Countdown (game show)

Origin

Countdown is based on the French game show Des chiffres et des lettres (Numbers and Letters), created by Armand Jammot. The format was brought to Britain by Marcel Stellman, a Belgian record executive, who had watched the French show and believed it could be popular overseas. Yorkshire Television purchased the format and commissioned a series of eight shows under the title Calendar Countdown, which was to be a spin-off of their regional news programme Calendar. As the presenter of Calendar, Richard Whiteley was the natural choice to present Calendar Countdown with his daily appearances on both shows earning him the nickname "Twice Nightly".^[2] These shows were only broadcast in the Yorkshire area.^[3]

An additional pilot episode was made, with a refined format, although it was never broadcast.^[4] A new British television channel, Channel 4, was due to launch in November 1982, and bought the newly renamed Countdown on the strength of this additional episode.^[4] Countdown was the first programme to be broadcast on the new channel.^[5]

Junior Countdown

Channel 4 originally planned a parallel Junior Countdown in which the contestants were children. The pilot episode was filmed on 26 November 1982, less than a month after the first adult version was broadcast.^[7] The presenter was Gyles Brandreth, with Ted Moult in Dictionary Corner. The format mirrored that of the adult version. No further episodes were filmed, and the pilot episode was never broadcast. Brandreth, speaking on Countdown in November 2012, stated that the concept had proved disastrous, and was abandoned.

Presenters

Calendar Countdown was presented by Richard Whiteley, with Cathy Hytner and Denise McFarland-Cruickshanks managing the numbers and letters rounds respectively.^[8] When Countdown was commissioned for Channel 4, the number of hostesses expanded further: Cathy Hytner and Beverley Isherwood selected the letters and numbers tiles respectively, and calculations in the numbers rounds were checked by Linda Barrett or Carol Vorderman.^[9] Vorderman, a Cambridge graduate and member of Mensa,^[10] was appointed as one of the numbers experts after responding to an advertisement in a national newspaper which asked for a young woman who would like to become a game show hostess. Unlike almost any other game show hostess of the time, however, the advertisement also made it clear that the applicants' appearance would be less important than their talent as a mathematician.^[11] Gradually the tasks performed by the extra presenters were taken over by Carol Vorderman, whose role within the show essentially became that of co-presenter.^[12]

Whiteley fell ill with septicaemia in 2005, and as a result he was no longer able to record Countdown. Although Whiteley made a slow recovery from his illness, he died on 26 June 2005, after a failed operation to correct a problem that had been detected in his heart. Channel 4 took the following show off the air as a mark of respect, and the next programme was preceded by a tearful tribute from Carol Vorderman. The final five shows Whiteley had filmed (the conclusion of Series 53) were aired, after which the show was placed on hiatus before returning in October 2005, with Des Lynam (who had featured on Celebrity Countdown in 1998) as the main presenter.^[13] On 30 September 2006, Lynam said that he had decided to leave the programme after Christmas 2006.^[14]

Lynam's departure was due to travel requirements for the demanding filming schedule, with the show recorded in Leeds and Lynam living 250 miles (400 km) away in Worthing, West Sussex. Channel 4 had tried an extra programme on Saturday in early 2006 which Lynam had agreed to, subject to part of the filming schedule being moved nearer to his home. However, viewers reacted angrily to the idea of the show leaving Leeds,^[14] and when Lynam found out that a move would cause considerable disruption for many of the programme's camera crew, he decided to leave.^[15] On 7 November 2006, it was announced that Des O'Connor would succeed Lynam as host.^[16] Lynam's final show as Countdown presenter was broadcast on 22 December 2006. O'Connor first presented Countdown on 2 January 2007.

The other studio mainstay is Dictionary Corner, which houses a lexicographer and that week's celebrity guest (referred to as "GoD" or "Guardian of the Dictionaries"). Initially farmer and broadcaster Ted Moult was on hand for verification. The role of the lexicographer is to verify the words offered by the contestants (see Letters round rules) and point out any longer or otherwise interesting words available. The lexicographer is aided in finding these words by the show's producers, Michael Wylie (until his death in November 2008) and Damian Eadie.^[17] The production team is insistent that no computer program is used in this role, and that the words suggested in Dictionary Corner have been found manually.

