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How do Beat the Chasers decide cash offers?

"The offers are laden with narrative subtext," says Seven as it explains varying cash offers.

If you watch Beat the Chasers, you will see contestants face 5 questions in a Cash Builder round before facing 2 – 4 Chasers.

But there are also variations. One person who correctly answers all 5 questions can be offered $85,00 from 4 Chasers.

Someone else who also answers 5 questions may be offered $95,000 from 4 Chasers. And another may be offered over $100,000.

TV Tonight asked Seven how this works and whether it was fair to all players.

Here is their answer:

“The Chasers’ offers [of a time advantage. aka ‘head start’ AND money] are intended to tempt each contestant to take on as many Chasers as possible and are based upon the perceived ability of any given contestant to beat two, three or four Chasers.  The Cash Builder questions give the Chasers [and the viewers] an indication of a contestant’s General Knowledge.

“The offers are laden with narrative subtext – generous offers of time could mean the Chasers think a contestant has little chance of beating them.  Equally, a high cash amount could mean that they respect a contestant and want to tempt him / her to play against them all.

“The Chasers are a capricious bunch. The offers are their prerogative and often based not just on how many the contestant gets right, but HOW they think they will play.”

Beat the Chasers airs 7pm Sundays on Seven.

3 Responses

  1. I enjoyed Beat the Chasers last Sunday and am looking forward to this Sunday’s edition. Thank you, David, for this article as it clarifies how the $$$ amounts are determined. Very interesting that the $$$ offered are the prerogative of the Chasers themselves and not the producers, though presumably the producers have set upper limits.

    On the subject of Chasers, I sometimes wonder why some Chasers get so annoyed at themselves if they lose the final chase. It may just be a pride issue, or perhaps they are acting it up to add a bit of drama, or perhaps the $$$ amount of their remuneration for each episode depends on whether they win or lose the final chase. Does anyone have any insight on this?

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