Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

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seaborgium
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by seaborgium »

LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 6:00 am This show is heavily skewed towards the contestants winning. Any other Chase versions have the contestants quite seldomly win. The game is more fun when the game is harder to win and more contestants lose, like GSN shows where there is only one winner per week.
Are they doing something differently from other versions, do you feel? Have they got better contestants? Worse chasers? I don't see any other way (besides host intervention in the way of question reading speed) to actually "skew" the game in the contestants' favor.

(Small vocab thing: "seldom" is already an adverb; no need to put "ly" on the end.)
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by Johnblue »

MarkBarrett wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:26 am
seaborgium wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 4:36 am Tonight's J! veteran: https://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=9776
Thanks, I added a line to Julio's J! page.

Contestants 4
Chasers 2

ABC's money - a lot more than GSN gave away on their version of course
The British version gives only £1000 per question in the cash builder. Sarah Haines continues to be an awful hostess. GSN still shows their old games at 3pm. So much better.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by teapot37 »

The British version is also, critically, a daily show, so, combined with the lower prize pots, it's much more acceptable that the contestants only win once every five episodes or so. If the chasers win 80% of the time on a weekly show, you could go a couple of months without ever seeing any money given away, and I would guess the producers don't want that.
Not many people can say they've lost four times on Jeopardy!.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by colonial »

Another addendum with the UK version ... you would likely not see the equivalent of contestant quality that we are seeing on the ABC (and, to some extent, the GSN take) version.

The UK show definitely emphasizes the "David vs. Goliath" formula of Average Joes and Janes taking on the Chasers. Given that we're seeing J! or WWTBAM contestants challenging on every episode of the U.S. version, the ABC take has more of an "All-Stars/TOC" formula to it.

The show is currently casting for new episodes (and, as of now, it's a nationwide search), so I'm curious if the producers are changing what they are looking for in a contestant (finding more of an "Average Joe/Jane") or stay the course.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by LucarioSnooperVixey »

colonial wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 1:45 pm The show is currently casting for new episodes (and, as of now, it's a nationwide search), so I'm curious if the producers are changing what they are looking for in a contestant (finding more of an "Average Joe/Jane") or stay the course.
GSN's Master Minds has had mostly average Joes and Janes.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by Leander »

Armandillo wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:33 pm My thoughts:

1) She reads the Chaser's questions a little slower.

2) The Chaser generally gets longer questions, which naturally eat away at his time.
Caught up on the last two episodes on DVR last night. One additional point my girlfriend noticed is that when the clues are read so slowly, the couple of step head start for the challengers becomes a much bigger hurdle for the chaser to overcome than it is on the day time version.

I always thought the daytime version did not have enough winners, but the night time version is veering too much in the other direction, especially with the size of the prizes in play.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by yclept »

Leander wrote: Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:52 am
Caught up on the last two episodes on DVR last night. One additional point my girlfriend noticed is that when the clues are read so slowly, the couple of step head start for the challengers becomes a much bigger hurdle for the chaser to overcome than it is on the day time version.

I always thought the daytime version did not have enough winners, but the night time version is veering too much in the other direction, especially with the size of the prizes in play.
I agree. It is a tough balance because it is a weekly show with an “all or nothing” format. While contestants on “The Weakest Link” refuse to make a run at big amounts, the audience knows someone will win a decent amount of $$$ at the end of the show.

While the host is slower than Brooke and the contestants are strong, we aren’t too far away from there being a more even split. Brad’s opponents the other night had 16. That is a strong number, but one that a chaser should be able to overcome, and Brad came within a whisker of doing so. Ken wins if he would have thought about cigarettes in baseball card packs (something he likely knew but forgot about in the moment).
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by trainman »

yclept wrote: Sun Feb 21, 2021 4:52 pmKen wins if he would have thought about cigarettes in baseball card packs (something he likely knew but forgot about in the moment).
Back in those days, it was the other way around -- baseball cards came in cigarette packs.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by seaborgium »

Here's the Final Chase question count for both sides (not including the ones where Sara is interrupted by time running out). I may be slightly off for certain counts on the chaser's side, where the arithmetic has the extra wrinkle in it. I didn't do it for this past Thursday's because I haven't copied it over to the computer yet.

1/7 Final Chase: Kristin and James, 18 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (17 right); Ken, 22 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (18 right, 4 wrong with 3 pushbacks)
1/14 Final Chase: Beth and Adam, 19 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (13 right); James, 15 questions completed and/or answered when he caught the team (15 right, 0 wrong, 40 seconds remaining)
1/21 Final Chase: Wes, 19 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (12 right); Brad, 18 questions completed and/or answered when he caught the player (15 right, 3 wrong with 2 pushbacks, 15 seconds remaining)
2/4 Final Chase: Michael and Daniel, 19 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (17 right); James, 20 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (14 right, 6 wrong with 1 pushback)
2/11 Final Chase: Eric, George, and Jen, 16 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (13 right); Ken, 21 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (17 right, 4 wrong with 2 pushbacks)

Sara is getting through the questions faster with the chasers. Part of it is that the chasers are more consistently able/willing to interrupt Sara and prevent questions from being read in full, and part of it is probably that they waste less time when they don't know answers. If Sara is reading more slowly for them, they're more than making up for it with their gameplay.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by kerryoakie »

Casting for season 2 is available here:https://www.thechasecasting.com/.

