Chase viewers complain after 'correct' answer penalised

From Digital Spy

Viewers of The Chase have questioned whether a team was unfairly penalised, after a seemingly valid answer was declared as incorrect.

Contestants Elaine and Avril had made it to the final chase in Tuesday evening's (January 16) episode, when they set Mark Labbett (aka The Beast) a target of 17.

The Beast reached 11 out of 17 with 38 seconds remaining on the clock, when he was stumped by a question.

Related: 12 of the daftest answers ever given on The Chase

"What name is given to a female pony?" host Bradley Walsh asked.

The Beast gave an incorrect answer ("jill"), and so the two-person team – hoping to win and split the £14,000 prize between them – were given the chance to set the chaser back one step.

They gave the answer "filly".

Related: 9 hilarious times Bradley Walsh completely lost it on The Chase

"Wrong. The correct answer is mare," Bradley replied.

But some people took to social media to complain that actually, "filly" should have been given as a valid answer.

The word "filly" is used to describe a female horse (or pony) under the age of 4, while "mare" describes an adult horse. And because the question never specified the age of the pony, "filly" could be seen as technically correct:

To make matters worse, Elaine and Avril ended up going away empty-handed as The Beast reached his target of 17 with only five seconds to spare...

Ouch.

The Chase airs on ITV.

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