The Chase Australia host Larry Emdur celebrates huge ratings win: ‘A very proud old game show host bimbo’

It’s been a constant ratings success for years, but Larry Emdur’s game show has just achieved an unthinkable victory over every show on Australian TV.

It might not be in a prime time slot, but The Chase Australia has achieved a massive ratings victory over every entertainment show on TV this week.

The popular game show, hosted by Larry Emdur, began broadcasting on Seven in 2015, and consistently comes ahead of its direct rival, Nine’s Hot Seat with Eddie McGuire, coming out on top in 2022 winning 40 weeks with a total audience of 829,000.

And on Tuesday, it managed to attract the most eyeballs over all TV entertainment programs, including those in the coveted 7.30pm slot.

The Chase, which screens at 5pm, aired to a whopping 567,000 viewers across the five-city metro rankings on Tuesday, well ahead of Hot Seat, which had 408,000.

It also pipped the likes of prime time powerhouses, including Ten’s MasterChef Australia, which aired to 472,000 households, Seven’s Highway Patrol which came in at 350,000, ABC’s 7.30 report, which had 438,000 and Nine’s new reality show The Summit, which had 395,000 viewers.

Larry Emdur is host of The Chase.

Eddie McGuire hosts Nine’s Millionaire Hot Seat.

Further, The Chase came in well ahead of The Project, which aired at 7pm to 307,000 viewers. The only programs ahead of The Chase on Tuesday were the Seven and Nine early evening news bulletins, and A Current Affair.

Emdur, who took over on the show in 2021 after former host Andrew O’Keefe’s contract wasn’t renewed, took to Instagram to celebrate his game show’s huge win.

Sharing a photo of his TV screen, which showed one of the Chasers, ‘The Governess’ Anne Hegerty, Emdur thanked fans of the show for tuning in each afternoon.

“Thank you for making The Chase the number 1 Entertainment show in Australia [Tuesday] night,” he wrote.

“We had a bigger audience between 5-6pm than the big dogs in prime time, that makes me a very proud old game show host bimbo.”

And its success over the “big guns” wasn’t a one-off, with The Chase yet again leading the ratings over prime time programs on Thursday night with 543,000 viewers, ahead of MasterChef (390,000), Nine’s NRL coverage (338,000) and Home And Away (451,000).

MasterChef has largely been ahead of its competitors in the ratings this season.

It comes amid reports Nine is testing new formats in its 5pm slot to level up the competition.

Last month, the network denied swirling rumours Millionaire Hot Seat was headed for the axe, despite putting out casting calls for new game shows.

The series began airing in 2009 as a spin-off to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which McGuire also helmed from 1999 until 2006.

But a recent casting call fuelled rumours Hot Seat could be canned to make way for a local version of popular UK game show Tipping Point, which airs on Nine in the 3pm timeslot.

An official call-out from Endemol Shine Australia – the production company that makes Tipping Point – was posted on Twitter in April, revealing the show was filming “Australian episodes” in the UK.

Nine declined to comment on a local version of Tipping Point when approached by news.com.au.

It seems a move to record local episodes of Tipping Point follows similar plans from Nine to make Australian episodes of US quiz show Jeopardy!

The network confirmed in April that British comedian Stephen Fry would host a six-part special featuring Australian contestants. It began filming this month in Manchester, UK.

TV Blackbox editor Robert McKnight speculated the new program offerings from Nine could form a temporary “stunt” in Hot Seat’s timeslot to “test the waters” among viewers.