Countdown is a UK TV words and numbers game, based on the French original, "Des Chiffres et Des Lettres", and was the first programme broadcast on Channel 4, on November 2nd, 1982. It is produced by ITV Studios in Manchester, England, although until recently, almost every edition was made in the Yorkshire Television studios at Leeds. The programme is presented by Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley. Until July 2005, it was hosted by the late Richard Whiteley. It was presented by Des Lynam from October 2005 to December 2006 and by Des O'Connor from January 2007 to December 2008. Carol Vorderman appeared in almost every edition of the show from November 1982 before leaving at the end of 2008. Countdown is currently aired on Channel 4 from Monday to Friday at 3.25 p.m. with a repeat an hour later on Channel 4+1.
** All statistics now updated to 18th December. **
** To read the latest commentary (14th November), please click here. **
Please be aware that several pages on this website (including this one) refer to recent editions of Countdown. If you have yet to watch these programmes, and do not wish to know the results, please come back later when you have!
Welcome to the Countdown Page, one of the most extensive archives of Countdown results (and certainly the oldest) on the Web.
Apart from the final scores of almost every show, there is much more to explore, including round-by-round details of Grand Finals, a list of series champions in the Hall of Fame, over twenty-five Countdown Experiences written by former contestants and the names of all the celebrity guests to have appeared in Dictionary Corner. If your thirst for knowledge is still not satisfied, you will also find links to lots of other Countdown sites.
Contributions for the programme and opinions you wish to direct to the production team should be emailed to the official Countdown email address. For details of how to apply to appear on the programme, please click here. For information on applying for audience tickets, please click here.
If you have any information you would like me to add to this page or if you have any other comments or questions about the site or Countdown, please mail me. Your correspondence is always appreciated, but while I endeavour to read every email I receive, I cannot promise to reply to everyone individually.
If you would like to chat to others about Countdown (or just read their comments), please visit the C4 Countdown forum.
Four months have passed since my last proper update to the site, and Series 61 is certainly proving to be a good one in many ways. Jeff and Rachel have settled in nicely (although I don't think for me Countdown will ever be quite the same as it used to be in the heady days of the late 90's when viewing figures were much higher and Richard and Carol were at the height of their powers) and we have had a succession of octochamps, most of whom have practised on Apterous to a greater or lesser extent to increase their skills and dictionary knowledge. We already have six octochamps in the seedings at the time of writing (and it will be seven if Ryan Taylor completes the set on Monday) - at this rate, this could be the first ever series where an octochamp fails to make it to the quarter-finals - something that very nearly happened back in Series 47, which was eventually won by Chris Wills. For me, the winner of the series currently seems likely to be one of the top three seeds - in other words, one of Andrew Hulme (who spectacularly broke Kirk Bevins's octo-total by five points back in July), the cube-solving Chris Davies, or Innis Carson. The rest of the pack just seem too inconsistent (by comparison, at least) to become the ultimate champion, but of course, on the day, who knows? Come Wednesday, those attending the recordings of the finals will know who has won the series, but it will of course be a closely-guarded secret amongst those people until the week before Christmas, when the finals are aired.
Once again, the special guests have been of a generally high standard, or at least that seems to be the general view. I suppose to look at it a little more objectively, what seems to be the case is that most of those chosen to appear (and are willing and able to accept) seem to take a genuine interest in what is going on and perhaps even play along with a degree of success. In the past sixteen weeks, we have had debut appearances from Matt Le Tissier, Donal MacIntyre, Ian Hyland, Jane Moore and Dr Hilary Jones, while Anton Du Beke, Alastair Stewart, Paul Zenon, Kate Humble, Jo Brand, Colin Murray, John Inverdale, Martin Lewis, Penny Smith, Lesley Garrett and Tim Vine have all made their returns. Jo Brand managed not to come up with silly words after every round, which will have pleased a lot of people, Martin Lewis showed a real interest in the game, Penny Smith was making her first appearance since Series 42, Lesley Garrett charmed some people with her singing (and had others reaching for the volume control on their remotes - does opera really work in a TV studio?) and Tim Vine made a rapid revisit to the corner - probably to replace a non-show by author Marian Keyes, who was originally slated to appear. As well as displaying his rapid-fire humour, Tim seems to make a real effort to take part and to interact with the contestants and is quickly turning into a favourite with a lot of viewers, as is Colin Murray, who apparently declines to wear an earpiece, so he can play along without any assistance from the production team.
