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Countdown is a British game show formerly presented by Richard Whiteley (1982–2005), and currently Des Lynam (2005–), with the assistance of Carol Vorderman, and shown daily on Channel 4. It was the very first programme aired by the station when it was launched on 2 November 1982, and is one of the longest running game shows in the world, with over 4,000 episodes. Production was suspended following the death of Whiteley on 26 June 2005, but on 10 October 2005, filming resumed with Des Lynam as the new host.
History
Countdown is based on the French game show Des Chiffres et des Lettres (Digits and Letters). It was originally broadcast in the Yorkshire Television ITV region as Calendar Countdown – Calendar being that region's local news magazine show which was, at the time, fronted by Whiteley. The programme was seen by Cecil Korer, who had been appointed Head of Light Entertainment at the soon-to-be-launched Channel 4. Korer quickly entered into negotiations with the French format owners to bring the show to a wider audience, with the result that Countdown became the first show to be aired on Channel 4 when the station launched at 4.45pm on 2 November 1982. After the death of Whiteley, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the then head of Channel 4, said that he had been the one to decide to bring over the French programme and had only then learnt of YTV's programme.
Yorkshire Television, now part of the Granada Television group, still makes Countdown for Channel Four. Since the new Granada Productions company structure came into force on 1 November 2004, the show has been credited as a Granada Yorkshire production.
Originally, Richard was assisted by not one but four "hostesses" - Vorderman, Kathy Hytner, Dr Linda Barrett and Beverley Isherwood. This arrangement was much-mocked, with critics quick to point out that four regulars were surplus to requirements, and Barratt and Isherwood were axed at the end of 1983. Hytner remained with the show until 1987, being replaced first by Karen Loughlin and then by Lucy Summers, but neither of these remained with the show for long, so in 1990 Carol Vorderman became the sole hostess, and remains so to this day. The other main change in the programme's format came in 2001, when it expanded from its traditional 30-minute slot to 45 minutes which meant the programme aired at 4:15pm, two commercial breaks were had instead of one. Furthermore in 2003, Countdown was shifted to an even earlier time slot of 3:15-4.00 which both Richard and Carol disliked due to fact that school children and students wouldn't be able to watch it seen as it is considered educational beneficial.
As well as the regular presenters, each episode has a guest from the world of light entertainment in "Dictionary Corner", who provides additional entertainment before the first commercial break of each programme. These entertainments take various forms and have included jokes, show business anecdotes, poems, puzzles and magic tricks.
The programme currently airs from 3:30 to 4:15pm, with each programme repeated in the early hours of the morning (usually at around 5.10am, sometimes slightly earlier) about two and a half days later. Probably as a result of its timeslot, the show is most popular amongst the elderly and students, both groups being well represented in the mix of contestants. For digital satellite and cable viewers, they get to have another chance of watching Countdown normally around 12.20pm. It is the first programme of the weekday More4 schedule shown one day later (or three days later if it is aired on Mondays).
From Saturday 7 January 2006, Countdown was extended to broadcast on Saturdays also, possibly due to the programme Deal or No Deal that is also being shown on Saturdays. It broadcasts at a different time to the weekday editions, usually from 4.20pm to 5.05pm.
In 2001, Countdown introduced the teatime teaser -- an eight-(originally seven-)letter anagram similar to the conundrum, set as a puzzle for the viewers over the commercial break (the goal presumably being to minimise channel hopping). Whiteley gave a (often punning) clue to the answer just before the break. Since this was often written for him by the producers, amusement would sometimes stem from Whiteley not understanding the clue himself. A forerunner of the teatime teaser had appeared from 1999 to 2000, when the show was sponsored by healthfoods manufacturer Seven Seas. Their sponsorship bumpers each side of the ad break would feature an anagram in the same fashion as the later "teasers", though this was down to the sponsor and nothing to do with the show itself.
