Hi, My name is Shane Taas and I am an Activities Officer at Langports Gold Campus. Today, I’m writing about my experience on The Chase, an Australian television quiz show. Last month I appeared on a game show called “The Chase Australia”, where a team of 4 contestants must work together to win money to the team’s bank. However, there is an opponent known as ‘The Chaser’ who will stop us from winning any money. If we beat The Chaser, we go home with the money earned collectively in the team. This blog will go through how I competed in one of the fastest growing game shows in the world and what was going through my head during the recording and screening of the episode of The Chase Australia.
The reason behind applying for The Chase Australia?
Growing up, I enjoyed watching afternoon and evening game shows from Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, Sale of the Century and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I also had a bit of fun joining trivia nights across the Gold Coast as it was a great way to meet people and test my general knowledge skills on anything and everything. I applied for The Chase because it had a huge following in the UK and heard that a local version would be made in Australia.
What happened during the interview process?
After completing a video and online registration form, one of the producers contacted me and asked questions about myself. I was then asked 20 general knowledge questions to see whether I would make it through to the next round of auditions. The only thing the producers advised me was that I did well, but could not reveal the result.
Once I was informed of being shortlisted to be a contestant on The Chase, I received an email while I was in Denmark about an upcoming episode that would be recorded on July 21st. I was very excited to be asked to go down to Melbourne and record the show, but under immense pressure given that I haven’t spoken to anyone back home about being on the show, let alone study and brush up on my general knowledge.
The day of the recording
I was greeted by one of the producers who would go through the whole day of production. I was taken to the green room where I got to meet the other three contestants, Hugh, Chrissy and Mich who were all from Melbourne. From there, additional crew members assisted with wardrobe, make-up and scripts for our introduction piece to the show and went through the game play and rules. The crew were extremely friendly and genuinely wanted us to do well on the show.
As we walked onto the set, the feeling was surreal. Everything that I saw on TV looked the same and just seeing everything in motion work from a production stand point was awesome. We got to meet up with the host, Andrew O’Keefe who had an abundance of energy and enthusiasm getting to know each and every one of us. We still had no idea the identity of The Chaser.
One of the most fascinating things about the recording is how different it looked on TV as opposed to being in the studio. There was no studio audience upon entry into the studio and the music and sound bites that I was familiar with on the show, didn’t appear during the recording of the show.
The reveal of The Chaser
The first contestant Hugh did incredibly well, earning $20,000 to the team pot. As the recording went on, we still had no idea who our Chaser was and we speculated all day who it would be. After going through the roll call of Chasers, they reveal none other than Anne Hegarty, better known on the show as The Governess. She was incredibly witty and has an impressive win-loss record on both the UK and Australian show.
When Hugh went up against the Governess, we were expecting him to do well, only to stumble on some difficult questions. We were all shocked when he was beaten and it did rattle our team a little bit, because we didn’t know how well the rest of us will do.
The girls on the other hand did exceptionally well and put on a good fight against the Governess bringing home a total of $34,000 to the team bank. Before I went up, The Governess warned that she didn’t want to see me on the final round because
My battle against the Governess
Being the last one up for the team, I knew that there would some high expectations knowing everyone contributed to the team’s money pot. The one minute of questions was fast and extremely stressful. Your head is going at such a rapid pace trying to get as many correct answers as possible, even a few guesses along the way helped. After the minute of questions, I contributed $12,000 to the team’s money pot.
From there it was a battle against the Governess. The first few questions provided mixed results, the only one I had an idea of was a question on the Game of Thrones. From there, the next three were all complete guesses and all correct. I didn’t have a clue and relied on pure luck and simple process of elimination when choosing my answers.
The last question involved a book written by a political leader. Sadly, the luck ran out when I incorrectly guessed once again the answer. In turn, The Governess got the question right and knocked me out of the game. The team went on to win the money.
While I was devastated to not win the money and be at the final Chase with the team, I am glad to have had this incredible experience. During the screening, I told students that the money would go towards an overseas trip where I would visit them in their home countries. The students who came to our screening were just as disappointed that I didn’t go home with any money, but assured them that I would be visiting them in the future.
This once in a lifetime experience is a testament that anything is possible and I encourage students to always dream big in their life. I may not have won any money on The Chase, but I was able to accomplish a personal dream and look back at how far I came to be on the show.
For those who want to see the full length episode, feel free to send me an email and I can send the link.
Alternatively, have a go and see whether you can answer the questions that were asked during my round on The Chase Australia:
- Which shark can typically lift its head above water?
- Grey Nurse
- Hammerhead
- Great White
- In TV’s ‘Game of Thrones’, Daenerys Targaryen is known as the ‘Mother of … what’?
- Dragons
- Crows
- Lions
- Diane Arbus was best known in which field of creative art?
- Photography
- Sculpture
- Painting
- One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed by which disaster?
- Fire
- Flood
- Earthquake
- A. Milne’s second volume of ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ stories is ‘The … what at Pooh Corner’?
- House
- Tree
- Honey
- Which of these people has climbed Mount Everest and crossed both polar ice caps?
- Bear Grylls
- Sir Ranulph Fiennes
- Matt Rutherford
- Which political leader released the book ‘On the Art of the Cinema’?
- George W. Bush
- Kim Jong Il
- Corazon Aquino
Answers: 1. C, 2. A, 3. A, 4. C, 5. A, 6. B, 7. B
Thank you.
Shane Taas
If you want to read more about the experiences Shane has shared with us, please click here. http://www.langports.com/an-amazing-journey-across-the-world/
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