The Chase fans were in uproar on Friday (February 7) as a contestant suffered a staggering defeat, with one viewer gasping "what on earth" at the shocking turn of events.

In the latest instalment of ITV's popular quiz show, teammates Sarah, Arash, Suzanne, and James hoped to snag a substantial amount of money.

Sarah, a 41-year-old optical advisor, kicked things off by racking up £6,000 in her cash builder round. When faced with Darragh Ennis, also known as The Menace, she opted to play it safe with the middle offer.

Initially answering questions confidently and maintaining a significant lead over the chaser, who stumbled on some answers, it seemed Sarah was on track to victory.

Host Bradley Walsh praised her efforts, saying: "Chaser remains three behind, one more and we're home and dry. Get this right and you'd actually have had two goes at £30,000, so you're a good player," reports .

However, the tables quickly turned after a tricky punctuation question that many viewers claimed was "obvious". This allowed Darragh to catch up and ultimately eliminate Sarah from the game.

Astonished by the sudden change in fortunes, Bradley exclaimed, "I mean, I've got to be honest, we were four ahead!" to which Sarah responded: "I just got unlucky."

Darragh chimed in with commiseration and perspective: "Yeah, you did get unlucky, but you are going to look back at that colon [question] and it'll haunt you for the rest of your life.

"That wasn't the hard question, you should have got that one. Otherwise, you were streets ahead, you should have got home. Very unlucky."

Viewers were left gobsmacked after Sarah's dramatic exit from the show, and they quickly flooded X (formerly ) with their reactions. One stunned viewer tweeted: "How on earth did she lose that?"

Another couldn't hold back, posting: "Absolute insane choke," and a third was equally baffled: "What just happened?"

One more fan couldn't believe it, remarking: "Shocker absolute shocker the colon question was one of the easiest questions ever asked on #thechase."

Darragh indeed hit a winning streak as he sent both Arash and Suzanne packing. The final contestant, James, had an impressive run bagging £80,000 but was unfortunately caught in the show's nail-biting final chase.

The Chase airs weekdays at 5pm on ITV1