To the viewers of Channel Seven’s hit 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 was a contestant on the show in 2019, I saw what O’Keefe was really like when the cameras weren’t rolling.
The show – where four contestants answer general knowledge questions while competing against a trivia buff – was O’Keefe’s final TV role after being cut from Weekend Sunrise in 2017.
And behind the scenes, O’Keefe was a completely different person from the charming on-screen persona he had cultivated with Australians as a breakfast TV and Deal or No Deal host.
O’Keefe was sarcastic and snarky from the moment cameras began to roll – and had contestants and crew on edge.
As we the contestants introduced ourselves, he made fun of one participant’s hobbies, and ‘jokingly’ said they might want to ‘try something a little more thrilling’.
It sparked a polite chuckle – but the person on the receiving end later told me they felt sad their idol mocked them in front of the entire studio.
The moment didn’t make the final cut.
Andrew O’Keefe (pictured) hosted The Chase before he was dumped by the network in 2021. None of the above contestants are the person who wrote this story
Meanwhile, O’Keefe’s trademark pep meant he liked filming at a very fast pace – and became annoyed when others could not keep up.
At one point, I saw O’Keefe angrily snapped at the crew when they had to do some retakes, sarcastically telling them, ‘I don’t want to be here all morning’ and fuming over delays.
A crew member then came over to us and apologised on O’Keefe’s behalf, telling us he was ‘under a lot of stress’ from filming so many episodes at once.
Another uncomfortable moment was when O’Keefe made fun of me and other contestants for getting questions wrong.
After I was eliminated from the show, O’Keefe made a snarky remark about how he expected so much more from me, and laughed like it was a joke.
The honest truth is his intimidating presence made me feel on-edge. I struggled to answer questions I would have easily gotten correct at home, because I was mindful of how O’Keefe might mock me over an incorrect answer.
All the contestants walked away empty handed during my episode. O’Keefe snidely told us we could have a ‘Chase water bottle’ as a consolation prize.
After the show, a fellow contestant pulled me aside and told me they hoped the episode never aired because they ‘felt humiliated’ by O’Keefe, and ‘didn’t want their family seeing it’.
Meanwhile, someone else told me they wished they had never signed up given what the experience was like.
Behind the scenes, O’Keefe was a completely different person – his charming on-screen persona was gone and he became sarcastic and snarky
O’Keefe with The Chase icon ‘The Governess’ – aka Anne Hegerty – one of the ‘Chasers’
Although the episode aired several months after it was filmed, O’Keefe’s curt behaviour was not featured, leaving viewers to think we were all having a great time.
O’Keefe’s carefully constructed media image was completely different to the tense game show host I saw that day.
This was only a short time before O’Keefe’s contract with Channel Seven was terminated, amid many complaints about his off-screen behaviour, which didn’t come as a surprise to me given what I saw of him during filming.
What I saw did not match O’Keefe’s reputation for kindness and good humour that he cultivated on Deal or No Deal, a more high profile game show
By Steve Jackson
Within moments of Andrew O’Keefe sliding 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 not quite right about the long-standing host.
At first, they were concerned about the odd way he was slouching and how he appeared somewhat dazed and confused.
Then he began to speak.
His words were slurred, his comments erratic and off-kilter – and then there were the strange outbursts of unprompted laughter.
It was Saturday, May 28, 2017 and the nation’s long-standing number one news breakfast program was covering the most highly anticipated event of the year.
Within moments of Andrew O’Keefe sliding onto presenters couch alongside ‘confused’ co-host Angela Cox, the show’s producers knew they had a problem
Almost 12 years to the day since she was convicted of attempting to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into Bali, Schapelle Corby was returning to Australia.
The program’s hard-working producers and crew had been plotting every moment of the network’s wall-to-wall coverage for months.
Now it looked like their efforts were about to be overshadowed by the strange behaviour of the show’s star presenter.
At one point during the broadcast, O’Keefe’s co-host Angela Cox admitted his random babbling was ‘confusing’ even her.
Later, he was caught blatantly checking his mobile phone during a live segment with a Weekend Sunrise reporter.
It wasn’t long before the Seven switchboard started lighting up with calls from concerned viewers: ‘Is AOK okay?’ ‘Is he having a stroke?’ ‘He looks “tired and emotional”‘ ‘Is he drunk on-air?’
Daily Mail Australia was the first outlet to notice the strange sideshow playing out from Seven’s landmark Martin Place studios in Sydney.
But within minutes of publishing a story about the star’s unusual antics a little after 8am, Seven’s army of spinners had swung into gear.
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 high-profile star’s life was in free fall as he ‘self-medicated’ with drugs and alcohol.
Asked about O’Keefe’s troubling 2017 appearance this week, Seven insiders struggled to pinpoint the occasion.
Not because it was so trivial but because it had become so disturbingly common that year.
‘Slurring his words on-air in 2017? Which time?!’ one senior source replied when queried by Daily Mail Australia.