Countdown, like most of the "old guard" of British game shows, is never so much about winning prizes as simply competing (and possibly showing off to the nation how smart you are). The current prize fund tends to be a board game and other assorted items for every contestant (and even this is significantly more generous than the prizes available when the show started) and a full Oxford English Dictionary for the series winner.
Whiteley's banter with the contestants would occasionally sound uncomfortable, sometimes even to foot-in-mouth proportion (such as referring to himself and guest adjudicator Richard Stilgoe as "a pair of Dicks"), however, it became legendary for its pun content. It is still not certain how much of this content was written professionally and how much by Whiteley himself (though the contestant introductions, which invariably ended with multiple puns, are known to have been written by the producers), but this has led to him being described by many as the "Pun King".
In July 2004 it was announced that both Whiteley and Vorderman had extended their contracts to present the show until 2009. When Whiteley fell ill with pneumonia in 2005, guest presenters were drafted in as hosts to fill his spot, however filming with these guest hosts was postponed, and ultimately cancelled, after Whiteley's death in June 2005. The news was shocking for everyone concerned as there had never been a time when anyone involved with the show considered the fact that Whiteley would not recover and return to the show, and Vorderman was devastated by his death. After a meeting that lasted throughout the night following the news, it was decided that, after the cancelling of that day's show, a quarterfinal playoff match, the remaining editions that Whiteley had recorded before falling ill (five in all) would air in tribute, with both semifinals airing on the same day (30 June 2005) and the final as scheduled (1 July 2005). The show then went on an extended hiatus, with a lot of uncertainty regarding if the show would return at all. In July 2005 it was announced by Vorderman [1] that the series would return with a permanent replacement host.
In August 2005, there were rumours that Des Lynam, Noel Edmonds and Paul Merton had been shortlisted for the role of new presenter. [2] Lynam was named as host for the show as of 24 September 2005, and taping for Series 54, an unusually long eight month series, began 10 October 2005, with the show returning to television on 31 October 2005.
Format
In each episode, two contestants compete in a mixture of letters, numbers and conundrum rounds. In the preliminary rounds of each series, the winning contestant stays on to face a new challenger in the next show. If a contestant wins eight times in a row, they become an "octavian" (or "octochamp") and must retire, though their high score means they are almost guaranteed a quarter-final place. Eventually the series shifts into a knock-out mode, with the eight highest-scoring players from the preliminary rounds facing off through three rounds to decide the series champion.
Letters rounds
Most of the game's rounds are "letters rounds"; one contestant selects nine letters from two randomly-shuffled piles of vowels and consonants (the distributions of letters in which are designed to roughly reflect that in the English language, in much the same way as Scrabble tiles). The ability to choose between vowel or consonant allows a moderate degree of control for the selecting contestant, though since the rules stipulate a minimum of three vowels and four consonants, there are in fact only two letters over which this control can be exercised. Until 1995, only a minimum of three vowels was stipulated, meaning that a contestant who had built up a lead could then prevent the other player from catching up by choosing an excessive number of vowels. The vast majority of contestants "played fair", but an outbreak of such tactical play led to the imposition of the current rule.
The contestants then have thirty seconds to find the longest word they can using some or all of the letters (with no reuse). Only words in the Oxford Dictionary of English are permitted, the ultimate arbiter being the "guardian of the dictionaries"; this role was originally filled by a number of different lexicographers supplied by the OUP, but in recent years has become synonymous with Susie Dent, who takes only very occasional breaks from the job. As well as ruling on the admissibility or otherwise of words, the lexicographer (assisted by the celebrity guest, who sits next to them) points out any long or particularly interesting words that the contestants missed. As in Scrabble, proper names, hyphenates and abbreviations are not permitted. Where there are variant UK and US spellings of a word, only the UK spelling is permitted. Because the distribution of the letters in the Countdown tile set approximately reflect their frequency in the English language, some words which are made up mostly or entirely of common letters are frequently seen. One of the most famous is "leotards", whose frequent appearance has become a running joke on the show, and has even appeared in the programme's opening titles. (The anagrams "lodestar" and "delators" are also permitted and sometimes offered as alternatives.) Others include "tangelo"/"tangelos" and "goitre"/"goitred", variations on "painter"/"pointer"/"repaint" and the nine-letter anagrams "relations" and "orientals".
