The Chase star Shaun Wallace breaks silence on rumours he’s been ‘sacked’ from ITV game show

Chase star Shaun Wallace has responded to rumours he has been ‘fired’ from the ITV game show.

Shaun, 64, aka the Dark Destroyer, revealed the real reason why he is sometimes absent from the show.

The 2004 Mastermind champion, who works as a successful lawyer when not on the quiz show, explained that his occasional absences are due to his legal commitments.

Speak about The Hearing – A Legal PodcastShaun said: ‘If I have a long court case, that will take precedence over my filming, and Chase knows that. But then I have to come up with my other episodes later in the series.

“So when people see me… haven’t seen me on TV in a long time… ‘Is he fired?’ No, just back to my legal career.

Shaun, aka the Dark Destroyer, revealed the real reason why he is sometimes absent from the show

Shaun, who has worked in law for more than 30 years, does admit his TV role “could be over tomorrow”, he told New Zealand Woman’s Weekly.

This comes after Shaun’s co-star Anne Hegerty, a Chaser since season two, admitted she is ‘concerned’ for the future of the quiz show as ITV cuts its budget.

Anne told The Star: ‘We have plans for next year and we’re doing fewer shows. All the streaming services have ads now.

‘So channels like ITV are having to compete for advertising dollars. That means less money is coming from advertising. Every aspect of the media is feeling the pressure at the moment.’

‘Of course you’re always a little worried, but you’re also always happy when you hear that there will be more episodes.’

Anne added that she “can’t imagine life without” The Chase, which she has been involved with since 2010.

Chase fans vowed to ‘switch off’ after just minutes of the show on Monday, after one Chaser admitted they were ‘concerned’ about the series due to ITV’s budget cuts.

In Monday’s episode, Lily, a sociology student at the university, went up against Paul Sinha, statistically the strongest Chaser on the show.

The 2004 Mastermind champion, who is a successful lawyer when he’s not on the quiz show, explained that his occasional absences are due to his legal commitments

However, Shaun, who has been in the legal profession for more than three decades, does acknowledge that his TV role ‘could be over completely tomorrow’

This comes after Shaun’s co-star Anne Hegerty, a Chaser since season two, admitted she is ‘concerned’ about the future of the quiz show as ITV makes cuts

Lily, 20, struggled to answer just three questions correctly in the cash builder game and after going head-to-head with Paul, 54, at the table, she was quickly eliminated after only being able to answer one question correctly.

Viewers were annoyed by Lily’s poor performance on The Chase, presented by Bradley Walsh, and took to X, formerly Twitter, to express their displeasure.

They wrote in scathing tweets: ‘Really I can’t stand it when they don’t have a clue about the Chase. I’m tuning out.’