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Bradley Walsh reveals how he 'cheated' ITV bosses to land job on The Chase

1 February 2022, 10:35

Funniest moments on The Chase

By Heart

@thisisheart

The Chase star Bradley Walsh has said he 'cheated' his way to the job 13 years ago.

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Bradley Walsh has fronted The Chase since all the way back in 2009, but now the presenter has admitted he actually cheated to bag the job.

The 61-year-old confessed that while filming the pilot, he challenged one of the chasers to a quiz in a bid to get it made into a full series.

Speaking to Heart’s sister station Capital on Monday, the star said: “I’ve gotta fess up as well.

“When we first did the job, the only two choices that were first there were actually The Beast and The Dark Destroyer, right? And we were doing an office run through, and this is to get the job up and running.

Bradley Walsh has starred on The Chase since it began in 2009. Picture: ITV

“And I said ‘this is ludicrous. these questions are so easy.’ And they said ‘what do you think you could beat the Chaser?’

“I said ‘if I beat the Chaser, we'll make a series, let's do that.’ And they went ‘yeah, alright, if you can beat the Chaser.’ Because they thought that general public won't be able to beat these gurus, right?

“And I went ‘Oh I'll definitely beat them, if I can beat them, we’ll make the series, alright?’”

The star added: “And this is absolutely true - what they didn't realise was the sheets with the questions and the answers on were lying face down on my end of the desk, I could see the print through and I could read the answers backwards and I read them.

Bradley Walsh said he 'cheated' his way to The Chase job. Picture: ITV

“So every time they come in on the head to head as if they were at the table, I’d smash both of them.

“And as I walked away, I took the piece of paper and put it on the the other table so no one saw it. So I'd actually cheated.”

The Chase has since become one of the UK’s most popular shows, airing every weekday on ITV.

Meanwhile, Bradley previously opened up about what it’s like behind the scenes on the show, revealing that sometimes lawyers have to step in.

Bradley told Radio Times: "If there is a slight misread, I am stopped immediately – bang – by the lawyers.

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"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."