Many lexicographers have appeared over the years, but since her debut in 1992, Susie Dent has become synonymous with the role, and has made over three thousand appearances.^[18] The celebrity guest, sometimes known as the "Dictionary Dweller", also contributes words, and provides a short interlude halfway through the second section of the show. These guests have included Nigel Rees, Jo Brand, Martin Jarvis, Richard Digance, Geoffrey Durham, Ken Bruce, Magnus Magnusson, Pam Ayres, Paul Zenon and John Sergeant, and, most regularly, Gyles Brandreth, providing poems, anecdotes, puzzles and magic tricks.^[19] Alison Heard replaced Susie Dent over the winter of 2007–08, whilst Dent was on maternity leave. Dent returned to the series on 6 February 2008.

It was announced in July 2008 that Des O'Connor would be stepping down as host in December 2008. In the same month, Carol Vorderman announced that she would also leave the show at the same time.^[20]

On 21 November 2008, Jeff Stelling was confirmed as the new host, with Oxford graduate Rachel Riley in the Vorderman role.^[21] It was announced on 24 May 2011 that Stelling would be leaving the programme, and he presented his final show on 16 December 2011.^[22]

On 16 November 2011, it was announced that Nick Hewer would be taking over as host, with his first show broadcast on 9 January 2012.^[1]

Character

Countdown quickly established cult status within British television^[23] – an image which it maintains today,^[24] despite numerous changes of rules and personnel. The programme's audience comprises mainly students, homemakers and pensioners,^[23] owing to the "teatime" broadcast slot and inclusive appeal of its format and presentation.^[24] Countdown has been one of Channel 4's most-watched programmes for over twenty years, but has never won a major television award.^[25] When Des Lynam became the new presenter after Whiteley's death in 2005, the show regularly drew an average 1.7 million viewers every day—which was around half a million more than in the last few years of Richard Whiteley presenting^[26]—and the Series 54 final, on 26 May 2006, attracted 2.5 million viewers.^[27] From 3–4 million viewers had watched the show daily in its previous 16:15 slot. The drop in viewers following the scheduling change, coupled with the show's perceived educational benefits, even caused Labour MP Jonathan Shaw to table a motion in the UK Parliament, requesting that the show be returned to its later time.^[28] Minor scheduling changes have subsequently seen the show move from 15:15 to 15:30, to 15:45 to 15:25, and 15:10. As of 2018, it is broadcast at 14:10.

Contestants on each episode compete for a teapot that is styled to resemble the 30-second time clock used in each round. Introduced in December 1998, the pot is custom-made and can only be obtained by winning a game on the programme.^[29] Defeated contestants receive an assortment of Countdown-themed merchandise as a parting gift.

Until 2009, the prize for the series winner was a leather-bound copy of the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary, worth £4,000. on the leather-bound Oxford English Dictionary—page Retrieved 24 June 2006.</ref> Since then, the prize consists of ordinary hardback twenty-one volume dictionaries, a laptop computer and a lifetime subscription to Oxford Online. David Acton, winner of Series 31, opted for a CD-ROM version of the dictionaries, not wanting to accept leather-bound books owing to his strict veganism, and he donated the monetary difference to charity.^[30]

Since 2006, the series champion also receives the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy, in memory of the show's original presenter.

Though the style and colour scheme of the set have changed many times (and the show itself moved to Manchester, after more than 25 years in Leeds) the clock has always provided the centrepiece and, like the clock music composed by Alan Hawkshaw, is an enduring and well-recognised feature of Countdown. Executive producer John Meade once commissioned Hawkshaw to revise the music for extra intensity; after hundreds of complaints from viewers, the old tune was reinstated.^[31] The original clock featured until September 2013, when it was replaced.

Panorama of the 2017 set

Celebrations

The first episode of Countdown was repeated on 1 October 2007 on More4 and on 2 November 2007 on Channel 4, as part of Channel 4 at 25, a season of celebratory Channel 4 programmes as it celebrated its 25th birthday.

