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Countdowners
Countdowners is a Facebook group founded by Chloe Jones, active since 4 May 2017. As it stands, it is one of the most popular sites related to Countdown. Its membership consists of players past and present, as well as those who have not appeared on the show, and casual fans. Currently, Jones remains its sole administrator. Moderators have varied but the current team consists of ex-contestants Andy Platt, Paul Anderson, Paul Hindess and Natalie McCluskey. Callum Carton and George Armstrong were long-term moderators, but they both left these roles in December 2023.
Countdowners began life on Twitter in early 2017. Due to lack of popularity and reach on that site, Jones felt the idea would be more successful as a Facebook group, and so she set up the group after noticing there was no major Facebook community for Countdown at the time. She wanted the group to have broad appeal - to former and future contestants, casual fans, and people who were fans of the letters, numbers and conundrum-style games the show is famed for.
In the early days, she was the sole admin and mod, and posted customised games for members to play, and to stimulate interest in the group and attract new members. As time progressed, members began posting their own games on a regular basis, negating the need for Jones to do so on her own. As things developed and membership grew, she began advertising for moderators to post specific types of games (e.g. Letters mod, Numbers mod etc.).
The most popular post of the day is Jones's 'Live & Spoilerous' thread. This consists of members playing along and chatting live as the new episode of Countdown airs simultaneously. This thread is the only place in the group members are allowed to post about the day's episode, and spoilers in general are discouraged in the group, unless flagged as such. Times have varied but for a number of years, Live & Spoilerous was posted at 13:30 Monday-Friday by Jones, who herself takes part in the live discussion on occasion. As of 1 January 2024 it is published at 13:00.
For a number of years, Jones published daily letters games Monday-Friday. This later reduced to four and then three times a week. Eventually, in 2023, Jones published her 'Brunchtime Letters' games on Mondays and Fridays at 11:00, whilst Armstrong did them Tuesday-Thursday. On Fridays, Jones' letters games where part of a compendium consisting of letters, teasers, conundrums and numbers games, published in 15-minute intervals from 11:00 and informally known as the 'power hour'.
On Christmas Day 2023, partly in response to Armstrong's departure as a moderator and designated letters game poster, Jones announced major changes to the daily games strand, which for many years were published at 11:00. Since 1 January 2024, these are known as the 'Daily Game' and published Monday-Thursday at 12:00. These consist of different games each day, which consist of video extracts from Colin Murray-era episodes of Countdown. The games are named as Letters Monday, Teasers Tuesday, Numbers Wednesday and Conundrum Thursday. The 'Power Hour' is now the official name of the Friday strand, which is now published in the 12pm hour instead of the 11am hour, since 1 January 2024.
A Countdown-friendly 'Word Of The Day' is posted by Jones every weekday at around 12pm.
Hindess publishes a breakfast teaser at 07:15 and a breakfast letters game at 07:30 daily (including weekends). Platt publishes regular numbers games daily. Other members of the group without official roles post their own games alongside these 'official' ones, some occasionally and some regularly.
The group consists of many former contestants from right across Countdown's history, including series champions and Championship of Champions winners. Jones herself says she is proud that the group brings members of all status and ability together in one community, and hopes this always remains the case.
On his appearance in the first 2020 Christmas special, Armstrong mentioned the group on the show. That same day, the group acquired over 100 new members in less than 24 hours, and the overall number of new members applying to the group has also increased in general.
On 28 October 2020, the group reached 1,000 members. On 31 January 2022, it hit a new landmark of 2,000 members. As of Christmas Day 2023, the group has 2'300 members.