Jeff seems to be fitting into his role well and I'm finding his puns particularly excruciating these days (so he must be doing something right, I guess) and Rachel has been solving some particularly fiendish numbers games - and to think that a year ago I thought they would struggle to find someone to fill Carol's role! Rachel's hemlines have also risen since the start of the series (well, it has been the summer), which did not go unnoticed by the red tops, who seemed to think it was all a ploy by Channel Four to boost flagging ratings - although according to an interview with Rachel in the Daily Mail, it merely reflects her growing confidence in the role, and that in her first series, she was finding her feet and had been wearing what she thought would be expected of her, rather than what she would naturally choose. The conspiracy theorists will of course say that she was told to say that - so the truth is: we will never really know!
Disappointingly, last Saturday saw what would appear to have been the last early-morning repeat of Countdown on Channel 4. Although I imagine that in these days of online television viewing and timeshifting, the repeat has become less useful to people who have missed an edition during the afternoon (although I myself would have found it useful last week when my recorder decided it was one o'clock in the morning at six in the evening), it will surely be missed by a number of people whose lifestyles (or personal circumstances) mean that they are up and about at 5 a.m.. I suppose its removal is another sign of Countdown losing its place as one of Channel 4's ratings behemoths - unlike its arch-nemesis "Deal Or No Deal", it's no longer shown on More4, either - although its replacement in the schedule by hospital drama St Elsewhere perhaps suggests otherwise! Maybe the 'powers that be' will change their minds...
Away from television-land, there was another real-life tournament in October, and this time it was the turn of COLEI (Countdown in Leicester) to take centre-stage. After a deceptively good start by myself (where I led the rankings after the first round proper), the day boiled down to a very exciting game between Series 60 winner Kirk Bevins and Series 53 semi-finalist Jon O'Neill. Despite Kirk spotting the conundrum in one second, 'Ginger Ninja' Jon was already in an unassailable position and Kirk continues his unfortunate run of not quite winning real-life Countdown events - Mr Bevins, your time will come - maybe at COLIN in January 2010!
On The Countdown Page, I have had a spring clean of the Links Page and following the demise of free web space provider GeoCities, it's time to wave a sad farewell to Zef's Countdown Summaries, James Aukett's Countdown Experience (which I'm hoping might reappear) and (saddest of all in my view) Robovord, one of the first Countdown numbers solvers, which was written many years ago. On the plus side, there have been a few additions to the Links family in the last couple of years, so it's 'hello' to the following: David Sheppard's Free Countdown Solver, the Game Stadium Countdown Game, Max Jackson's Countdown Game, Series 60 contestant Clare Sudbery's Loser's Guide To Countdown and Series 57 champion Craig Beevers' Countdown Pages. All other links on the page have been checked for validity and amended where necessary.
Elsewhere on the site, all of the usual stats have been brought bang up to date, and you can view the results so far from Series 61 here and the seedings as they currently stand here. I've also chosen to rename the "Dictionary Dwellers" pages to "Special Guests", as it's more correct and no one really uses the term 'Dictionary Dell' anymore. However, for the sake of continuity and to prevent broken links on this website and any others, the names of the HTML files will remain the same.
Last but not least, there's a new Countdown Experience for you to enjoy - this time, it's the second part of Richard Priest's game show journey that makes its debut, and it describes his return to Leeds for the Championship of Champions recordings at the end of last year. Despite his progress being somewhat curtailed by that young whippersnapper Kai Laddiman, Rich still has plenty to talk about, and it's well worth a read (I know I always say that, but then it's always true!). To read it, please go here. Next time, it will be the turn of none other than the Bevatronulator Kirk Bevins to give us his Countdown Experience (Mark Two) in his very own inimitable words. Until then, take care, or as they say over here in Norfolk, 'dew yew keep a troshing' (yes, honestly).
Mike
To access full round-by-round recaps of recent games of Countdown, as compiled by members of the C4 Countdown forum, please go to cdb - The Countdown Database, created by Series 59 finalist Charlie Reams.
Countdown Contestants ITV Yorkshire LEEDS LS3 1JS
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Countdown Tickets ITV Yorkshire LEEDS LS3 1JS
You can find a brief description of each section of The Countdown Page on the Countdown Contents Page.
