I am not one who watches a great deal of TV shows. Usually when I do, it may be a show where they discuss sports or it maybe a particular comedy that I love a great deal. It may however be my other favorite - game shows. Game shows get me excited and enthused. I am more fond of the trivia game shows though. One trivia game show which I am particularly fond of is called The Chase. Its a game show in which three supposedly learned people who actually don't know much about each other and who are seemingly quite knowledgeable in trivia, challenge a big, burly British bloke named Mark Labbett who goes by the nickname of The Beast. The Beast has an IQ of 155 and an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University. He's also 6' 7", arrogant and insulting to the contestants. Well at least that's the persona he's supposed to have right? After all, he's called The Beast.
The hostess of the show is none other than former Baywatch beauty Brooke Burns who previously hosted another game show called Dog Eat Dog. In The Chase, contestants must first individually answer questions in the chaser round posed to them by Ms. Burns in a minute time frame in order to build a bank. Then each contestant must challenge The Beast one on one in a trivia duel. The object of the one on one challenge is to out-manoeuvre The Beast on the chaser board and bank the money for your team. If he catches you, you lose the money and are out of the game. Its amazing how much trivia The Beast knows. He's like a walking, talking computer. I am quite sure that even Ken Jennings who won a whopping $3,196,300.00 on Jeopardy! back in 2004 would probably feel intimidated by him. Not just by his wealth of knowledge, but his size as well. At the end of the one on one challenge with The Beast, the contestant(s) who are fortunate to survive go on to the final round.
In the final round, the hostess asks the surviving contestant(s) questions from either set A or set B depending on their choice to again see how much they can get right and to build up a substantial lead on The Beast. The Beast has to answer the alternative set of questions. The contestant(s) will get a head start based on the number of them who survive the one-on-one challenge with The Beast. It is usually one step or two. One of the highlights of the show is what The Beast tells the contestants in order to intimidate them. I have to admit that he's real funny though. There was a particular episode in which a guy, while being briefly interviewed by Ms. Burns, said that he reads 'a book a day.' The Beast responded, 'that's all?' I couldn't help but laugh. Sometimes the lucky contestants are able to beat him. Unfortunately though, the majority of the time he catches them as easily as a beast catches its prey. Yes, the pun was intended. While I have no doubt that there are probably other trivia game shows that are just as fun or even better than The Chase, Jeopardy! tends to come to mind or maybe One vs. 100, none can rival The Chase in terms of share entertainment. Thank The Beast for that. Ms. Burns, too.
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