I signed up and immediately received an invitation to schedule a 50 question proctored Zoom quiz (scheduled for early March). I'll report back with my experience!
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by mrfusion »

Thanks for pulling this together!

I pro-rated the Chaser numbers to the full 2 minutes (as if the Chaser simply kept going after catching the contestants)

date: contestant questions asked, vs. (pro-rated) chaser questions asked
1/7: 18 vs. 22 questions
1/14: 19 vs 22 questions (15 x 120/80)
1/21: 19 vs. 21 questions (18 x 120/105)
2/4: 19 vs. 20 questions
2/11: 16 vs. 21 questions

It's not a huge difference (10-20% for most cases), though it's a clear and consistently in favor of the Chasers.

I too feel that coordination between contestants costs a lot of time. "Should I buzz in to pass, or wait for one of my teammates to try to come up with it?". If I remember correctly, Jen/Eric/George had some brutal delays on some questions.

Let me know if I've done any math wrong!

seaborgium wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 2:34 am 1/7 Final Chase: Kristin and James, 18 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (17 right); Ken, 22 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (18 right, 4 wrong with 3 pushbacks)

1/14 Final Chase: Beth and Adam, 19 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (13 right); James, 15 questions completed and/or answered when he caught the team (15 right, 0 wrong, 40 seconds remaining)

1/21 Final Chase: Wes, 19 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (12 right); Brad, 18 questions completed and/or answered when he caught the player (15 right, 3 wrong with 2 pushbacks, 15 seconds remaining)

2/4 Final Chase: Michael and Daniel, 19 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (17 right); James, 20 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (14 right, 6 wrong with 1 pushback)

2/11 Final Chase: Eric, George, and Jen, 16 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (13 right); Ken, 21 questions completed and/or answered before time ran out (17 right, 4 wrong with 2 pushbacks)

Sara is getting through the questions faster with the chasers. Part of it is that the chasers are more consistently able/willing to interrupt Sara and prevent questions from being read in full, and part of it is probably that they waste less time when they don't know answers. If Sara is reading more slowly for them, they're more than making up for it with their gameplay.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by teapot37 »

The steps of the casting process the first time around were:
a) 10-minute, 50-question Zoom-proctored quiz
b) if you do well enough on the Zoom quiz, you will shortly after get an invitation to a group Zoom session. There you and a small cohort will answer a bunch of multiple choice "at the table" questions. They will ask you to have three slips of paper with A, B, and C, and then everyone will secretly select and simultaneously reveal their selection for each question. They will ask one or two people who selected each option to walk them through your logic for your choice.
c) If you do well enough at the multiple choice session, they will call you to set up a one-on-one session with you and the casting people to develop a "sizzle reel" to present to the producers.

And then, you wait, I suppose.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by seaborgium »

mrfusion wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 12:49 pm If I remember correctly, Jen/Eric/George had some brutal delays on some questions.
Yes, they blew the last 24 seconds on two stumpers, resulting in an outlier among an otherwise consistent output of 18 to 19 questions for the contestants in other episodes.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by billiej »

kerryoakie wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:30 am Casting for season 2 is available here:https://www.thechasecasting.com/.

I signed up and immediately received an invitation to schedule a 50 question proctored Zoom quiz (scheduled for early March). I'll report back with my experience!
I'm scheduled for March, as well. Good luck!
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by LucarioSnooperVixey »

Game shows across the pond just keep sending each other vibes.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by BrigadierSolo13 »

billiej wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:34 pm
kerryoakie wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:30 am Casting for season 2 is available here:https://www.thechasecasting.com/.

I signed up and immediately received an invitation to schedule a 50 question proctored Zoom quiz (scheduled for early March). I'll report back with my experience!
I'm scheduled for March, as well. Good luck!
I as well!
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by MarkBarrett »

On FB I saw a post that the 2/25 episode will have two J! alums, Jimmy Li & Nikhil Damle, facing James.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by Woof »

BrigadierSolo13 wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:31 pm
billiej wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:34 pm
kerryoakie wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:30 am Casting for season 2 is available here:https://www.thechasecasting.com/.

I signed up and immediately received an invitation to schedule a 50 question proctored Zoom quiz (scheduled for early March). I'll report back with my experience!
I'm scheduled for March, as well. Good luck!
I as well!
Me three!
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by AntmanB »

WHY WASNT THIS A KEN EP? they literally had ken in one of the questions and then Hoe was an answer option in a question.
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Re: Fun with ABC's "The Chase" [Spoilers]

Post by seaborgium »

I usually outperform the contestants in the cash builder round, but I'm not so sure I did tonight. On the plus side, I was perfect on the multiple-choice questions. (Although I've heard they're editing out some of the ones both contestant and chaser get wrong, so I take my stats with a grain of salt.)
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