You’d think Bradley Walsh has the easiest job on The Chase, simply having to turn up at the studio to read some questions out loud, letting everyone else crack on with the hard work by coming up with an answer.
But it turns out his role on the show isn’t always quite so straightforward – as proven by the fact lawyers are sometimes forced to intervene.
Walsh, 61, has hosted the game show ever since it premiered on ITV back in 2009, posing a series of questions to contestants and the professional quizzer – or ‘chaser’ - that they go up against.
He previously spoke to the Radio Times about how strict things can be when filming, explaining how the process is ‘immediately’ held up if he stumbles over his words.
Walsh, who doesn’t get to see the questions before asking them, said: “If there is a slight misread, I am stopped immediately – bang – by the lawyers.
“We have the compliance lawyers in the studio all the time. What you have to do is go back to the start of the question, literally on video tape where my mouth opens – or where it’s closed from the previous question – and the question is re-asked. It is stopped to the split second.
“It means no time is lost for either the contestant or the Chaser.”
The show uses an independent professional monitoring firm called Beyond Dispute, which monitors the questions Walsh asks and ensures they are being randomly selected.
But it's not just pronunciation that Walsh needs to bear in mind, as it’s also a case of speed – especially during the Final Chase.
“You have to be at such a speed: if you’re a contestant and I go ‘what’s… the capital… of France… ’ they’d be dead and buried in thirty seconds,” he continued.
“I have to make sure they get up to speed and they’re getting about 18 or 19 questions answered correctly.”
This correct number of answers is what Walsh calls a ‘banana skin score’, which will trip the Chasers up and stop them getting too comfortable, or getting into too much of a rhythm when it's their turn.
Walsh – who takes between 3.6 and 4 seconds to ask a question – added: “They can answer 24, 25 questions in two minutes. We’ve even almost reached thirty."
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