In March 2012, the Chaser announced the 2013 election series, tentatively called The Election Hamster. It was announced that it will be called The Hamster Decides and the first of five episodes was to air on 21 August 2013. When Kevin Rudd announced the change of election date from 14 to 7 September, the first episode was brought forward one week to 14 August. The show was run at a timeslot of 9:15pm on Wednesday. The set used was the same set as The Hamster Wheel.