On 2 November 2007, Countdown celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and aired a special 'birthday episode'. The two players were 2006 winner Conor Travers and 2002 winner Chris Wills. However, for the rounds, VIP guests selected the letters and numbers.^[32] Guests included Gordon Brown, Amir Khan and Richard Attenborough. A statement from the French TV network France Télévisions was read out on air by Carol Vorderman to commend Channel 4 on its success of Countdown.

On 26 March 2010, Queen Elizabeth II congratulated Countdown for amassing 5,000 episodes. On 5 September 2014, the programme received a Guinness World Record at the end of its 6,000th show for the longest-running television programme of its kind during the course of its 71st series.

Departures of Vorderman and O'Connor

On 23 July 2008, it was announced that O'Connor would be leaving the show at the end of the 59th series in December 2008 to concentrate on other projects.^[33]

ITV Studios announced on 25 July 2008 that Carol Vorderman would also be leaving at the end of the same series.^[20]

Vorderman had been willing to accept a 33% salary decrease in line with a 33% budget cut being imposed on the show, but felt she was 'forced' to leave after being asked to accept a 90% pay cut. Her agent, John Miles, claims Vorderman had been told the show had survived the death of host Richard Whiteley in 2005 and could "easily survive without you."^[34]

The early favourite in the betting to replace Des O'Connor, Rory Bremner, ruled himself out. Later reports suggested Alexander Armstrong^[35] and Jeff Stelling^[36] as potential hosts, although Armstrong later revealed he had refused the job.^[37] Anthea Turner, Ulrika Jonsson, and Myleene Klass were all linked with Vorderman's job;^[38] however, Channel 4 then began to search for a previously unknown male or female arithmetician with "charm and charisma". Eventually, on 21 November 2008, after O'Connor and Vorderman had finished filming, it was confirmed that Stelling and Oxford maths graduate Rachel Riley would join the show,^[39] with Susie Dent continuing as resident lexicographer.

Letters round

The contestant in control chooses between two stacks of letter tiles, one containing vowels and the other consonants, and Riley reveals the top tile from that stack and places it on the board. This is done nine times, and the final grouping must contain at least three vowels and four consonants.^[44] The contestants then have 30 seconds to form the longest single word they can, using the nine revealed letters; no letter may be used more often than it appears in the selection.^[44] The frequencies of the letters within each stack are weighted according to their frequency in natural English, in the same manner as Scrabble. For example, there are many Ns and Rs in the consonant stack, but only one Q. The letter frequencies are altered by the producers from time to time, so any published list does not necessarily reflect the letters used in any particular programme.^[45]

Both contestants write down the words they form, in case they select the same one. After time runs out, the host asks the contestants to declare their word lengths, starting with the contestant who chose the letters. The host then asks the discovered words, starting with the shorter declared length. However, if a contestant fails to write a word in time, they must declare this fact and state their word first to prevent cheating. The contestant with the longer word scores one point per letter, or 18 points if they have used all nine. If the words are identical or of the same length, both contestants score. In the former case, the contestants must show their written word to prove that they are the same. Each round ends with Dictionary Corner revealing the longest words that can be formed from the available letters, aided by the production team.^[46]

Any word which appears in the Oxford Dictionary of English is valid,^[47] as well as accepted forms of them that may not be explicitly listed. Examples include:

• Common nouns and their plurals
• Verbs and their inflections (e.g. "escape," "escaped," "escaping")
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives (if the adjective is more than one syllable, the form must be explicitly listed)^[48]
• Plurals of foods specified as mass nouns that may be ordered in restaurants (e.g. "pastas" as in, "I'll have two pastas")

Words that are not allowed include:

• Capitalised words, including proper nouns (e.g. "Jane" or "London")
• Hyphenated terms
• Words that are never used alone (e.g. "gefilte"; only used as part of "gefilte fish")
• American spellings of words (e.g. "flavour" and "signalled" are allowed, but "flavor" and "signaled" are not)^[44]

Example:

Contestant One chooses five consonants, then three vowels, then another consonant.

