'The Chase': Who is Sara Haines? A closer look at her career, from ABC News correspondent to show's latest host
A new season of 'The Chase' is around the corner, complete with a new host. Sarah Haines will host the series where professional quiz masters go up against new contestants, who are competing for the grand prize. Before the show begins, we take a look at her life and career, leading up to the show's release.
Sara Haines was born in Newton, Iowa in 1977, whose career in entertainment began with the NBC Page Program shortly after her graduation. The NBC Page Program is a fellowship at the NBCUniversal's studio in New York City – a highly selective program that only takes in about 1.3 % of its applicants. After about nine months in the program, Haines was promoted to production coordinator for NBC's Today at Rockefeller Center in 2002. In 2009, she became one of the show's contributing correspondents before leaving to become an ABC correspondent in 2013.
Haines' ABC career began with her becoming a correspondent for ABC News, in addition to being the anchor for pop news on the weekend edition of 'Good Morning America.' While there, she also made a number of other appearances, including becoming a guest co-host for the talk show 'The View.' In 2016, she became a fixed member of the show's team of hosts and would remain there until 2018, when she moved to co-host 'GMA Day' with Michael Strahan, for which the show was renamed 'Sara and Strahan'. The show's name was changed again in 2019 when Keke Palmer joined, to 'Sara, Strahan and Keke.'
In 2020, Haines would return to 'The View' in her previous capacity as frequent guest co-host, until GMA's reformatting in the same year. After several guest spots on 'The View,' Haines once again took up a spot as one of the show's permanent members, joining Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Meghan McCain and Sunny Hostin. She has been on maternity leave since October but returns to the show in January.
In November of 2020, the announcement for a revival of classic quiz show 'The Chase' was made, and Sara Haines was announced its host, bringing in all-new contestants to face up against quiz masters like James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter.
'The Chase' airs January 7 at 9 PM ET, on ABC.