The Chase's Mark Labbett 'earns as much as pro footballers' on spin-off show
Mark Labbett has revealed The Chase stars can earn more money from appearing on their ITV spin-off show than the regular programme.
The 57-year-old – who is dubbed The Beast on the weeknight show – said that when he and his co-stars film Beat The Chasers they can earn extra cash. This is on top of the set fee they each earn per episode of The Chase.
He joked the wage top up during the week-long special series - in which all the Chasers appear rather than quiz teams battling it out against one of them - can be so much that they “earn like Premier League footballers”.
And Mark said given the chance he’d like to “purge half” of his fellow Chasers, such as Anne Hegerty, Shaun Wallace, Jenny Ryan, Paul Sinha and Darragh Ennis so he could pocket even more money for himself.
Speaking about the spin-off show at the National reality TV Awards, Mark told the Daily Star: “That’s the week we earn like Premier League footballers, so of course I’ll do it. If I could get away with it, I’d purge half of them because the fewer Chasers there are, the more money I get.”
ITV officially axes popular Bradley Walsh series after huge ratings slumpMark also revealed that despite the popularity of the ITV quiz show hosted by Bradley Walsh, the channel is cutting back on regular episodes of the series from next year. He said: “We film three shows a day, normally four days a week. We do 200 odd shows a year, but it’s dropped to 160 next year.”
The Chase is filmed all over the world and Mark has appeared on both the UK, US and Australian versions – but he shared the wages Down Under are the worst and said he is “glad I don’t have to rely on the Australian money”.
However, the Chasers certainly aren’t short of money, as it is thought Mark is now worth a cool £12.3 million since he became one of the brainboxes on The Chase back in 2009.
Off-screen he has also bagged himself a new girlfriend, TV presenter Hayley Palmer, after splitting with ex-wife Katie, who he shares six-year-old son Lawrence with. And in the past few years he has lost around 10 stone.
In a surprising confession, Mark recently shared he has a secret longing to appear on - and it's an ambition new girlfriend Hayley believes she can help him achieve.
Speaking to she said: "He really wants to do Strictly. And I used to be a dancer as well, so I’d be able to help him." Hayley has since shared she’d like to appear on a rival show like Dancing on Ice.
*The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV1 and ITVX