Selection is:

G Y H D N O E U R

Contestant One declares 7, while Contestant Two declares 8.

Contestant One reveals younger, but Contestant Two reveals hydrogen and scores 8 points. Contestant One does not score.

Dictionary Corner notes greyhound, which would have scored 18 points for using all nine letters.

Numbers round

The contestant in control chooses six of 24 shuffled face-down number tiles, arranged into two groups: 20 "small numbers" (two each of 1 through 10), and four "large numbers" of 25, 50, 75 and 100. Some special episodes replace the large numbers with 12, 37, 62 and 87. The contestant decides how many large numbers are to be used, from none to all four, after which the six tiles are randomly drawn and placed on the board. A random three-digit target number is then generated by an electronic machine, known as "CECIL" (which stands for Countdown's Electronic Calculator In Leeds).^[49] The contestants have 30 seconds to work out a sequence of calculations with the numbers whose final result is as close to the target number as possible. They may use only the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,^[44] and do not have to use all six numbers. A number may not be used more times than it appears on the board. Fractions are not allowed, and only positive integers may be obtained as a result at any stage of the calculation.^[44] As in the letters rounds, any contestant who does not write down their calculations in time must go first, and both contestants must show their work to each other if their results and calculations are identical.

Only the contestant whose result is closer to the target number scores points: 10 for reaching it exactly, 7 for being 1-5 away, 5 for being 6-10 away. Contestants score no points for being more than 10 away, or if their calculations are flawed. Both score if they reach the same result, or if their results are the same distance away. Points are disallowed if the contestant says the solution is not written down and, after the host asks for it, the contestant takes too long in giving a solution.

Example:

Contestant One requests two large numbers and four small numbers.

Selection is:

75 50 2 3 8 7

Randomly generated target is:

812

Contestant One declares 813, while Contestant Two declares 815.

Contestant One is closer and so reveals: 75 + 50 – 8 = 117, and 117 × 7 – (3 × 2) = 813, which scores 7 points for being 1 away. Contestant Two does not score.

Rachel Riley notes: 50 + 8 = 58, and 7 × 2 × 58 = 812, which would have scored 10 points.

In some games, there are many ways to reach the target exactly—the example target above could also be reached by 7 × (75 + 50 + 2 – 8 – 3) = 812. Not all games are solvable, and for a few selections it is impossible even to get within 10, most commonly when a contestant picks six small numbers and the target number is quite large.^[50]. There is a tactical element in selecting how many large numbers to include. One large and five small numbers is the most popular selection,^[51] despite two large numbers giving the best chance of the game being solvable exactly.^[52] Selections with zero or four large numbers are generally considered the hardest.^[52]

The 24 tiles are laid out in four rows, the topmost of which contains only the four large numbers. The contestant may specify how many tiles to draw from each row, or simply state how many large and small numbers will be used; in the latter case, the assistant draws the tiles randomly. The numbers are usually placed on the board from right to left, starting with the small ones, but have occasionally been displayed in scrambled order. On rare occasions, the contestant has declined to make any choices, in which case the assistant selects the tiles.

Example:

Contestant requests one from the top (large), two from the second row (small), and three more from the top (large).

Selection is (in disorder):

50 10 6 25 100 75

A special edition, broadcast on 15 March 2010, for two previous series champions, Kirk Bevins and Chris Davies, used instead of the usual four large numbers, the numbers 12, 37 and two numbers unrevealed for the duration of the show. In a further special broadcast on 16 August 2010 between the Series 59 finalists Charlie Reams and Junaid Mubeen, the other two numbers were revealed to be 62 and 87.

