Episode Cats114

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Episode Cats114, billed as 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Series 18, Episode 3 was a special episode broadcast on 9 August 2019, as part of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Series 18.

Regulars Sean Lock and Jon Richardson were the contestants, along with Joe Wilkinson and Sara Pascoe who were their teammates respectively, while Jimmy Carr reprised his role as the host.

The match saw Jon Richardson, with the assistance of Sara Pascoe, winning by 50 – 25 in an 7-rounder and they won a Countdown baseball set.

Rachel Riley was, as ever, the arithmetician. The Dictionary Corner guest was Sam Simmons, and the lexicographer was Susie Dent.

This episode celebrated Rachel's tenth Anniversary on Countdown. Just before Round 5, several staff members who were dressed in shirts with Rachel's head at the front passed her balloons, cake, champagne, a crown and a sash. She was also presented with an enormous teddy bear by Fabio, the show's male model and showered with confetti, all while Celebration by Kool & the Gang was played out. Finally, a montage of her struggling with several difficult Numbers Round coupled with hilarious moments during those rounds over the seven years of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown was shown.

Interesting and notable moments from the episode are listed below:

1) During the Introduction, Sean showed off fictional magazine covers which caused the audience to laugh uncontrollably and he would later repeat this just before Round 3. Also, Sara introduced her mascot who was a guy named Wesley that would later go on to appear in Round 2 sitting in between Jon and her, albeit he was silent throughout was not credited.

2) During the 30 seconds in Round 1, Jimmy and Rachel played on the game "Mortal Kountdown" on an arcade machine (a parody of Mortal Kombat), with Rachel finishing off Jimmy through kicking his crotch and making his head explode, to which the latter called it "bullshit".

3) After the time was up in Round 3, Jimmy tried to toss lemon slices into both Rachel and Susie's mouths from a grill but failed three times before succeeding on the fourth try with Rachel. He would later do this to Jon as well but failed for both attempts. Also, although Joe admitted that Sean assisted him in that same round, possibly out of sympathy for their team having no points, Jimmy gave it to them.

4) Just before the second teaser, Sam's final act was to munch an apple in whole which noticeably caused him to spit out multiple bits onto the centre of the studio.

NOTE 1: In this version, both players' declarations were allowed, although points were only awarded for the best answer.

NOTE 2: During the Conundrum, Jon's team initially buzzed in first before being cancelled out by Sean's buzzer shortly, hence the first timings are reflected as identical. Jimmy would also later give Joe the opportunity to answer first but it would not have mattered since both initial responses were proven to be incorrect.

A short segment of this episode was sampled in the 27 May 2021 episode of Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont's sitcom Meet the Richardsons.

Rounds

Rnd	Selection	Joe & Sean	Score	Jon & Sara	Others	Max.
1	NETSOREFI	TENS FRONTS	0 – 7	FORTIES FEINTS	FIRESTONE*	18
2	75 4 2 10 9 5 → 517	517 ☓ 516	0 – 17	517 — (9 − 2) × 75 − 10 ÷ 5 × 4		28
TTT	CAGENIPS	Get them out.			ESCAPING
Rnd	Selection	Joe Wilkinson	Score	Jon Richardson	Others	Max.
3	NARELUVDO	UNRAVEL	7 – 24	UNLOVED	EUROLAND*, OVERLAND, RONDAVEL*, UNLOADER	36
Rnd	Selection	Sean Lock	Score	Sara Pascoe	Others	Max.
4	75 3 9 7 2 7 → 555	555 7 × 75 + 3 × 7 + 9	17 – 24	—		46
TTT	SHOWPORK	Make sure you've got wood.			WORKSHOP
Rnd	Selection	Joe & Sean	Score	Jon & Sara	Others	Max.
5	SBITRCSUE	SIT TRIBES	17 – 32	BUSTIER CRUSTIES	BUSTIERS*, CITRUSES*, CURTSIES*, RICTUSES	54
TTT	LUBEKITS	The bigger, the better.			BULKIEST
6	TANLIPSAC	CLIPS CAPITALS	25 – 40	CAPTAINS CAPTAINS	APLASTIC, PLATINAS*	62
7	PERTGONAD	dragon ☓ ☓ (22, 24.25 seconds)	25 – 50	petdragon ☓ dangertop ☓/GODPARENT (22, 26 seconds)		72