Fans of The Chase were left frustrated on Thursday evening (June 11) after tuning into ITV only to discover Bradley Walsh and the Chasers had vanished from the schedules.
The long-running quiz show is usually a staple of ITV’s weekday line-up at 5pm. However, viewers hoping to settle down with their daily dose of trivia were met with a surprise schedule shake-up instead.
The Chase taken off air by ITV
TV viewers expecting to watch The Chase at 5pm yesterday were left disappointed when the popular game show failed to appear.
The programme normally airs every weekday from 5pm until 6pm on ITV1.
Instead, ITV opted to show Jeremy Clarkson’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire spin-off, Millionaire Hot Seat, in the slot.
The repeat episode aired before ITV Regional News at 5.30pm, while ITV Evening News was brought forward to 5.45pm from its usual 6.30pm slot.
Coverage of the 2026 World Cup, being hosted across Canada, Mexico and the USA, then got underway at 6.15pm.
The football coverage caused a major reshuffle across ITV’s evening schedule. With news programmes moved earlier, there was no room for an hour-long episode of The Chase. Millionaire Hot Seat, which runs for 30 minutes, was able to fit into the revised line-up.
The Chase fans fume as ITV’s World Cup coverage affects schedules
The unexpected change did not go down well with some viewers, who quickly took to social media to voice their frustration.
“WHERE’S #THECHASE FFS bloody World Cup upsetting me already,” one fan fumed.
“Just to compound a thoroughly miserable day, there is no #TheChase on tonight. FML,” another said.
“What’s this crap?!” a third said of Clarkson’s show.
More bad news for fans
Unfortunately for fans, the schedule changes are set to continue next week.
World Cup coverage begins at 4pm on Monday and runs through until 7.30pm, meaning there will be no Lingo, Tipping Point or The Chase in their usual slots.
Tuesday’s ITV schedule will also be heavily affected by racing coverage, which starts at 1.30pm and continues until 6pm.
Racing coverage is then set to dominate the schedule on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday too.
So viewers hoping to catch The Chase live on ITV may have a bit of a wait on their hands before things return to normal.
Read more: The Chase viewers slam contestant’s ‘press and guess’ tactics in Final Chase: ‘You messed that up!’
The Chase is available to stream on ITVX now.