Conundrum

The final round of the game is the Countdown Conundrum, in which the contestants are shown a combination of two or three words with a total of nine letters. They have 30 seconds to form a single word using all the letters, and must buzz-in to respond (a bell for the champion, a buzzer for the challenger). Each contestant is allowed only one guess, and the first to answer correctly scores 10 points. If a contestant buzzes in and hesitates to give an answer it is then immediately disallowed by the host and gives the remaining time to the other player. If neither contestant can solve it, the presenter asks whether anyone in the audience knows the answer and, if so, chooses someone to call it out. (This practice was stopped temporarily in 2009 due to difficulties with camera angles after the studio layout was changed.) The Conundrum is designed to have only one solution, but on occasion more than one valid word is found by happenstance (e.g. REACH SORT can become both CARTHORSE and ORCHESTRA). If this happens, any of these results is accepted.^[53]

If the contestants' scores are within 10 points of each other going into this round, it is referred to as a Crucial Countdown Conundrum. Since 10 points are at stake, the contestant who solves it will either win the game or force a tiebreaker. If the scores are tied after the Conundrum, additional Conundrums are played until the tie is broken.^[54] There have been several instances in which two Conundrums were used to decide the winner, but only a handful of episodes have required three. (There have also been cases when even more Conundrums have been required to provide a winner, but not all have been included in the transmitted programme.)

Example:

Conundrum is revealed:

C H I N A L U N G

Contestant One buzzes-in and says launching. This answer is revealed to be correct, and Contestant One scores 10 points.

Evolution

The rules of Countdown are derived from those of Des chiffres et des lettres. Perhaps the biggest difference is the length of the round; DCedL's number rounds are each 45 seconds long to Countdown's 30. DCedL also feature "duels", in which players compete in short tasks such as mental arithmetic problems, extracting two themed words from another, or being asked to spell a word correctly. Other minor differences include a different numbers scoring system (9 points for an exact solution, or 6 points for the closest inexact solution in DCedL) and the proportion of letters to numbers rounds (10 to 4 in Countdown, 8 to 4 in DCedL).^[55]

The pilot episode followed significantly different rules from the current ones. Most noticeably, only eight letters were selected for each letters round. If two contestants offered a word of the same length, or an equally close solution to a numbers game, then only the contestant who made the selection for that round was awarded points. Also, only five points were given for an exact numbers solution, three for a solution within 5, and one point for the closer solution, no matter how far away.^[56]

Until the end of Series 21, if the two contestants had equal scores after the first conundrum, the match was considered a draw and they both returned for the next show.^[57] A significant change in the format occurred in September 2001, when the show was expanded from nine rounds and 30 minutes to the current fifteen rounds and 45 minutes.^[58] The older format was split into two halves, each having three letters and one numbers game, with the conundrum at the end of the second half. When the format was expanded to fifteen rounds, Richard Whiteley continued to refer jokingly to the three segments of the show as "halves". Under the old format, Grand Finals were specially extended shows of fourteen rounds,^[59] but now all shows use a fifteen-round format.^[60]

The rules regarding which words are permitted have changed with time. American spelling was allowed until 2002,^[61] and more unspecified inflections were assumed to be valid.^[62]

In September 2007, a new feature was added to the show in which Susie Dent explains the origin of a word or phrase which she has been researching. This Origin of Words spot currently follows the eighth letters round, almost midway through the third section of the programme. The feature was omitted during the time that Dent was absent for maternity leave, and was reinstated upon her return.

When the fifteen round format was first introduced in September 2001, the composition of the rounds was different from that used by the programme today. The three sections each had five rounds, four letters rounds and one numbers round in each of the first two sections, with three letters rounds, one numbers round and the conundrum in the third section. This meant that there was a slight imbalance, whereby one contestant made the letters sections for six rounds, but had the choice of the numbers selection just once, whereas the other contestant chose letters five times and numbers twice. The dictionary corner guest's spot was immediately before the first advertising break, and Susie Dent's Origin of Words spot preceded the second numbers game shortly before the second break. The change to the present format was made on 25 March 2013, three weeks into the second section of Series 68, to comply with Channel 4's decision to increase the amount of adverts and alter the times when they occur during the programme, therefore reducing Countdown's actual show length from 36 to 35 minutes.

