Beardown

Beardown is a jokey variant of Countdown proposed by Callum Todd after his declaration of BEAR in Episode S48. The basic premise is that all declarations must be objects which the person declaring has to hand. Sculptures of objects are allowed, but drawings of objects are not, thus in addition to a lexicographer, the format also requires an ursinologist.

In the numbers round, the players are shown a picture of many bears. The number of bears in the picture is predetermined, and large enough that nobody could realistically count perfectly the exact number of bears within 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, the players have to declare how many bears they think are in the picture. It's sort of like the 'guess how many sweets in the jar' game popularised at fairs and stuff, except with bears instead of sweets. Instead of choosing how many large numbers you would like, you instead choose what species of bear you would like to see in the picture.

For reasons that should be obvious, Eddy Byrne is prohibited from playing Beardown.

In 2021, Todd hosted a live-streamed exhibition night of Beardown.