ITV Officials Left Stunned After Darragh Ennis Loses Jaw-Dropping £75,000 on The Chase—Insider Reactions Revealed
Ever watched The Chase and wondered if the Chasers are truly unflappable, or if there’s a flicker of panic when a contestant takes home a bucketload of cash right under their noses? Well, imagine handing over £75,000 to a contestant who just blitzed through questions you thought were a doddle—then having your boss react with a shrug and a grin. That’s exactly what happened to Darragh ‘The Menace’ Ennis, who recently peeled back the curtain on one of the show’s most jaw-dropping losses.
It’s one thing to be the brainiac with all the answers, but quite another to realize that, sometimes, your worst day is actually TV gold. The producers know it. Darragh knows it. Do I know it? You bet I do . Because in this beautiful, quirky world of competitive quizzing, a few mistakes and a bold contestant can tip the odds, shake up the budget, and make for compulsively watchable entertainment.
Curious how ITV really responded when Darragh’s overconfidence cost them a five-figure sum? Or why the producers don’t fret when a contestant walks off with a cash mountain? Let’s dive into what happens when a Chaser loses big—and why losing might just be part of the winning formula for television that truly captivates. LEARN MORE
The Chase star Darragh Ennis has revealed ITV’s reaction to him losing a whopping £75,000 to a single contestant.
Perhaps one of the most recognisable game shows on British television, The Chase sees contestants test their general knowledge against professional quizzers, aka the Chasers, in hopes of bagging themselves a cash prize.
Now, the majority of these brave souls are caught and eliminated, but now and again a contestant is able to outsmart a Chaser and head home with a nice wad of cash.
This memorably happened to Darragh ‘The Menace’ Ennis, who gave away £75,000 after failing to catch a contestant who took a punt on the higher offer.
Recalling the episode during a recent interview with comedy podcast U Havin’ Us On?, Ennis revealed exactly how the loss went down with producers when he stepped backstage.
Outsmart the Chasers and you could win a large amount of money (ITV)
“Really famously [I] had a bit of a bad day,” Ennis recalled.
The episode in question occurred in 2021 when 20-year-old contestant Eden opted for the higher offer on his head-to-head with Ennis, before getting ’16 or 17′ questions right in his Final Chase.
“I knocked everyone else out [and] I was cruising,” he explained. “[Eden] went high, got back, and I was like ‘okay, I’ll catch him’.”
Unfortunately for Ennis, it wasn’t his best performance, meaning that Eden was able to walk away with £75,000, the largest cash prize won by a contestant at the time and the second largest to date.
“I was overconfident probably,” he said. “I made a couple of silly mistakes and he got away from me and won £75,000.”
What happens when a Chaser loses a large amount of money?
For any of us, losing 75 grand would be a devastating moment.
But this is television, with Ennis revealing that his producer wasn’t too fussed about needing to hand over five figures.
Darragh Ennis once gave away £75,000 from being overconfident, fortunately for him producers weren’t too bothered (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
“He came out, and I was like ‘sorry about that’, and he goes ‘It’ll make great TV’,” he recalled.
“This isn’t a bookies, we’re not in this to minimise losses, we’re in this to make great television,” he added. “That’s the point… It’s not a quiz competition, it’s television. We want to be entertaining.
“If we never lost, it would be dreadful. No one would watch.”
Ennis isn’t the only Chaser who’s reluctantly given away large sums of money, with a contestant named Dan able to bag £80,000 after beating Jenny ‘The Vixen’ Ryan, while the largest jackpot won by a team stands at £100,000.
Despite the occasional high losses, the Chasers have always managed to stay under their budget for the season.
The amount of cash offered is also set by the producers, not the Chasers themselves.
“Can you imagine someone with our ego allowed to offer whatever [we] want?” he said.
“Imagine Mark Labbett, he’d be offering three million to people, sure that he can catch them.”
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