The Chase expert reveals 'lost' celebrity special episode which ITV 'won't broadcast'

A superfan of The Chase has claimed there is one 'lost' episode of the programme that the channel 'refuses' to broadcast. ITV has repeated hundreds of episodes of the much-loved quiz show, but there is a celebrity special, featuring ITV News stars, which aired just once, much to the frustration of the self-confessed Chase 'obsessive'.

In 2013, ITV news presenters Matt Barbet, Charlene White, Romilly Weeks and Alastair Stewart were invited on to the show, presented by Bradley Walsh, for a charity special but, according to the die-hard fan from Kent, 52, the star-studded episode has never been repeated.

He told MailOnline: "Occasionally they have an episode which isn't part of the regular production. Most of the episodes fall into the daytime series or the celebrity series, but the Text Santa episode was a standalone and that's why it's never been repeated."

Pointing out the episode promoted the channel's Text Santa campaign, he said producers would have a 'hard time pixelating' the now outdated information, suggested this is why it only aired once.

He said: "It had all the Text Santa logos and phone numbers all over it telling you how you could text in. So they would need to do a bit of work to pixelate various parts of that.

"There was a previous Text Santa episode, but I think that one was just part of the regular series, so that one has been repeated on Challenge and so on."

Having started collecting statistics about the show back in 2016, the superfan has also been to watch live recordings of The Chase three times.

Lifting the lid on what viewers don't see on the show, he said that the condensed 45-minute package presented to viewers is actually a precise edit of more than three hours of recording.

Revealing that Bradley chats to the crowd before the cameras start rolling, he said: "There's little things. When Bradley first chats to the contestant, that's a lot longer than they ever edit for TV.

"When he's asking the questions, he's at a podium, but when you do the next bit at the table, the podium is not in the shot anymore. So there's little things they have to do to rearrange the set."

Another Chase fan spilled the beans on what goes on behind the show recently after appearing on the programme as a contestant.

Taking to social media, happy to answer fans' questions about the show, Alexander said he'd had a "novel experience", adding that the "whole crew was super friendly". However, lifting the lid on Bradley's conduct, he said The Larkins star "swore a lot", which he wasn't expecting.

Explaining that any expletives were edited out, he shared: "He [Bradley] was just as nice in real life. What surprised me is that he swore a bit, and they just edited that out."

Adding that "the joking around is pretty much nonstop, and it’s a chill atmosphere", Alexander said he didn't have much time to interact with the presenter because of the tight schedule. However, he did say that "going down to London, filming for TV, and meeting someone like Bradley and the Chasers is also a very novel experience".

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