★★★★★ 0/5

The Chaser v The Chase

Gloves on for a legal stoush nobody expected in 2024.

17
Leave a comment

A legal stoush has emerged between the team behind The Chaser and ITV Studios Australia’s The Chase.

The clash surrounds the 2020 spin-off season of Beat the Chasers starring Brydon Coverdale (The Shark), Issa Schultz (The Supernerd), Matt Parkinson (Goliath) and Cheryl Toh (Tiger Mum).

Charles Firth, a founding member of The Chaser said The Chase Australia was distinct enough in title.

“But then going one step further called Beat the Chasers, then starting to brand their personalities as The Chasers – they’re cramping our style,” he told the Australian Financial Review.

“We get emails every week about ‘this stupid question that wasn’t quite correct’, or ‘I think The Chaser should be sacked because they’re not very good’. All in reference to the TV show. People log onto our Facebook page and leave comments about this stupid show … brand damage is in the billions, if not the trillions.”

He was constantly getting emails about The Chase Australia. “They are trading off our life’s work,” he said. “We have been doing it for 25 years. If they do take this to court, our goal is to destroy them.”

In late 2020, ITV tried to submitted paperwork to trademark Beat the Chasers but The Chaser team objected, and won.

ITV has appealed the decision in a Federal Court.

An ITV spokeswoman said the two brands could co-exist. “The Chase and Beat The Chasers have been entertaining viewers for over 10 years, since 2013, and are well-established, easily recognisable game shows in Australia,” she said.

“These titles are light entertainment game shows, which are distinctively different from the satirical programs, focused on news and current affairs, which Chaser Publishing has provided. Our game shows have coexisted with Chaser Publishing during that time.”

17 Responses

  4. Had to do a double check then and make sure I hadn’t been redirected somehow to The Betoota Advocate website, but here we are. Then I thought is this some elaborate promo stunt that will lead to The Chasers on The Chase, however the linked article says they were in court in October last year, so nope to that as well.

  6. There was a US Police series made by Universal -TV called “Chase” produced by Jack Webb which ran from 1973 to 1974.

    It aired on the 0-10 Network circa 1974-1975.

    Universal-TV should send a legal letter to The Chaser.
    After all, The Chaser are trading off your life’s work.

  7. They have a good point because I still get confused. And especially when that beat the chasers come up, and until you see a visual or know they’re talking about the Chase game show. So if you need me Chaser boys for your court argument I’m here. It’s much too close.

  8. Is “The Chaser” still a thing? On doing a search here the last mention was an election show mid-2016 – 8 years ago. I’ve never heard of them doing anything since.

  10. Yeah, I checked the date like everyone else here. But whilst I personally would watch The Chaser over the quiz show any day I can’t help but be on the side of ITV Studios in this argument.

  11. For a moment, I thought you were running your April Fools story early.

    The Chaser gets complaint emails about The Chase –
    Who from? One of their basement buddies?

    Next thing Channel 7 news and Channel 9 news will be suing each other for the same reason.

  12. I used watched “The Chaser’s War on Everting”..The Chaser is the group who came up with the concept and got the name from their satirical newspaper The Tiger…then the TV show was called The Chaser’s War on Everting….Colin seems to have a problem differentiating what the difference between Quiz and Satirical is …but to say ..we will destroy them…imo a sad reflection on them

Leave a Reply