Thursday, January 28, 2021

On The Air: The Chase (2021)

A little more than 5 years after it ended its first American run on GSN, The Chase is back, this time on ABC.

Positioned in the center of the network's Thursday Winter Fun & Games block, The Chase has not one, not two, but three alternating chasers, all former Jeopardy! champions. James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, & Brad Rutter. One will be on stage, the others kibitzing backstage while their comrade can't hear their commentary, but the viewers can.

As we've talked about, the rotation system conceivably allows for Jennings to also guest host Jeopardy!, and I shan't be surprised if Rutter & Holzhauer are also afforded opportunities to do that down the line.

Sara Haines (The View, ex-Strahan & Sara) is the series host. Just as pretty as Brooke Burns, who MC'd GSN's version, but then, you already know that if you watch The View.

Jennings was the chaser in the opener, and likely is back in the chaser's chair tonight for week 4.

It's a standard quiz game, as contestants will try to build a bank, a la Weakest Link, against the chaser du jour, although some of these contestants come across as though they studied Wile E. Coyote's ACME Game Show handbook.

Haines, Holzhauer, Jennings, & Rutter talk about the show, including clips from the opener:


With ABC scheduling so many game shows during the season in various parts, you'd swear that they were going back to the early days of television. Which isn't such a bad thing.

Rating: A.

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