
Beloved Channel Seven show 'facing the axe' amid ratings bloodbath
The popular game show, The Chase Australia, is reported to be on the chopping block.
According to News Corp, a search is 'said to be underway' to find a replacement for the program, which has been running on Seven since 2015.
The reason for the shifting attitudes towards the Larry Emdur-hosted game show is apparently lacklustre ratings that have failed to win its 5pm time slot.
The long-running series has been consistently bested by Channel Nine game show rival Tipping Point, hosted by Todd Woodbridge which airs at the same time.
A look at this week's TV ratings shows The Chase behind Tipping Point each day, albeit by a relatively small margin.
Thursday's episode of The Chase attracted 1,315,000 viewers, while Tipping Point gained 188,000 more fans at 1,503,000.
It was a similar story for the rest of the week, with The Chase experiencing its best ratings day on Monday at 1,476,000 - still 58,000 viewers behind Tipping Point.
The publication claimed that the ratings results are causing 'panic' in the upper echelons at Seven, with the decision to axe or not to axe falling to Angus Ross - Seven's recently appointed Group Managing Director of Television.
However, the claims come after Seven recently rubbished a claim by News Corp that the network were looking to replace Larry as host of The Chase in a bid to 'revive' the show.
'The Chase doesn't need reviving. It remains very competitive in its timeslot, delivering a big audience night in, night out,' a Seven spokesperson told the publication in April.
'We are about to launch a new push for the show, offering the biggest cash prize in its history.
'Larry will absolutely continue to host The Chase. To suggest otherwise is nonsense and deliberately misleading.'
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Seven for comment.
The rumours come as affable host Larry Emdur took to social media this week, sharing a cheeky post in which claimed an elderly woman had offered to pay him $10 to drop his pants.
The alleged incident took place in a public park while the 59-year-old Channel Seven star was taking a morning walk.
Larry said that the stranger had offered to pay him the money so she could see his 'a***' which is tattooed with the initials of last year's Gold Logie nominees.
The fan favourite, who is notorious for sending up his fame on social media, had his bottom inked live on The Morning Show the day after taking home the coveted TV prize.
In the clip, Larry can be seen telling his followers that he scared off the woman - only to reveal that he is holding a $10 note in his hand.
'Good morning. The creepiest thing just happened to me [while] I was having my morning walk,' he said in the Instagram post.
He continued: 'A lady was walking towards me and she about 75-80 years old and she saw me - this is the weird life of someone on TV.
'And she turned around and said to me, ''I'll give you $10 to show me the tattoo of the Gold Logie on your a***." And I said what?
Larry then explained that the woman repeated her request.
'And I said, ''You're crazy'' - you want me to drop my pants in a public park for $10?
'Anyway, I must have scared her off because she ran off in that direction,' Larry said waving a $10 note.
Larry's followers quickly showed their enthusiastic approval for his joke post.
'Thank goodness you took the money!!' one fan messaged.
'This is GOLD,' added another, while a third follower simply gushed, 'Totally hilarious as always.'
Larry made headlines last August after securing his first ever Logie Awards on when he took home a Silver and secured the Gold at the 2024 ceremony at the Star in Sydney.
And the next day he was forced to make good on a bizarre promise he made the week before, stripping off his pants on live breakfast TV and getting a tattoo on his backside.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Chaser Paul Sinha makes brutal jibe about fans of the ITV game show - calling out 'unemployed' watchers
Chaser Paul Sinha has taken a brutal swipe at viewers of the hugely popular ITV game show - calling keen fans 'unemployed'. His quick wit and fiery authenticity has made Paul, aka The Sinnerman, a fan favourite on The Chase. Colleague and fellow Chaser Anne Hegerty, known by the moniker The Governess, has previously described him as the most 'fearsome' Chaser. But when he's not playing fiercely on the show, he's performing stand up comedy around the country. Arriving at the Ealing Comedy Festival on Thursday, the 55-year-old kicked off his set with a playful jab at watchers of The Chase, the Express reported. 'Welcome to you, and a special welcome to those of you in full-time employment, as you won't have a clue who I am,' he said - in a cheeky nod to the show's airing time of 5pm on weekdays. But Paul did not shy away from laughing at himself, as he poked fun at his player name The Sinnerman, saying: 'It's a s*** name. It means f*** all. It makes me sound like a low-budget superhero!' The ITV quizzer, who first qualified as a doctor before turning to comedy, even poked fun at his family names. 'My mum's name is Smith,' he said. 'It's an unusual maiden name for someone with full Bengali heritage, but there is an explanation - which is I'm lying. I made it up.' Paul later admitted his mother's maiden name was actually Chakrabarti, which he joked has '17 variant spellings in the English language.' He added that he'd been 'locked out of so many online accounts' after selecting it as a security question. 'Many years ago, I made the pragmatic decision that my mum's name is actually Smith - it's not easy though, I tell you,' he continued. Paul joked that he'd made a successful career owing to his knack for 'box-ticking', as he falls into a number of 'diverse' categories. 'I'm a gay man and, I'll be honest, it's not a bad life - you're the only openly gay British Asian qualified doctor with Parkinson's Disease,' he laughed. The Chaser said that, after a long period of singledom between the ages of 18 and 41, he had finally found love. But, in a cruel twist of fate, he received his Parkinson's diagnosis the very same year he became a married man. 'When you see as many doctors as I do, your life is a rollercoaster, your career is a rollercoaster... tonight I'm in Ealing [but] two weeks ago I had a damage limitation gig with the production team at Masterchef! It's all happening for me!' This appeared to the audience to be a gesture to TV chef John Torode's recent dismissal from his BBC post following accusations he had used derogatory racialised language. Despite his buoyant tone, it has been a difficult few years for Paul, who acknowledges that his disease could eventually leave him 'expressionless' and 'immobile'. Nonetheless he insisted he was facing the future with 'good cheer and optimism', as proved by the riotous comedy set that drove his audience to (happy) tears. The London-based doctor has previously opened up about his declining health, having admitted he suffered two heart attacks in the same week but refused to call an ambulance for a 'stupid' reason. Paul told of his ordeal on an episode of Good Morning Britain to presenters Susanna Reid, 54, and Ed Balls, 58. He said the ordeal happened while he was at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 to perform a run of shows. He explained of his set at the Scottish arts festival: 'It was a bit of a wild show. 'It was very much about my life as a gay, disabled son of immigrants but it was quite a political show, and it was a big show. 'I was in a room with 400 people in and it all got on top of me and I had two heart attacks in the same Edinburgh Fringe. 'Two! Week number one and week number three.' Paul explained the first heart attack happened while he was 'shaking the hand of Levi Roots', who he had been introduced to in a bar. As he greeted the businessman, known for pitching Reggae Reggae Sauce on Dragons' Den, he felt 'a crushing, tightening chest pain'. Having previously worked as a GP before entering showbusiness, the quizzer explained: 'As my years of medicine made me remember, it was not like anything I'd ever felt before and I knew it was cardiac. 'But I didn't want to cause a scene so I just walked into a cab. 'I didn't want to call an ambulance because I thought, "I might as well just get into a cab to take me to the nearest hospital as quickly as possible", which is what I did.'


Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Kristy McNichol, 62, was a BIG teen star who worked with Matt Dillon and Tatum O'Neal... see her now
Kristy McNichol was a huge TV and movie star in the 1970s and 1980s. The brunette with the big grin was best known for playing the tough daughter on the hit TV series Family. The role landed her magazine covers and a massive following. McNichol also played Leticia 'Buddy' Lawrence on Family, Patricia Apple on Apple's Way, and Barbara Weston on Empty Nest. She also appeared in the 1978 NBC movie Summer of My German Soldier and the 1980 cult classic Little Darlings with Tatum O'Neal. And there were the TV shows like Starsky & Hutch, CHiPs, The Bionic Woman and The Love Boat. She retired from her TV career in 2001 to teach acting at a private school in Los Angeles and has since devoted much of her time to charity work The star was spotted in Los Angeles this week during a power walk. She was dressed for comfort in a white T-shirt, black shorts, a maroon jacket and sneakers with cropped short hair. The actress has kept a low profile since she left Hollywood in the 90s - foregoing social media and only showing up to some press events. Like many child stars, she wasn't the only sibling trying to make it big. McNichol's brother Jimmy started out alongside her in commercials before the two parted ways to go on solo gigs. It would take only a few years for her to land one of her biggest roles as Letitia 'Buddy' Lawrence in the TV drama Family which ran for four years from 1976 to 1980. McNichols would win two Emmy Awards and was only 14 years old when the show began, but her cheeky tomboy persona endeared her to fans and set her on a trajectory of success for the next two decades. She would also dip her toes into the music industry alongside her brother through the musical numbers that would feature on TV specials. This would segue into the pair recording an album Kristy and Jimmy McNichol for RCA Records. As her popularity grew, she developed a cult following for ABC's Battle of the Network Stars which was a celebrity sports show she typically dominated in. Her face became heavily associated with the network and her work on the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier was critically acclaimed. But it would be her leading role in the 1980 coming-of-age film Little Darlings alongside Tatum O'Neil that would make her a heartthrob for teenagers - the premise being two girls with opposite and clashing personalities bunking together at summer camp and making a bet to see who can lose their virginity first. At this point, McNichols was on a high, starring alongside Dennis Quaid and Mark Hamill in The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1980) and Only When I Laugh (1981) which got her nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Unfortunately, 1982 would be the year she began to question her career path. The former actress told People Magazine that on her way to the set of Just the Way You Are, she felt she was 'on the brink of a total emotional collapse'. She had dealt with years of success, eight movies by that time, creepy advances by directors and unresolved questions about herself. Throughout the filming of that film, she said she mustered the energy to pull through the scene since that's what she knew all her life and then turned into a 'sad little lost animal in the darkness'. Her weight dropped, depression skyrocketed and was constantly haunted by strange dreams. And when she finally refused to continue filming the movie, even though she returned on set a year later, the rumors of her mental state flew throughout the tabloids. The culprit? The intense pressures of child stardom. McNichol returned to TV a few more times, making appearances in Women of Valor (1986), You Can't Hurry Love (1988) and Two Moon Junction (1988). Her final big role was in 1988 as Barbara Weston in Empty Nest, a spin-off of the Golden Girls, but she left the show four years later after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 2001, she announced she had retired from acting and retreated to her Sherman Oaks home. But she would come back into the public eye to reveal her biggest secret that had been the cause of speculation for years: her sexuality. McNichols came out as a lesbian in 2012 and revealed that she had lived with her girlfriend, Martie Allen, for over 20 years. It took decades to bring forth publicly, but McNichol said she hoped it may stop some children from becoming victims of homophobic bullying. The former actress also said when she came out that another reason for discussing her sexuality now was because she is 'approaching 50' and wants to 'be open about who I am.'


Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Our TV experts have picked the 20 best shows and films to stream this weekend, from Keeley Hawes on killer form in the Mediterranean to Danny Dyer reprising the outrageous comedy role that won him a Bafta
Back by popular demand, our TV experts are on hand with their weekly roundup of the best films and shows to watch right now. If you're in the mood for a new comedy show from a British icon or a thrilling spy series from the creator of Peaky Blinders, then this is exactly the list for you.