Why people are praising The Chase star Paul 'Sinnerman' Sinha

Paul Sinha has been open about his sexuality in his comedy routines.

But fans of The Chase were rocked when The Sinnerman revealed he was gay during an instalment of the ITV quiz show, mentioning his sexuality for the first time on the programme, the Daily Mail reports.

The trivia expert's comments prompted a flurry of fan comments, praising the TV personality for being open.

The revelation came when host Bradley Walsh asked: "In what well-known racing video game are bananas and turtles thrown?"

"Grand Theft Auto", Paul replied, guessing at random.

When the right answer - Mario Kart - was revealed, Paul laughed: "My ex used to play Mario Kart all the time … he also said I never paid attention to him."

One fan shared, "So I didn't know until tonight that Paul Sinha on The Chase is LGBT", while another posted, "Eh Paul Sinnerman off The Chase is gay? Wouldn't of guessed (sic)."

Fellow Chaser Anne Hegarty summed up the social media furore with a sarcastic tweet, writing, "#thechase Twitter has just discovered that @paulsinha is gay. Well done, Twitter."

Another posted: "Just watched @paulsinha talk about his ex-boyfriend on the @ITV quiz show #TheChase and it's definitely welcome! Thank you for being open."

As Paul's fans took to social media in their droves to insist it was "old news", the TV star jokingly wrote, "My wife's gonna kill me".

The Chase has made a welcome return after it was replaced throughout May by new game show Babushka in its highly popular teatime slot.

Hosted by reality star-turned-presenter Rylan Clark-Neal, the brand new Russian-themed show gives contestants the chance to win up to £44,000 hidden in eight nesting dolls.

In order to open a doll, contestants must give a correct answer to a true or false question. Get a question wrong and all the banked cash is lost, while if players open an empty doll, they lose all of their banked cash.

But Babushka failed to win the hearts of viewers, who took to Twitter to express their disappointment branding the show 'rubbish' and 'the biggest load of toilet' within minutes of it starting.

This article was first published on Daily Mail and is republished here with permission.