Statistics - Final Chase

Statistics on this page are for daytime episodes of The Chase only. A few statistics for Celebrity Specials and The Family Chase can be found in their respective sections of the website.

Target By Series

The target set by players in the final chase was significantly higher in the early series. For series 1-5, the average target was 18.8. For series 6 onwards, the average target is 15.9. This seems to be a combination of being asked slightly fewer questions and getting a slightly smaller percentage of them right - see later in this page for details.

Target By No. Of Players In Final Chase

As mentioned above, the average target for series 1-5 was considerably higher than the average target set for series 6 onwards. So the following table is split accordingly.

Target By No. Of Players In Final Chase

Table showing all of the targets set by number of players in the final chase. In this case, it is specifically the target the team set after their 2 minutes are up. It doesn't include any push forwards that may occur in the 2nd part of the final chase. The 3 most common counts for each number of players are highlighted in gold, silver and bronze respectively.

Chaser Wins By Target

However, if we separate the data by old series (1-5) and new series (6 onwards), it gives a much better perspective of the performance. For series 1-5, a target of 24 would see the chasers losing more times than not. But for series 6 onwards, this number drops to 20.

Speed In The Final Chase

Specifically, this is the number of questions answered in 2 minutes. For the players it is obvious how this is calculated. For the chasers, the length of the final chase varies from as little as about 30 seconds up to the maximum of 2 minutes. For each series, I have added up the number of questions answered, and the time taken to answer them, and divided one by the other to work out the average number of questions the chasers get through in 2 minutes.

The speed in the final chase has varied quite a lot throughout the series. Series 2-5 were by far the quickest for solo players, teams and chasers, with figures dropping steadily since. For solo players this peaked at 28-29 for series 2-5, and is now at about 23. For teams this peaked at 25-26, and is now about 21. For chasers this peaked at 30 and is now about 25.

Given that solo players don't have to press the buzzer before answering, you would expect them to answer more questions than teams who do have to buzzer. In the early series, a solo player would answer 2-4 more questions than a team. However, since series 7 it has been under 2 questions. The chaser will answer 1-2 more questions in 2 minutes than a solo player. Really this is to be expected. They are professional quizzers, who have been in this situation numerous times, so why wouldn't you expect them to be quicker than someone who is under the glare of the TV lights for the first time?

Accuracy In The Final Chase

ie. The percentage of questions correctly answered in the final chase.

This is the main area where the subtle difference between a Lazarus player (0) and a solo player winning their way into the final (1) is shown. A Lazarus team pick their strongest player. So, it isn't too surprising that on average they get a higher percentage of questions right, than a solo player who may or may not be the strongest player in the team. Over 2 minutes, this increase equates to almost 1 extra step.

As you would expect, on average, the more players you have in your team, the higher the percentage of correct answers in the final chase is. Over the course of 2 minutes, you can almost add 1 extra step for each extra player you have in the final, on top of the extra step head start you get for having them in the first place.

Even full house teams are nowhere near as accurate as the chasers. But then the team to do get a head start, plus the opportunity to push the chaser back, which makes things a more even contest than they would otherwise be.

Note:

• 0 players in the final chase denotes a Lazarus team. ie. a team where all 4 players were caught in their head-to-heads, and 1 of them returned to do the final chase.

Pushback Accuracy In The Final Chase

ie. The percentage of pushback opportunities taken.

As you would expect, on average, the more players you have in your team, the higher the percentage of pushbacks you are able to take. Teams of 3 or 4 tend to take more than half of the attempts.

Note:

• 0 players in the final chase denotes a Lazarus team. ie. a team where all 4 players were caught in their head-to-heads, and 1 of them returned to do the final chase.

Chaser Wins By Number Of Pushback Attempts

Typically, a chaser can get up to 6 questions wrong, and still be more likely to win the final chase than lose.

Chaser Wins By Number Of Pushbacks Taken

If a team can take 3 pushbacks, then typically they have a 1 in 3 chance of winning. Take 4 pushbacks and this rises to 2 in 3. Take 5 pushbacks and it rises to 5 in 6. And only once have a team lost when taking 6 or more pushbacks (to Shaun in series 4). These numbers look quite favourable, but the big catch is, if the chaser isn't getting the questions wrong, the team can't push them back.