Sunset+Vine is to produce a highlights show of the 2019 World Chase Tag Championships for Channel 4 that will be shown on British terrestrial television for the first time next month.
Sunset+Vine introduced the sport, which is based on the simple playground favourite game of “tag” or “It”, to the broadcaster as a potential new proposition for television.
Invented by brothers Christian and Damien Devaux, the sport began in earnest in 2016 and has quickly built a cult following. Chase Tag consists of two players – a chaser and an evader – in an arena with various obstacles which players can use to evade being tagged by their chaser. The chaser has 20 seconds to catch their opponent and prevent them from scoring a point.
The Chase Tag World Championships brings together the world’s best professional Parkour athletes and free runners to compete head to head in an obstacle based arena that’s full of thrills and spills. The World Chase Tag Governing Body oversees the game.
Andrew Preece, Executive Director, Sunset+Vine said: “Channel 4, once again, has demonstrated its commitment to brining innovative sports programming to its screens. World Chase Tag is yet another example of how the broadcaster is supporting a new for TV format that has real potential to become cult viewing for existing and new audiences.”
Mike Brosnan, Executive Producer on the production, at Sunset+Vine, added; “When we first came across this hi-octane form of ‘It’, we could see that Chase Tag was not only spectacular and intense when played by the pro-athlete but was also a sport which was being increasingly played competitively between men and women of any age. Channel 4 immediately recognised the potential and wanted to be the first in the world to bring it to a TV audience.”
The 2019 World Chase Tag Championships will be held at York Hall, Bethnal Green, London on Saturday 24th August. Channel 4 will broadcast highlights of the event, produced by Sunset+Vine and presented by Vick Hope, at midnight on Wednesday 18th September.
Staff Reporter
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