The Chase: Former contestant hired as ITV show’s new competitive quizzer

Darragh Ennis appeared on the show in 2017

A former contestant on The Chase has joined the show as its newest competitive quizzer.

Darragh Ennis, a postdoctoral researcher, appeared on ITV’s daytime quiz programme in March 2017, impressing fans by bringing £9,000 to the table, only to be low-balled by minus offers from his fellow players which left the team with a communal cash prize of £2700.

However, TV bosses clearly took a shining to Ennis, with the Irish scientist revealing on Twitter that he had already shot for the new series.

“I’m really excited to be the sixth chaser on #TheChase,” Ennis wrote.

“I’ve been working hard on this for a while now and can’t wait for my episodes to air. Well the ones I win anyway.”

Ennis was welcomed to the team by fellow Chaser Paul Sinha, who tweeted: “The night before they producers told us, Anne and Mark and I sat at dinner and pondered ‘Could it be a former contestant’. I said, ‘If it is, the best player I faced was an Irish guy who looked a bit like Micky Flanagan’ Welcome to the club mate. [sic]”

Ennis will join Sinha, as well as Mark Labbett, Shaun Wallace, Anne Hegerty and Jenny Ryan, who currently serve as the show’s quiz champions, or Chasers, going head to head with the contestants in an attempt to stop them winning the cash prize.