The Chase star Anne Hegerty has opened up about how she is affected by the arrival of a new Chaser.
Darragh Ennis made his debut as The Menace on the ITV quiz show earlier his month.
He joined the likes of Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan and Anne as one of the contestants’ potential quiz nemeses.
But Anne, 62, has suggested the group will earn less when a new Chaser is recruited. That’s because she claims they are paid on a per-performance basis.
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Furthermore, host Bradley Walsh’s filming schedule and the coronavirus pandemic have also disrupted The Chasers’ bookings, according to Anne.
Speaking on The Lewis Nicholls Show on YouTube, Anne admitted she had competing thoughts about a new hire for the show.
We get paid a flat fee for every show that we do.
Anne reflected: “This is a tricky one, because a lot of the public imagine that we are on the same sort of deal that Hollywood stars are in the 1930s.
“They got paid a salary per month, per year, and they were salaried employees at the studio and the studio would find them things to do for that salary.
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“That isn’t actually how that works.
Anne Hegerty on The Chasers’ pay scale
“We, The Chasers and Bradley, we 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, you know, do the maths.”
Anne on Bradley Walsh
Anne also explained that The Chasers’ schedules had already altered due to demands on Bradley’s time.
She continued: “The problem is, Bradley is, because he’s so in demand and so good, so superb at everything he does and can do so many different things, and so of course he’s massively in demand.
“And there’s about 10 other things he’s doing besides the daytime Chase. A lot of the time we’ll find, ‘You know that filming block that was booked in, we are not filming that week after all’.
“It turns out, Bradley was doing another game show or something like that. And that’s a period of time where we aren’t working.
“Then obviously, you add in a global pandemic and last year, because Bradley was still doing Doctor Who, we only recorded 93 shows. And we should’ve recorded twice that already.
“This year we were hoping to make up for it and do 150, 160, and then well that didn’t happen. So we hoped we will catch up in the spring but then again it all depends on whether Bradley’s available, it depends on a lot of whether one of these vaccines work out.”
Anne Hegerty reacts to fans
Reacting to an article’s headline about her comments, Anne denied she was having a go at her new colleague.
“It’s really not a ‘swipe’, is it?” she tweeted.
“As I said in the article, if Darragh’s popularity means higher ratings and more longevity for the show, then everyone benefits.”
Anne also responded to another social media user who suggested the terms of her contract were not great.
She disagreed: “Well, no, it’s pretty standard that you get a fee per show you do.
“And we are each guaranteed a certain number of shows per series.”
ED! has contacted ITV for comment.
– The Chase airs weekdays from 5pm on ITV.
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