On Dec. 5, the station that produces the controversial Chinese reality show Chase Me, Zhejiang TV, broke their silence and apologised for 35-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian Godfrey Gao's death.

Gao passed away after collapsing while shooting an episode of Chase Me at around 1:30am on Nov. 27, 2019.

Furious fans have been demanding greater transparency to what happened that night and a formal apology from Zhejiang TV.

But the station had remained silent after two brief statements.

Apologised and announced to end Chase Me

In an exclusive interview published on Dec. 5, titled 'Sorry, we did not manage to protect dearest Godfrey', a director from Zhejiang TV, Lin Yong, said that the team is remorseful and reproaching themselves for what happened to Gao.

Zhejiang TV also announced that the station will cancel the reality show Chase Me.

Lin admitted that they did not manage to protect Gao and explained their radio silence.

He said that the team was focusing on bringing Gao's family to China as well as flying his body back to Taiwan.

They also respected the family’s wishes to keep things low profile and therefore had not said anything after the two statements.

Now that they have settled related matters in China, the team is ready to reveal more about the incident and announced to end the controversial programme for good.

Lin also said that Zhejiang TV will send representatives to attend Gao’s funeral in Taiwan on Dec. 15.

What happened after Gao collapsed

Lin described what happened that night during the shoot when Gao collapsed but the replies did not answer all 20 questions that the fans had demanded.

Lin said that at around 9:30pm on Nov. 26, Gao started filming the episode with other celebrities.

According to Lin, Gao participated in two games and spent the rest of the time watching others. At around 1:26am, Gao started the competitive segment of the show. He slowed down after running about 600m before collapsing to the ground at around 1:30am.

After finding something amiss, the director called the ambulance on standby over, the celebrities standing nearby also came to Gao.

A minute and 46 seconds after Gao's collapse, the paramedics on standby started to resuscitate him for about 20 minutes before sending him to the hospital.

After two hours, the hospital pronounced his death.

Lin added that there would be professional medical officers on standby at every shoot. That night, there were two ambulances, two drivers and three paramedics. The ambulances were well-equipped and had AED which they used it on Gao.

The ambulance that netizens claimed to see at 2am was actually the third ambulance that arrived upon receiving a call from the crew members. This ambulance was not used in the end.

They have already kept the relevant footage and evidence for authorities to verify.

The piece ended off with Lin remembering Gao as a well-loved artiste and the team had tried their best:

“Godfrey is a kind, positive and well-loved artiste. We are unable to bring him back to life no matter how hard we tried and we would like to express our deepest apology once again and willing to bear the responsibility to his death.

Godfrey, rest in peace.”

Top photo collage via Weibo