For viewers of Channel Seven’s hit show 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, in which four contestants answer general knowledge questions while competing against a trivia fan, was O’Keefe’s last TV role after being axed 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 host of breakfast shows and Deal or No Deal.
O’Keefe was sarcastic and acerbic from the moment the cameras started rolling, putting contestants and crew on edge.
As the contestants were introducing themselves, he made fun of one of the contestants’ hobbies and “jokingly” said that they might want to “try something a little more exciting.”
This elicited polite laughter, but the person who received it told me later that she felt sad that her idol made fun of her in front of the entire studio.
The moment didn’t make the final cut.
Andrew O’Keefe (pictured) hosted The Chase before the network dropped it in 2021. None of the contestants mentioned above are the person who wrote this story.
Meanwhile, O’Keefe’s characteristic enthusiasm meant that he liked to film at a very fast pace and became annoyed when others couldn’t keep up.
At one point, I saw O’Keefe angrily yell at the crew when they had to do some retakes, sarcastically telling them, “I don’t want to be here all morning,” and raging about the delays.
A crew member then approached us and apologized on O’Keefe’s behalf, telling us he was “really stressed” from filming so many episodes at once.
Another awkward moment was when O’Keefe made fun of me and other contestants for answering questions wrong.
After I was eliminated from the show, O’Keefe made a sarcastic comment about how much he expected of me and laughed it off as a joke.
To be honest, his intimidating presence made me nervous. I had a hard time answering questions that I would have been able to answer correctly at home, because I knew that O’Keefe might make fun of me if I answered incorrectly.
All of the contestants walked away empty-handed during my episode. O’Keefe sarcastically told us we could have a “Chase water bottle” as a consolation prize.
After the show, a fellow contestant took me aside and told me he hoped the episode never aired because they “felt humiliated” by O’Keefe and “didn’t want his family to see it.”
Meanwhile, someone else told me that they wished they had never signed up, given the experience they had had.
Behind the scenes, O’Keefe was a completely different person: his charming on-screen persona had disappeared and he became sarcastic and acerbic.
O’Keefe with The Chase icon ‘The Governess’ aka Anne Hegerty, one of the ‘Chasers’
Although the episode aired several months after filming, O’Keefe’s gruff behavior was not shown, leading viewers to think that everyone was having a great time.
O’Keefe’s carefully constructed media image was completely different from the uptight game show host I saw that day.
This was shortly before O’Keefe’s contract with Channel Seven was terminated amid many complaints about his off-screen behaviour, which came as no surprise given what I saw of him during filming.
What I saw did not match O’Keefe’s reputation for kindness and good humor that he cultivated on Deal or No Deal, a higher-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 that didn’t fit with the long-time host.
At first, they were concerned about his strange hunch and his somewhat dazed and confused appearance.
Then he started talking.
His words were slurred, his comments erratic and off-key, and then there were the odd burst of spontaneous laughter.
It was Saturday 28 May 2017 and the country’s long-running number one breakfast news programme was covering the most anticipated event of the year.
Within moments of Andrew O’Keefe sliding into the presenters’ couch alongside “confused” co-host Angela Cox, the show’s producers knew they had a problem.
Nearly 12 years after she was convicted of attempting to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into Bali, Schapelle Corby was returning to Australia.
The show’s hard-working producers and crew had been planning every moment of the network’s comprehensive coverage for months.
Now it seemed 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 that his random babbling was “confusing” even her.
He was later caught blatantly checking his mobile phone during a live segment with a Weekend Sunrise reporter.
It wasn’t long before Seven’s switchboard began filling up with calls from worried viewers: “Is AOK okay?”, “Is he having a stroke?”, “Does he seem ‘tired and emotional’?”, “Is he drunk on air?”
Daily Mail Australia was the first to notice the strange spectacle unfolding at Seven’s iconic Martin Place studios in Sydney.
But within minutes of posting a story about the star’s unusual antics at just after 8am, Seven’s army of spinners were in action.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with O’Keefe, they insisted.
I was simply overwhelmed by Corby’s dramatic comeback.
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 worrying appearance in 2017 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.
“Mispronouncing words on air in 2017? At what point?” a senior source responded when asked about it by Daily Mail Australia.