October 31, 2025 • 12 mins
You’ll know quiz queen Anne Hegerty best for her on stage persona – the Governess.
She dominates tv screens every night on The Chase – with one of the best win rates of any chaser.
And now, Anne will be on our screens in a brand new kiwi version of the tv phenomenon – The Chase New Zealand.
She joins Jack Tame to share her secrets to trivia-based success.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
B and Hegety aka the Governess is a friend of
the show and beloved member of the Chase. She dominates
TV screens every night with one of the best win
rates of any Chaser. And now Ann is going to
be on our screens in a brand new Kiwi version
(00:32):
of the TV phenomenon. Yes, The Chase New Zealand premieres
this week Monday night, seven thirty on TV and TV
one and TV and Z Plus. And Anne Hey aka
the Governess, is with us this morning, Kiolda and welcome
back to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thank you very much. Indeed it's actually the evening here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes, yes it is. Indeed, nothing gets past you. It
is so good to be speaking with you, and to
be speaking with you once again. I mean, last time
you were on the show, you know, we talked a
little bit about the incredible impact that The Chase is
head around the world. But what does it say to
you that the show is now so popular you're bringing
(01:12):
it down under.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's absolutely great. I mean I've known for some years
that the British show is really popular in New Zealand.
I think it's watched by about two thirds of the
population in any given week, which is fantastic. I believe
that Jacinda Arden even mentioned it to Boris Johnson a
few years ago. You know, our countries have so much
in common. We both love The Chase. And I suspect
(01:37):
that Boris doesn't actually watch The Chase. Who had no
idea what he's on about.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So I could imagine Boris being a fan of the Chase,
or fancying himself as a chaser, don't.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You he might do. I mean, there's a certain demographic
in the UK that is more likely to watch it,
and it's not really Boris's demographic, right, but loads and
loads of people you know, obviously do watch it. We're
getting around. We still get around three million viewers a
day here in the UK at five o'clock in the afternoon,
(02:10):
when you know, which is not a bout you consider
an awful lot of people are still traveling home from work.
So and I've always you know, as I say, I've
known for years how popular the British show is in
New Zealand. So it's absolutely brilliant. They finally decided to
make a KEYWI version that's excellent.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Can you distill a magic Why do you think it's
so popular?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It's just a really good format. It took them some
time to work out the format, but you know now
that they have it, actually, you know, really does work.
And people can pick up the show, you know, as
they're coming in from work, and they can just look
and they see, you know, where we're out, how many
seats have gone, how much money there is in the pot,
(02:50):
and it's easy to follow. I think that's what people
like about it. Yeah, and there's the opportunities. There are
opportunities to be funny, as opportunities for the host to
be funny and the chasers to be funny. And you know,
no two shows are ever alike.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So how does the New Zealand version can hear from
your experience?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I think we've made a really nice little show. It's
it's only we've only done four episodes because these are
special was going out in prime time rather than you know,
the five o'clock show that we do here. But I
would love it if if it took off and I
got invited to come back to do more. I think,
you know, I think I think it actually really worked.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, Oh, that's good to hear what did you think
of the host?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I wasn't sure what I was going to make of him.
