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Contestant

From Countdown
Revision as of 19:27, 19 December 2014 by JRTerrier24 (talk | contribs)

A contestant is someone who a appears on the show as a player, rather than as a presenter or a guest. They are broadly divided into two categories, champions and challengers.

A champion is a player that's already won a game and sits in the seat to the left of the screen. This player only gets one choice of numbers under the current 15-round system but gets an extra choice of letters. Champions are also entitled to a teapot which has the words Countdown winner written on it, to show that the teapot is only ever given to players who win at least one game. The term Series champion is often used to distinguish between players that have won an entire Series and players that have just won one or more games.

A challenger by definition is a player that has never appeared on the show before, except a few exceptional cases where a player has retired for personal reasons and come back. This player gets two choices of numbers but only 5 choices of letters, one less than the champion. Sometimes if a player retires, almost always because he or she has become an Octochamp there are two challengers and no champion. These players debatably have an advantage over other challengers because they do not have to face a player that's already played and won other games.

Contestants in special games are not counted as champions or challengers, because they have both played games before (with one exception) and neither of them is the current champion, just a player who's been invited back by the production team. Finalists are not usually regarded as champions or challengers either, because they have both won games. Who gets which seat is determined by a coin toss done by the production team. As of 2012, the coin toss in finals games has been eliminated, and the higher-seeded player always receives the challenger's chair, presumably because the challenger's choice of two numbers games is a perceived advantage.

Records

9 rounds

15 rounds

See also