Wallace destroys opposition in The Chase poll
We asked, and you told us: the Dark Destroyer is Stuff readers’ favourite Chaser.
Our data interactive about massively popular British quiz show The Chase, asked readers to choose a favourite among the six Chasers, who take turns trying to thwart contestants on each episode.
The Chase UK has a huge following in New Zealand, with about 300,000 Kiwis tuning into each episode.
More than 35,000 people voted in our poll, with Shaun Wallace – nicknamed the Dark Destroyer – narrowly winning out over Paul ‘The Sinnerman’ Sinha.
Wallace had garnered 7508 votes to Sinha’s 7254 when Stuff’s data journalists checked results on Monday, July 25.
Performance on the show seemed to have nothing to do with who prevailed as the favourite. Wallace actually has the worst performance stats of all six Chasers, winning about 70% of the time, compared to an overall average of 76%.
Instead, longevity on the show was a big predictor of popularity: Wallace is one of the two original Chasers. The two most recent additions, Jenny ‘The Vixen’ Ryan and Darragh ‘The Menace’ Ennis, had the best stats but received the lowest vote totals.
We also asked readers to answer three trivia questions about the show. Readers had to tell us how often the Chasers won (correct answer: 76%), how much prize money has been given away to the closest million British pounds (£9 million), and which Chaser had the most success (Jenny Ryan and Darragh Ennis were the two answers we accepted).
Out of more than 45,000 people who answered, about a quarter got at least one question right. People who indicated they were fans of the show were slightly more likely to get a question correct (27% versus 24% for those who said they weren’t familiar with the show).
Just 75 people got all three questions right – a minuscule 0.2%.
Amazingly, 16 of those people indicated they were not familiar with the show, which just goes to show you can guess your way to success.
How did Stuff readers do on each question?
Most readers had a good stab at the first question, guessing that the Chaser wins most of the time. The most common answer was 80%, which isn’t far off the real answer: 76%.
The second question – how much money has been won on the show? – was harder. Answers clustered around £15m (wrong) and £35m (also wrong). The correct answer was much lower.
The third question – who’s the best Chaser? – should have been easy, because we let you get away with two correct answers: Darragh Ennis or Jenny Ryan. That’s a 33% chance of just guessing the answer, but somehow only 22% of people managed to get this one right.
Mark ‘The Beast’ Labbett actually has the second-lowest win rate on the show, but 32% of people picked him as the most successful.
Would Stuff readers succeed on The Chase? On the face of these results, maybe not. Fortunately, when it comes to picking a favourite Chaser, there are no wrong answers.