Anne explains an extra chaser on The Chase could mean less money for her
The Chase star Anne Hegerty has revealed how the chasers and host Bradley Walsh are paid on the ITV hit.
The 62-year-old star, known as The Governess on the quiz show, says they get paid a flat fee per episode.
And that means she has mixed feelings about the fact that a new chaser, Darragh “The Menace” Ennis, has joined the series.
Anne’s delighted that his arrival recently helped The Chase achieve record audience figures of nearly five million viewers.
However, because they get paid per episode she points out that unless they film more shows a year each chaser will actually end up getting paid less money.
Asked on Lewis Nicholls’ YouTube show if she was in support of another chaser, Anne replied: “This is a tricky one because a lot of people, a lot of the public imagine that we are on the same sort of deal that Hollywood stars were in the 1930s. They got paid a salary per month, per year. They were salaried employees of the studio and they’d find them things to do for that salary. That isn’t actually how it works.
“The chasers and Bradley get paid a flat fee for every show that we do. So any show that I’m doing is a show for which I’m being paid and the other chasers aren’t and that applies to all of us.
“If you’re going to divide the shows by six rather than five, then do the maths. And it’s excellent if it means we get a bigger order of shows, then everyone’s money goes up. The problem is that Bradley is so in demand, is so good. He’s so superb at everything he does and he can do so many things. And so of course he’s massively in demand. And there’s about 10 other things he’s doing beside the daytime Chase.”
Anne went onto to say the combination of Bradley being so busy and the pandemic meant that they’d filmed less episodes than she’d have liked. Because Bradley was shooting Doctor Who last year, she said they only managed to make 93 shows.
Anne said they’d hoped to make more this year, but had been thwarted by the pandemic.
“We hope we will catch up in the spring, but it all depends on whether Bradley is available. It depends a lot on whether one of these vaccines works out.”
The Chase continues on ITV.