I've read a bit about him, so I was a
little wary. And then we actually Easter and I actually
met him for dinner and he was absolutely delightful and
he was just really good to work with. I had
a lot of fun working with it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He is a real character, isn't he.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I found it was very easy to take the mick
out of him, and he enjoys having the mick taken
out of him, and you know, I can, I can
just sort of make him thoroughly uncomfortable, huge fun, yes,
and he really sort of plays up to it. So
it's great.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Actually, oh that's really good. Yeah, now he's he's the
absolute perfect host. As soon as they announced the chase
was coming, everyone in New Zealand's like, oh my godness,
that's so great. We were saying, who's going to who's
going to be hosting it? And when they announced it
would be Paul, oh my goodness that the whole country
was absolutely delighted. So I'm pleased to hear that. And
without giving too much away, have they tailored the questions
(04:31):
specifically for an Antipodean audience and content.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
They're more sort of general knowledge questions, but there is
quite a bit of specifically New Zealand stuff and and
I think perhaps not quite expecting that, and we had
to get up to speed quite fast. So I'm going
to be you know, if and I really hope this happens,
if if the show comes back, then you know, I'll
be doing sort of quite a lot of deep dives
(04:58):
into into New Zealand topics and learning how to pronounce thing.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yes, yes, I can imagine that's tricky. So how did
you go about trying to study New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
My first protocol tends to be Wikipedia. I tend to
look things up on there and then sort of, you know,
follow links to find out other things. I've only ever
been to New Zealand once, which was in twenty seventeen,
I think, when I visited Auckland, and it was lovely
and everyone was lovely to me, So you know, it'd
be great to go back. Yeah, but you know, even
(05:33):
if you don't go back, there are a lot of
things that you can actually learn. So yeah, I mean
I learned, for example, that I've always said Samoa and
Samoan and apparently New Zealand is some more and some
more or something like that. Yeah, right, I'm like, okay,
got to remember that.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
But and are you trying to, like, do you have
a strategy for trying to learn dates or trying to
learn key historical figures in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I've never really had a strategy for learning anything. It's
always extremely haphazard. I just thought to follow what interests me,
and then I'll have to sort of, you know, try
and learn more stuff, certainly about your sports teams, because
I always have to learn more stuff about sports teams
and yeah, not really my sort of thing, but obviously,
(06:21):
you know, Kiwis do love their sports, so I'll have
to do that a bit more about your history and
your geography and where places are, Like I said, I've
really only ever been to Auckland, right, and that's it.
But yeah, and so you're reading a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You basically go on to Wikipedia and then do you
go down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole? Do
you just sort of get onto a thread and then
and then click on a link through there and then
click on another link.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Basically, yes, a lot of Wikipedia surfing. And I know
people say, oh, you can't trust Wikipedia. It's fairly trustworthy actually,
certainly on sort of technical things. I don't think it's
actually going to start giving me the wrong date for
the Treaty of White Tangia or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. I mean, I hope for your
sake that we do have lots more at New Zealand shows,
because if you've had to study our entire history, geography
in every Captain of the All Blacks going back to
the Originals, then you know there's a lot of information
that's probably not going to get a whole lot of
use in unless.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
You Yeah, I mean, you never know what might come
up in a quiz, and especially you know, I do
do international quising. I take part in the I couldn't
take part in the World Championships this year because I
was actually filming in Sydney at the time, But you know,
I try and do that. I try and do the
(07:42):
various I'm part of an online quiz league that has
that's mostly Americans, right, so I try and sort of
learn American stuff, And it would actually be very useful
if there was a question on New Zealand. The Americans
wouldn't know and I would so you know that's going
to be useful.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So do you notice a difference when you're quizzing with
people from around the world, or indeed when you're when
you're filming The Taste New Zealand, do you notice a
difference in not the intelligence levels, but in the recall
of people from different areas.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I think the Brits, especially the English, are an advantage
because we do have this quizzing culture. You know, we
go out quizzing. I mean, I'm going out to a
quiz in about what's the time? About an hour and
a half, right, And I'm also I would normally do
the quiz tomorrow, but I'm not so I tend to do,
(08:35):
you know, quizzes at least twice a week, and that
kind of keeps your brain really fresh. And I think,
you know, Australians that perhaps are not doing that sort
of thing are maybe as a disdvantage. But you know,
I certainly haven't noticed that either Australians or New Zealanders
are less intelligent. It's just that they don't quite have
(08:55):
our quizzing culture. But I mean Easter, for example, he
did take part in the World Championships and I think
he came up that fourteenth or fifteenth, which is fantastic
out of the entire world. I mean, if I had,
if I had taken part, I would be aiming to
be in the top hundred, and I would not guarantee
that I would be because there are so many good
quizers out there, and clearly you know, is is really