Assorted allusions

The Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf" (2005) mentions a futuristic version of Countdown, in which the goal is to stop a bomb from exploding in 30 seconds. Countdown was referenced again in a later series in "Last of the Time Lords" (2007), where Professor Docherty expresses a keen fondness for the show and how it "hasn't been the same since Des took over—Both Deses".

In the 2002 film About a Boy, protagonist Will Freeman is a regular viewer of Countdown.^[74]

Fairport Convention guitarist Simon Nicol named one of his solo records Consonant Please, Carol, echoing one of the show's catchphrases.

Outtakes

Countdown has also generated a number of widely-viewed outtakes, with the letters occasionally producing a word that was deemed unsuitable for the original broadcast. A round in which Dictionary Corner offered the word gobshite featured in TV's Finest Failures in 2001 (The actual episode aired on 10 January 2000),^[75] and in one episode from 1991, contestants Gino Corr and Lawrence Pearse both declared the word wankers. This was edited out of the programme but has since appeared on many outtakes shows.^[76][77] When contestant Charlie Reams declared "wankers" on 21 October 2008 edition, the declaration was kept in but the word itself was bleeped. Other incidents with only marginally rude words (including wanker, singular) have made it into the programme as they appeared, such as those with Tanmay Dixit referenced above, a clip from a 2001 episode in which the word fart appeared as the first four letters on the board (which also featured on 100 Greatest TV Moments from Hell),^[78] and a round where an anagram of the word fucked appeared on the board in the string "A U O D F C K E G", although neither player chose to use the word, and Dictionary Corner was able to find two seven-letter words that could have been made from the board's offerings.^[79] On 2 February 2017, the board for the letters round was "M T H I A E D H S", and with both players offering sevens, Dictionary Corner found the word "shithead", which was bleeped out in the audio and censored on-screen with the poo emoji.^[80]

Humour

The programme is mentioned in an episode of Irish sitcom Father Ted entitled "The Old Grey Whistle Theft",^[81] Still Game (in the episode "Wireless") and is also referenced in the very first episode of Little Britain from 2003.^[82] BBC impression sketch show, Dead Ringers, parodies Countdown numerous times, and another television programme, The Big Breakfast, parodied Countdown in a feature called "Countdown Under".^[83] In a sketch "Countdown to Hell" from the comedy show A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Stephen Fry lampooned Richard Whiteley's punning style and Hugh Laurie played one of the contestants, while Gyles Brandreth (played by Steve Steen), presented with the letters "bollocsk", got the (non-)word "sloblock" (supposedly meaning exactly the same as "bollocks").^[84] The show also has a fleeting reference in British sitcom The Office when Chris 'Finchy' Finch attempts to insult temporary worker Ricky when he explains he had a job to pay for his studies. Finchy states that it probably was 'professor in charge of watching Countdown every day', commenting on its student audience, and referring to the fact anyone watching Countdown during its 'hometime' time slot cannot be out at work.

In the BBC sitcom My Family, Nick is a fan of Countdown. In the 2003 Christmas special, Richard Whiteley even made a special guest appearance, which amuses Nick. In another episode, Nick is taken aback when he thinks that bad news about his father is really about a cancellation of Countdown.

The format of the show has been parodied on Have I Got News for You. In 1999, when Richard was a guest, the numbers game was copied along with the clock music and at the end of the show was a conundrum, the conundrum was "PHANIOILS", to which the answer was IAN HISLOP. In 2004, when Carol was a guest one of the usual rounds was replaced with a conundrum round based on the week's news. When Carol hosted the show in 2006, one of the rounds was the "Spinning Conundrum Numbers Round", altering the "Spinning Headlines" round, by adding a number to a picture relating to the week's news, then at the end of the round the 6 numbers from the picture were used for a numbers game.

