MARK Labbett has revealed that there is a formula for picking The Chase contestants – and bosses go for four types of people.
The 56-year-old recently lifted the lid about everything to do with the ITV gameshow at a debate at Oxford Union.
Mark has been on the show since the very start, when it graced our screens in 2009, so he knows all the behind the scenes secrets.
Many fans are desperate know how contestants get picked for the competition.
And the telly star has revealed how.
Mark confessed: “On The Chase at least half the time the running order does (in order of contestant appearance) – the quiet decent one, the strong one, the pretty one of either sex, and the nutter.
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“And it is quite deliberate. They want the person with the biggest personality to be in the game the longest.
“You might think that is incredibly cynical and sexist but it is TV.”
Elsewhere in the discussion Mark revealed that the Celebrity Specials are rigged so that the famous faces can take home a cash prize for charity.
Many fans have claimed that the stars are given “easy questions” – and he revealed that the bosses make certain decisions that go in favour of the stars.
Mark said: “The celebs are not as good as they think they are.
“We give every celeb a piece of A4 and it is more or less saying ‘Tell us what you know?’
“And it is only fair as if we beat them every time it would be a terrible show.”
He also admitted that producers are hunting for a female chaser who looks like a Love Islander but has the brains of Anne and Jenny.
Mark said: “We have a simple test for being a Chaser and that is to get 20 questions right in two minutes and if you do that you are probably not going to cost to much money.
“We wanted a lady and she is on telly a bit and when we asked her the questions she was answering about 16 or 17 and we wanted her desperately on the show but the producers went ‘she will cost us too much money'”.
2200 episodes ran over 14 series of The Chase have graced our screens since 2009.
Mark and Shaun Wallace AKA The Destroyer have been Chasers since day one, and were shortly joined by Anne Hegerty (The Governess) in 2010.
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The Sinnerman, also known as Paul Sinha joined a year later.
Jenny Ryan (The Vixen) and Darragh Ennis are also part of the team.