(09:18):
one of the best.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And so when you're going tonight to the quiz, is
it at a pub? Is it like a pub quiz?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It is in a pub.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So there are two things. There are pub quizes. You
probably have the same sort of thing, you know, where
where teams have have funny names and there are lots
of teams and there are lots of rounds, and there's
a music round and there's a picture around and things
like that. That's actually not what I'm doing tonight. What
I'm doing tonight is a league quiz which we've taking
place in a pub. But it's just two teams obviously
(09:50):
to each other. My team. My team is as the
really catchy name of Farnham Common Social Club and we're
going to be playing the Swan. In fact, it's the
Swan A because there's two Swan teams and we are
playing at the Swan in fact, so the idea is
to beat them, which we sincerely hope we will.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes, I was going to say, because I can imagine
if you were just turning up to a sort of
a you know, like a random Tuesday night pub quiz
with you know, a few colleagues who had had a
couple of beers and were eating some you know, wedges
and things, and you turn up but sort of hardly
really people must well, okay, we're really competing for second here.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, I mean the thing is that actually the top
quizzes didn't generally not that great on pub quizzes. It
doesn't always suit us. I'm really not great on picture
quizzes for example. Interesting, we can't recognize people, right, so
you know, we would not necessarily be an advantage for
something like that. And the thing tonight, I mean, I
(10:54):
will probably be the most useful member of the team,
but not by much, right. And last year we did
win both the cup and the league, but that's only
our main rivals had a split and their best player left,
so we kind of came through the middle. But I
(11:14):
don't guarantee you that, you know, we'll actually defend it.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, well, speaking of drama, should we expeact a bit
of drama with the New Zealand Chase? I hope, So
don't give too much away. We don't want to know
if you won or last.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
But you know, you know what the Chase is like
and the final Chase, certainly you know that they they
have been setting decent targets, targets that have beaten me
in the past, targets that have beaten me in the past,
and you'll just have to watch and see what happens.
But you know, certainly I was taking nothing for granted.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, well, look, we are absolutely delighted and honestly and
we would love to have you here for a whole
lot longer. So if it does turn into a longer series,
we would we would welcome you with woken up with
with with open arms, and even though you say you're
not suited to quiz teams, we will take you with
my team anyway. Good luck this evening.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
How'd you stake you up on that?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Good luck? And we look forward to seeing you again
really soon. Thank you so much, thank you. That is
an higety ak the Governess from the Chase.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I love that show so much. I love and so
much and I am so excited about the Chase New
Zealand premier years Monday night, seven thirty pm, TV one
and TV n Z plus.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
B and Hegety aka the Governess is a friend of
the show and beloved member of the Chase. She dominates
TV screens every night with one of the best win
rates of any Chaser. And now Ann is going to
be on our screens in a brand new Kiwi version
(00:32):
of the TV phenomenon. Yes, The Chase New Zealand premieres
this week Monday night, seven thirty on TV and TV
one and TV and Z Plus. And Anne Hey aka
the Governess, is with us this morning, Kiolda and welcome
back to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thank you very much. Indeed it's actually the evening here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes, yes it is. Indeed, nothing gets past you. It
is so good to be speaking with you, and to
be speaking with you once again. I mean, last time
you were on the show, you know, we talked a
little bit about the incredible impact that The Chase is
head around the world. But what does it say to
you that the show is now so popular you're bringing
(01:12):
it down under.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's absolutely great. I mean I've known for some years
that the British show is really popular in New Zealand.
I think it's watched by about two thirds of the
population in any given week, which is fantastic. I believe
that Jacinda Arden even mentioned it to Boris Johnson a
few years ago. You know, our countries have so much
in common. We both love The Chase. And I suspect
(01:37):
that Boris doesn't actually watch The Chase. Who had no
idea what he's on about.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So I could imagine Boris being a fan of the Chase,
or fancying himself as a chaser, don't.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You he might do. I mean, there's a certain demographic
in the UK that is more likely to watch it,
and it's not really Boris's demographic, right, but loads and
loads of people you know, obviously do watch it. We're
getting around. We still get around three million viewers a
day here in the UK at five o'clock in the afternoon,
(02:10):
when you know, which is not a bout you consider
an awful lot of people are still traveling home from work.
So and I've always you know, as I say, I've
known for years how popular the British show is in
New Zealand. So it's absolutely brilliant. They finally decided to
make a KEYWI version that's excellent.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Can you distill a magic Why do you think it's
so popular?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It's just a really good format. It took them some
time to work out the format, but you know now
that they have it, actually, you know, really does work.