Richard Whiteley was the victim of a practical joke while presenting the show. The contestants and rounds had been planted as part of a "Gotcha!", a regular prank feature on the light entertainment show Noel's House Party. In the prank, both the two contestants and Dictionary Corner missed the word "something" from the letters OMETHINGS, and from another selection, both of the contestants declared "I've got diarrhoea" referring to the selection. In the numbers round that followed, the male contestant "answered" the puzzle by reading out the numbers. Whiteley did not uncover the joke until House Party presenter Noel Edmonds appeared on the set, having revealed the unusually short conundrum of HOGCAT to be "gotcha" at the end of the programme.^[85]

In a 2003 episode of Top Gear, Richard Whitely participated in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment. Before Whiteley's lap was shown, presenter Jeremy Clarkson played a game of Countdown with Whitely, using words such as IMIN, SEXUL, NEVOR LARD, I MUSHI BITS, and PIANOS SHIAZU.

It was also referred to on Harry Hill's TV Burp twice. The first time it was referred to was when "Dev" (Coronation Street) made a sound like the countdown end of thirty seconds time. The second time was when the competition "Where Has The Knitted Character Been This Week?" had the answer: On Rachel Riley's chair.

On 2 July 2010, the game was featured in the episode "The Final Countdown" of The IT Crowd. Moss stuns everyone by declaring that the 9 letter string TNETENNBA is in fact a word. Later, Moss becomes an octochamp and is consequently invited into an underground club named "8+", where he competes in a game of "Street Countdown" as part of a spoof of Boogie Town. The episode featured a cameo from Gyles Brandreth a regular contributor to Dictionary Corner.

British entertainer Stevie Riks has parodied the show on one of his many YouTube comedy videos.^[86]

In an episode from spring 2011, the Blackpool supporting producer of the show arranged the conundrum PNECRISIS ("priciness"), poking fun at their local rivals Preston North End's relegation from the Championship in the 2010–11 season.^[87]

Non-canon games

The game has also been played on a number of different programmes, notably as the first challenge in "What's Next" on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, featuring the pair versus one of the duo's old head teachers. In 2010, it was played as a shopping task on the final Channel 4 series of Celebrity Big Brother, with a team of housemates competing in the house against the-then current champion, Chris Davies, in the Countdown studio via satellite. The housemates failed this task.

Regular series

Masters series

Celebrity series

Specials

Netherlands

In the eighties the Dutch version "Cijfers en letters" ran for many years and was broadcast by the public TV station KRO. Presenters were Bob Bouma, Maartje van Weegen and Robert ten Brink, who later also presented the Dutch version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. From 1989 to 1993 a Flemish version was produced by the Belgian commercial TV station VTM. In Belgium many local clubs were founded where people could play the game themselves.

United States

An American version of Countdown was taped in 1990 as an unsold pilot. Hosted by British expat Michael Jackson (a Los Angeles-based radio personality), and announced by game show veteran Charlie O'Donnell, this version followed closely to the British version, with a few changes. Everyday contestants were paired up with celebrities and played two games each. Three rounds were played in each game, with a bonus round to the higher scoring team. The first two rounds, like the British version, had each contestant taking turns picking nine letter tiles and attempting to form one word in 30 seconds. Like the British version, the team that formed the longest word was awarded the points based on how many letters were used. Teams were allowed to confer with each other in the first two rounds. The third round, only eight-letter titles were picked, with the ninth being a "wild card" that the contestant could use any way they would like. In this round, the contestant is not allowed to confer with their celebrity partner. The player with the highest score after three rounds wins the game and plays the bonus round. Any player that forms a word using all nine letters wins a progressive jackpot (on the pilot episode, that was $25,000). In the bonus round, the contestant works with their celebrity partner to unscramble six words in 45 seconds. Each word gets longer, starting with a four-letter word, then a five-letter word, then a six-letter word, then a seven-letter word, then an eight-letter word, and finally a nine-letter word. The contestant would earn $200 for every unscrambled word, with a prize of $10,000 for unscrambling all six words. Contestants would switch celebrity partners and play another game in the same format (three rounds, with another chance at the bonus round). The contestant with the higher total score at the end of both games would return to the next show. If the contestants tied, both would return to the next show. Five-day champions would win a new car and retire undefeated. The Numbers round and the Conundrum round were both eliminated from the American version.

