Beat The Chasers shock as The Beast offers contestant £100k prize with record easy time advantage

BEAT The Chasers star Mark 'The Beast' Labbett tempts a contestant with a mammoth £100,000 offer in tonight's show - with an easier time advantage.

The quizzer gives Luigi a shot at a life-changing sum if he can defeat all five Chasers, who have 49 seconds to the contestant's 60.

It's double as much as the next highest offer of £50k to take on Mark's four co-stars - with a smaller time advantage.

The foursome would have had 50 seconds to defeat Luigi as he tried to bank the £50k, and there were shockwaves when Mark deducted one second from his offer - for double the money.

The Beast says: "You're right, Luigi. They weren't generous offers. Unlike the others I've read the rule book from back to front. So I'm going to offer you 49 seconds on the clock and a 100 grand says you can't beat all five of us. Come up and play!"

Traditionally, Chasers offer more money for a higher amount of time, which makes the competition more difficult for contestants, with The Beast's decision to reduce the seconds for the highest offer a show first.

Luigi needs next to no time to consider the offer and snaps his hand off.

He says: "I'm only here once. Seeing as Beasty has been so generous, I'll go for the hundred thousand."

If successful, Luigi will win the biggest prize pot yet. A contestant called Rahim nearly won the same sum, but fell agonisingly short by just one second.

Last night Kat Glennie-Soares from Essex won £50,000 by beating all the show's quizzers in just 40 seconds and revealed she didn't even prepare beforehand.

Nerves prevented her from swotting up in the run-up to the show, and it appears to have been a lucky masterstroke.

She said: "As soon as I knew I was going on, I couldn't prep.

"Honestly, I was just too stressed about filling my brain with things I didn't necessarily need to know. I just thought I'd go on and see what happens. 

"So, when it came to it, I just decided to relax. At home spa days and chilling… but it came around so quickly. All of a sudden it was the day."

No one had beaten Mark, Shaun Wallace, Paul Sinha, Jenny Ryan and Anne Hegarty's combined brainpower until Kat came along.

The brunette chose to face all five Chasers to secure a staggering £50,000 - with the quizzers offering her a 10-second time advantage.

But they ended up fumbling over some of their questions, and though it initially looked like Kat was going to walk away empty-handed, things took a turn.

Kat had 20 seconds on her clock to the Chasers' 14 when Mark and Jenny both answered questions incorrectly and ran out of time.

Gold confetti fell from the studio ceiling as Kat put her hands to her mouth in pure disbelief.

All five Chasers cheered on her success, with Shaun even giving her a standing ovation as she left.

Meanwhile, host Bradley Walsh offered emotional Kat his hankie as she sobbed, telling her: "I'm so thrilled for you!"

Discussing her victory, ecstatic Kat has since revealed that she didn't even realise she'd won at first.

She explained: "I didn’t look at the clocks. When it first started I was answering their questions in my head – I had to tell myself off to stop answering their questions.

"I knew something had happened at the end, but I couldn’t hear what was going on with the Chasers. In the end I had no idea. It was such a shock to me that I’d won. That’s why I was so emotional!"

Kat added: "I needed to win enough to pay for a wedding, so, I knew I was always going to go against at least four.

"When the offers came I thought I might as well go for it.

"You’re only going to be there once, aren’t you? It was almost an easier decision in that all of the time offers were the same."

Viewers at home were thrilled by Kat's success and flocked to Twitter to share their excitement at the win.

One wrote: "Aww well done Kat! Got me a bit emotional there."

Another added: "Honestly wasn’t sure if she was going to do it, but so pleased she did. Well done Katherine!! Well done!"