Only the contestant who found the longer of the two words scores any points (both score in the event of a tie), the number of points being equal to the number of letters in the word (doubled for the rare nine-letter words).
Numbers rounds
For a numbers round, a set of numbers are laid out face-down on a board -- the top row always consists of the four "large numbers" 25, 50, 75 and 100, while the other rows are filled with two copies of the numbers 1 to 10. Six numbers are chosen (the ability to choose one or more "from the top" gives the same sort of partial control as the vowel/consonant split in the letters game). The contestants attempt to combine these numbers to reach the three-digit target randomly generated by the resident computer, CECIL (Countdown Electronic Calculator In Leeds), using the basic arithmetical operations of multiplication, division, addition and subtraction (brackets are also allowed, but are rarely explicitly referred to as such).
Ten points are scored for an exact solution, seven for being within five of the target number in either direction, five for a response within ten of the target, and none otherwise. Similarly to the letters rounds, if one contestant is closer than the other, only that contestant scores. These rounds highlight Vorderman's famous prowess at mental arithmetic, since it falls to her to provide a solution if both contestants fail. The three-digit target is chosen at random and it is often impossible to reach it, therefore it's not surprising that even Vorderman is occasionally stumped.
Conundrum
The final round of each show is the "Countdown Conundrum" – a scrambled nine-letter word is revealed, and ten points go to the first contestant to buzz in and correctly identify it (with, as in all the other rounds, a thirty second time limit). Players are allowed only one attempt each to answer, so if an incorrect answer is given, the other player has all the remaining time to themselves. Whiteley would often refer to this round as a "crucial Countdown Conundrum" in situations where the ten points could be decisive. A recent addition is that now, in the event of a "crucial Countdown Conundrum" the studio lights are dimmed to add to the atmosphere. During any game between series 1 and 21, a dead heat would lead to a re-match the following day, however now an additional conundrum is used to break the tie.
The clock
The centrepiece of the Countdown set is a large 2m high analogue clock situated between the two contestants. The clock has only a second hand, which counts down the time allotted in each round, with lights illuminating in a trail behind the hand as time progresses. Accompanying the clock are the famous Countdown "Chimes", a 30-second jingle composed by Alan Hawkshaw that plays while the contestants think (the last three seconds or so of this music has a similar place in British popular culture to the Jeopardy! "think" music in American culture). The clock is stopped by a player buzzing to answer the Conundrum, and then continuing on if their answer is incorrect. The fact that all rounds have a time limit of only thirty seconds means that during the game, the left-hand side of the clock face is never used (although television viewers have rarely ever seen the clock being reset between rounds, so are left to ponder which half of the clock face this is done on - for the record, the clock lights quickly fade off after 3 seconds, and then the hand continues at an increased speed in a clockwise direction to return to the 12 o'clock position).
During practice rounds before filming initial episodes of Series 54 (2005), new host Des Lynam had to learn that he had to start the clock during the game.
For the original pilot programme, the format specified 45 seconds for each round (as in the original French version Des Chiffres et des Lettres), however, it very quickly became obvious that this seemed to take an age to pass in the studio, as well as causing the show to drag somewhat. The decision was made immediately after the show that the final format would cut this to the now-familiar 30 seconds.
Order of rounds
In the original 30-minute format, the rounds were arranged as follows:
3 Letters Rounds
1 Numbers
Break
3 Letters
1 Numbers
Conundrum
At this time, Grand Finals were special extended 45-minute editions, with the format:
2 Letters
1 Numbers
2 Letters
1 Numbers
Conundrum
Break
2 Letters
1 Numbers
2 Letters
1 Numbers
Conundrum
The current 45-minute format runs:
4 Letters
1 Numbers
Break
4 Letters
1 Numbers
Break
3 Letters
1 Numbers
Conundrum
with no change for Grand Finals.
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