Beat the Chasers fans were left riled up on Wednesday night after Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen missed out on the chance to bag £30,000 by the skin of his teeth.
Bradley Walsh was back hosting the ITV quiz show and saw Llewelyn-Bowen, Shobna Gulati, David James and Will Bayle try their luck against Chasers Mark Labbett, Anne Hegerty, Shaun Wallace, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan and Darragh Ennis.
During the cash-builder round, Llewelyn-Bowen answered five multiple-choice questions and managed to bank the maximum of £5,000 before deciding to go up against the Chasers.
After being given the choice of facing two or more Chasers, Llewelyn-Bowen decided four would be his ideal number and maximise his chance of winning £30,000 with 38 seconds on the clock.
Feeling anxious, the 59-year-old told Walsh: "It certainly feels like a very exciting opportunity to go big. Look at you all. But I'm going to go with 38 (seconds)."
The round was extremely tense as Llewelyn-Bowen showed off his general knowledge skills but was unfortunately beaten by the Chasers with just one second to spare.
Laurence was caught with one second to spare from the chasers
ITV
"Literally down to the wire. Good answers," Walsh praised Llewelyn-Bowen before the furniture designer quipped: "I will be back. And I will have you all."
Despite missing out on the chance at £30,000, Llewelyn-Bowen was still awarded £1,000 for his chosen charity - Shooting Stars Children's hospice.
However, fans of the show were annoyed with the outcome and some claimed they'd spotted a peculiar trend with the respective timers.
One X user took to the social media site to blast the supposed feature as they fumed: "Getting very annoyed with #beatthechasers @ITV. The contestant's countdown clock starts instantly."
Paul recently opened up about his Parkinson's diagnosis at 49 years old
ITV
Another fumed: "Bradley says their name; the chaser clock starts a second after he has said their name. Every. Single. Time. So fixed. It’s a shame as the premise is ok."
"There's a smell of a fix about this one #beatthechasers," a third claimed.
While a fourth penned: "Damn, the Chasers beat Laurence Llewellyn Bowen with only a second to spare. They honestly should have just given him that because it was close enough. #BeatTheChasers."
"Laurence was about to win, but he was THIS close by 1 second…! #BeatTheChasers," one said before a sixth noted: "1 second! It came down to… one… bleeding… second! #BeatTheChasers". (sic)
Elsewhere, Chaser Paul Sinha recently opened up about being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019 at the age of 49 and how determined he was to continue working.
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The Changing Room star narrowly missed out on £30k
ITV
He told the Daily Star: "I'm trying to prove to the world that Parkinson’s doesn’t have to be the end of somebody’s story… that you can carry on doing the things you love.
"The important thing is to not let it define you."