And people can pick up the show, you know, as
they're coming in from work, and they can just look
and they see, you know, where we're out, how many
seats have gone, how much money there is in the pot,
(02:50):
and it's easy to follow. I think that's what people
like about it. Yeah, and there's the opportunities. There are
opportunities to be funny, as opportunities for the host to
be funny and the chasers to be funny. And you know,
no two shows are ever alike.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So how does the New Zealand version can hear from
your experience?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
I think we've made a really nice little show. It's
it's only we've only done four episodes because these are
special was going out in prime time rather than you know,
the five o'clock show that we do here. But I
would love it if if it took off and I
got invited to come back to do more. I think,
you know, I think I think it actually really worked.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, Oh, that's good to hear what did you think
of the host?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I wasn't sure what I was going to make of him.
I've read a bit about him, so I was a
little wary. And then we actually Easter and I actually
met him for dinner and he was absolutely delightful and
he was just really good to work with. I had
a lot of fun working with it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
He is a real character, isn't he.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I found it was very easy to take the mick
out of him, and he enjoys having the mick taken
out of him, and you know, I can, I can
just sort of make him thoroughly uncomfortable, huge fun, yes,
and he really sort of plays up to it. So
it's great.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Actually, oh that's really good. Yeah, now he's he's the
absolute perfect host. As soon as they announced the chase
was coming, everyone in New Zealand's like, oh my godness,
that's so great. We were saying, who's going to who's
going to be hosting it? And when they announced it
would be Paul, oh my goodness that the whole country
was absolutely delighted. So I'm pleased to hear that. And
without giving too much away, have they tailored the questions
(04:31):
specifically for an Antipodean audience and content.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
They're more sort of general knowledge questions, but there is
quite a bit of specifically New Zealand stuff and and
I think perhaps not quite expecting that, and we had
to get up to speed quite fast. So I'm going
to be you know, if and I really hope this happens,
if if the show comes back, then you know, I'll
be doing sort of quite a lot of deep dives
(04:58):
into into New Zealand topics and learning how to pronounce thing.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yes, yes, I can imagine that's tricky. So how did
you go about trying to study New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
My first protocol tends to be Wikipedia. I tend to
look things up on there and then sort of, you know,
follow links to find out other things. I've only ever
been to New Zealand once, which was in twenty seventeen,
I think, when I visited Auckland, and it was lovely
and everyone was lovely to me, So you know, it'd
be great to go back. Yeah, but you know, even
(05:33):
if you don't go back, there are a lot of
things that you can actually learn. So yeah, I mean
I learned, for example, that I've always said Samoa and
Samoan and apparently New Zealand is some more and some
more or something like that. Yeah, right, I'm like, okay,
got to remember that.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
But and are you trying to, like, do you have
a strategy for trying to learn dates or trying to
learn key historical figures in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
I've never really had a strategy for learning anything. It's
always extremely haphazard. I just thought to follow what interests me,
and then I'll have to sort of, you know, try
and learn more stuff, certainly about your sports teams, because
I always have to learn more stuff about sports teams
and yeah, not really my sort of thing, but obviously,
(06:21):
you know, Kiwis do love their sports, so I'll have
to do that a bit more about your history and
your geography and where places are, Like I said, I've
really only ever been to Auckland, right, and that's it.