Spain & Latin American Spanish

In 1991, a Spanish version of this show was released: Cifras y Letras (numbers and letters). The show was originally presented by Elisenda Roca, along with a word expert and mathematician. As this show progressed, a second version of the same show was also produced, which covered Latin American Spanish. The current Peninsular Spanish edition is presented by Paco Lodeiro.

Shortly after this, a Galician version was also released: Cifras e Letras, differing from the above only in the fact that it used Galician instead of Spanish, and a studio design variation. This version is also presented by Paco Lodeiro, assisted by the physicist Jorge Mira and the poet Yolanda Castaño, and broadcast by the Galician TV channels in Spain, Europe and South America.^[173]

Australia

On 2 August 2010, the new Australian version entitled Letters and Numbers (to avoid confusion with the Australian music program Countdown) debuted on SBS, hosted by Richard Morecroft. Each episode was 30 minutes long and consisted of five letters rounds, three numbers rounds and the conundrum. The last episode was aired on 27 June 2012, after five series and one masters series. As of 2018 SBS continues to screen re-runs of the series.

Elsewhere

Other versions include A Word or 2 (South Africa) and Bir Kelime, Bir İşlem (Turkey), Paroliamo (Italy) aired on Telemontecarlo until 1977 to 1982 and after Rai 2 until 1982 to 1989. In September 2012, an Isle of Man version of the show was broadcast.

Legend:      Currently airing or returning        No longer airing        Non-broadcast pilot

Country	Title	Presenter(s)	Broadcaster(s)	Premiere	Finale
Australia	Letters and Numbers	Richard Morecroft David Astle Lily Serna	SBS One	2 August 2010	27 June 2012
Belgium (in Dutch)	Cijfers en Letters	Zaki Walter De Meyere Carine Van de Ven	VTM	1989	1993
Croatia	Brojke i slova	Ivan Hetrich	HRT	1986	1991
France	Des chiffres et des lettres	Christine Fabréga (1965–1970) Patrice Laffont (1972–1989) Laurent Cabrol (1989–1992) Max Meynier (1992) Laurent Romejko (1992–present)	La deuxième chaîne de l'O.R.T.F. (1965–1975) Antenne 2 (1975–1992) France 2 (1992–2006) France 3 (2006–present)	19 September 1965	present
Greece	Γράμματα και Αριθμοί Grámmata kai Arithmoí	Christos Oikonomou (February 13, 1976 – December 28, 1981) Kostas Papadonopoulos (November 20, 1989 – February 19, 1990)	ERT1 (February 13, 1976 – December 28, 1981) Mega Channel (November 20, 1989 – February 19, 1990)	13 February 1976	19 February 1990
Israel	תיק-תק Tik-Tek	Ronit Kfir Eyal Kitzis Afrt Riitn Shron Tiicr	Israeli Educational Television	1995	1999
Italy	Paroliamo	Lea Pericoli (1977–1982) Fabrizio Frizzi Marco Dané	Telemontecarlo (1977–1982) Rai 2 (1982–1989)	1977	1989
Netherlands	Cijfers en Letters	Han van der Meer Maartje van Weegen Robert ten Brink Bob Bouma	KRO	1975	1988
Sweden	Tänk till tusen	Ulf Wickbom	SVT 1	1984	1987
Serbia	Слагалица TV Slagalica	Marija Veljković Kristina Radenković Milica Gacin	RTS	22 November 1993	present
South Africa	A Word or 2	Jeremy Mansfield	SABC2	1998	2008
Spain	Cifras y letras	Elisenda Roca (1991–1996) Paco Lodeiro (2002–2010) Goyo González (2010–2012) (Telemadrid) Paco Lodeiro (2006–2013) (TVG) Goyo González (Canal Sur 2) Paola Bontempi (2008) (Televisión Canaria)	La 2 (1991–1996) Telemadrid and FORTA (January 4, 2002 - December 2012)	14 January 1991	December 2012
Turkey	Bir Kelime, Bir İşlem	Levent Ülgen	TRT 1	1990	present
United States	Countdown	Johnny Mann (1974) Michael Jackson (1990)	CBS (pilot) Unknown (pilot)	Not aired