would also be confined to just Europe, there’s more than enough picturesque places for several series. I worry that it’s an ITV show. I have no idea what the ratings for “The Chase Around the World” have been like, but I know that for ITV, more than for BBC, the bottom line in the form of viewing figures is the bottom line. Fingers crossed.