I was on Andrew O’Keefe’s game show The Chase. Here’s what he was really like behind the scenes at Channel Seven – as his life secretly spiraled

For viewers of Channel Seven’s hit series The Chase, Andrew O’Keefe had all the ingredients of a game show host: charm, energy, good looks and well-timed jokes.

But when I joined the show in 2019, I saw what O’Keefe was really like when the cameras weren’t rolling.

The show, which sees four contestants answer general knowledge questions and compete against a trivia fanatic, was O’Keefe’s last TV role after he was axed from Weekend Sunrise in 2017.

And behind the scenes, O’Keefe was a very different persona to the charming on-screen persona he had developed for Australians as a breakfast TV presenter and host of Deal or No Deal.

O’Keefe was sarcastic and venomous from the moment the cameras rolled, putting both the contestants and crew on edge.

As we, the contestants, introduced ourselves, he joked about the hobbies of one of the contestants and “jokingly” said that they might want to “try something more exciting.”

It got a polite smile, but the person on the other end of the line later told me he felt bad that his idol had laughed at him in front of the entire studio.

The moment did not make the final selection.

O’Keefe’s characteristic energy made him like to film at a fast pace, and he became irritated when others couldn’t keep up.

At one point I saw O’Keefe get angry at the crew when they had to re-do some takes, sarcastically saying, “I don’t want to sit here all morning,” and being furious about the delays.

Then a crew member came to us and apologized on O’Keefe’s behalf, telling us that he was “under a lot of stress” filming so many episodes at once.

Another awkward moment was when O’Keefe made fun of me and the other candidates for getting questions wrong.

After I was taken off the show, O’Keefe made a sarcastic comment about how much more he expected from me, and laughed as if it were a joke.

The honest truth is that his intimidating presence put me on edge. I struggled to answer questions that I could have easily answered correctly at home, because I was worried that O’Keefe might laugh at me for getting the answer wrong.

All the contestants walked away empty-handed during my episode. O’Keefe jokingly told us that we could get a “Chase water bottle” as a consolation prize.

After the show, another contestant took me aside and told me he hoped the episode would never air because he felt “humiliated” by O’Keefe and “didn’t want his family to see it.”

Meanwhile, someone else told me that he wished he had never signed up, given the experience he had had.

Although the episode aired several months after filming, O’Keefe’s rude behavior was not on display, leaving viewers to think we were all having a great time.

O’Keefe’s carefully crafted media image was a far cry from the uptight game show host I saw that day.

This was shortly before O’Keefe’s contract with Channel Seven was terminated, following widespread complaints about his off-screen behaviour, which came as no surprise to me, given what I saw of him during filming.

By Steve Jackson

Within moments of Andrew O’Keefe being shoved onto the presenters’ couch for Weekend Sunrise’s biggest broadcast of the year, the show’s producers knew they had a problem.

There was something wrong with the regular host.

At first they were concerned about the strange way he walked and how he looked somewhat dazed and confused.

Then he began to speak.

His speech was unclear, his remarks were erratic and inappropriate – and then there were the strange, spontaneous fits of laughter.

It was Saturday, May 28, 2017, and the country’s most popular breakfast news program was reporting on the most anticipated event of the year.

Nearly 12 years after she was convicted of attempting to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into Bali, Schapelle Corby returned to Australia.

The show’s hardworking producers and crew had been planning every moment of the network’s extensive coverage for months.

Now it looked like their efforts would be overshadowed by the strange behavior of the show’s star host.

At one point during the broadcast, Angela Cox, O’Keefe’s co-host, admitted that his random gibberish even “confused” her.

He was later caught openly looking at his mobile phone during a live broadcast with a Weekend Sunrise reporter.

It wasn’t long before Seven’s switchboard was flooded with calls from concerned viewers: ‘Is AOK OK?’ ‘Is he having a stroke?’ ‘He looks “tired and emotional”‘ ‘Is he drunk on TV?’

Daily Mail Australia was the first outlet to notice the strange spectacle that unfolded at Seven’s famous Martin Place studios in Sydney.

But within minutes of the story about the star’s unusual antics being published just after 8am, Seven’s army of spinners had already sprung into action.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with O’Keefe, they insisted.

He was simply overwhelmed by Corby’s dramatic homecoming.

Behind the scenes they knew better.

The famous star’s life went into free fall when he ‘medicated’ himself with drugs and alcohol.

Asked about O’Keefe’s troubling performance in 2017 this week, Seven insiders struggled to pinpoint the cause.

Not because it was so trivial, but because it had become so disturbingly commonplace that year.

“Are you slurring your words on the radio in 2017? When?!,” a senior source replied when asked about it by Daily Mail Australia.