But yeah, and so you're reading a lot.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You basically go on to Wikipedia and then do you
go down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole? Do
you just sort of get onto a thread and then
and then click on a link through there and then
click on another link.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Basically, yes, a lot of Wikipedia surfing. And I know
people say, oh, you can't trust Wikipedia. It's fairly trustworthy actually,
certainly on sort of technical things. I don't think it's
actually going to start giving me the wrong date for
the Treaty of White Tangia or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. I mean, I hope for your
sake that we do have lots more at New Zealand shows,
because if you've had to study our entire history, geography
in every Captain of the All Blacks going back to
the Originals, then you know there's a lot of information
that's probably not going to get a whole lot of
use in unless.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
You Yeah, I mean, you never know what might come
up in a quiz, and especially you know, I do
do international quising. I take part in the I couldn't
take part in the World Championships this year because I
was actually filming in Sydney at the time, But you know,
I try and do that. I try and do the
(07:42):
various I'm part of an online quiz league that has
that's mostly Americans, right, so I try and sort of
learn American stuff, And it would actually be very useful
if there was a question on New Zealand. The Americans
wouldn't know and I would so you know that's going
to be useful.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So do you notice a difference when you're quizzing with
people from around the world, or indeed when you're when
you're filming The Taste New Zealand, do you notice a
difference in not the intelligence levels, but in the recall
of people from different areas.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I think the Brits, especially the English, are an advantage
because we do have this quizzing culture. You know, we
go out quizzing. I mean, I'm going out to a
quiz in about what's the time? About an hour and
a half, right, And I'm also I would normally do
the quiz tomorrow, but I'm not so I tend to do,
(08:35):
you know, quizzes at least twice a week, and that
kind of keeps your brain really fresh. And I think,
you know, Australians that perhaps are not doing that sort
of thing are maybe as a disdvantage. But you know,
I certainly haven't noticed that either Australians or New Zealanders
are less intelligent. It's just that they don't quite have
(08:55):
our quizzing culture. But I mean Easter, for example, he
did take part in the World Championships and I think
he came up that fourteenth or fifteenth, which is fantastic
out of the entire world. I mean, if I had,
if I had taken part, I would be aiming to
be in the top hundred, and I would not guarantee
that I would be because there are so many good
quizers out there, and clearly you know, is is really
(09:18):
one of the best.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And so when you're going tonight to the quiz, is
it at a pub? Is it like a pub quiz?
Speaker 3 (09:24):
It is in a pub.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So there are two things. There are pub quizes. You
probably have the same sort of thing, you know, where
where teams have have funny names and there are lots
of teams and there are lots of rounds, and there's
a music round and there's a picture around and things
like that. That's actually not what I'm doing tonight. What
I'm doing tonight is a league quiz which we've taking
place in a pub. But it's just two teams obviously
(09:50):
to each other. My team. My team is as the
really catchy name of Farnham Common Social Club and we're
going to be playing the Swan. In fact, it's the
Swan A because there's two Swan teams and we are
playing at the Swan in fact, so the idea is
to beat them, which we sincerely hope we will.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes, I was going to say, because I can imagine
if you were just turning up to a sort of
a you know, like a random Tuesday night pub quiz
with you know, a few colleagues who had had a
couple of beers and were eating some you know, wedges
and things, and you turn up but sort of hardly
really people must well, okay, we're really competing for second here.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, I mean the thing is that actually the top
quizzes didn't generally not that great on pub quizzes. It
doesn't always suit us. I'm really not great on picture
quizzes for example. Interesting, we can't recognize people, right, so
you know, we would not necessarily be an advantage for
something like that. And the thing tonight, I mean, I
(10:54):
will probably be the most useful member of the team,
but not by much, right. And last year we did
win both the cup and the league, but that's only
our main rivals had a split and their best player left,
so we kind of came through the middle. But I
(11:14):
don't guarantee you that, you know, we'll actually defend it.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, well, speaking of drama, should we expeact a bit
of drama with the New Zealand Chase? I hope, So
don't give too much away. We don't want to know
if you won or last.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
But you know, you know what the Chase is like
and the final Chase, certainly you know that they they
have been setting decent targets, targets that have beaten me
in the past, targets that have beaten me in the past,
and you'll just have to watch and see what happens.
But you know, certainly I was taking nothing for granted.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, well, look, we are absolutely delighted and honestly and
we would love to have you here for a whole
lot longer. So if it does turn into a longer series,
we would we would welcome you with woken up with
with with open arms, and even though you say you're
not suited to quiz teams, we will take you with
my team anyway. Good luck this evening.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
How'd you stake you up on that?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Good luck? And we look forward to seeing you again
really soon. Thank you so much, thank you. That is
an higety ak the Governess from the Chase.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I love that show so much. I love and so
much and I am so excited about the Chase New
Zealand premier years Monday night, seven thirty pm, TV one
and TV n Z plus.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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