Episode Cats152

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Episode Cats152, billed as Christmas Special 2023, was a special episode broadcast on 21 December 2023, as part of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Series 25. This marked the first time since 2019 that a Catsdown episode contained eight rounds and starting with this episode, the mechanical conundrum board has been discontinued, with the round being presented digitally similarly to the daytime version of the show.

The Team Captains were Danny Dyer and Jon Richardson, their teammates were Joe Lycett and Roisin Conaty respectively, while Jimmy Carr reprised his role as the host.

The match saw Jon Richardson, with the assistance of Roisin Conaty, winning by 22 – 63 in an 8-rounder thanks to the conundrum being worth 21 points in a failed attempt to let Joe Lycett and Danny win and they won a Countdown Advent Calendar.

Rachel Riley was, as ever, the arithmetician. The Dictionary Corner guest was Nick Mohammed (portraying his alter ego Mr. Swallow), and the lexicographer was Susie Dent. Joe Wilkinson also made a special appearance just before Round 5 where he appeared as Father Christmas, with the sleigh being a cleaner vehicle driven by Fabio, the show's permanent male shost.

Just before Round 7, a game of "Pull My Cracker" was played where contestants had to buzz in by guessing a Christmas punchline after Jimmy read out the question. Jon's team won with the score at 0 – 3, thus five points were awarded to his team.

Interesting and notable moments from the episode are listed below:

1) During the Introduction, as Joe Lycett commented he was the nicest person in the world according to Santa Claus, confetti was blown from behind him and various staff members presented him with gifts and food. Also, Jon invited an uncredited "Dame" dressed as Widow Twankey to act out in a pantomime, claiming she had lost her husband a fortnight ago which resulted in much laughter in the audience.

2) In view of the Christmas Theme, the Introduction contained Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town sung by Mariah Carey. The clock music was also replaced in Round 3 with It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year sung by Andy Williams, a Christmas variant of itself in Round 5 and Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! sung by Dean Martin in Round 7. Finally, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas sung by Frank Sinatra was heard when Joe Wilkinson appeared.

3) After the clock stopped in Round 1, Jimmy invited all the celebrities to wear an extremely long sweater with multiple openings for them. The sweater spelt out "Christmas" (with many As) and subsequently, all of them posed together just behind the host's chair. Due to this, Jimmy invited Fabio to display the declarations on the letters board, however, this turned out to be futile with him smiling and waving to the audience.

4) In Round 3, Danny tired of Jimmy kept insulting him and "fought" with him in the centre of the studio, resulting in Danny "strangling" Jimmy with a candy cane and ending off with him "throwing" Jimmy across the table.

5) In Round 5, as part of a parlour game by Joe Wilkinson, Joe Lycett and Jon were invited to the centre of the studio and push a Mini Babybel (called "Bell" on-screen for legal reasons) to the other side of the studio. To help them out, a rugby team of six members helped each of them out. In the end, as Joe Wilkinson could not see where the Babybel ended up, no bonus points were awarded.

6) In Round 7, Joe Lycett called out the selection in a haphazard manner, resulting in Rachel likewise doing the same when placing the letters and they were not arranged in the correct order (the correct order would have been GOIREATNM). Later during the same round, in an identical manner to the previous two Christmas Specials, "snowflakes" were seen falling down from the ceiling of the studio which ended with "snowballs" dropping down and were "controlled" by Jimmy using a white Christmas weather machine with the labels 'Light Dusting', 'Flurry' and 'Blizzard'.

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

NOTE 2: In Round 4, although Jon declared he had the number 440, possibly due to the fact that he said he reached the target at the last minute immediately before, ten points were awarded to him.

Rounds

Rnd	Selection	Joe & Danny	Score	Jon & Roisin	Others	Max.
1	MSAEBTIRL	LITRES TABLES	0 – 7	BESTIAL/BLISTER BEAT/LIAR/SEAT	ABRISTLE*, AMBRITES*, BALMIEST*, BARMIEST, LAMBERTS*, LIBRATES*, MARLITES*, REMBLAIS*, TABLIERS*, TIMBALES*, TIMBRELS*	8
2	75 100 2 5 5 8 → 530	— —	0 – 17	530 530 (2 + 5) × 75 + 5* (2 + 5) × 75 + 5		18
TTT	LAYCLAUS	No strings attached.			CASUALLY
Rnd	Selection	Joe Lycett	Score	Roisin Conaty	Others	Max.
3	DWTEUHPAI	WHITED	6 – 17	whatpit ☓	PITHEAD	25
Rnd	Selection	Danny Dyer	Score	Jon Richardson	Others	Max.
4	75 50 100 7 3 2 → 439	—	6 – 27	439 (100 + 75 + 50 − 7) × 2 + 3		35
TTT	TARTYELF	Looks lovely.			FLATTERY
Rnd	Selection	Joe Lycett	Score	Jon Richardson	Others	Max.
5	VOLEDORNE	DROVE	11 – 32	LOVED	OVERDONE, OVERLEND*	43
Rnd	Selection	Danny Dyer	Score	Roisin Conaty	Others	Max.
6	FTAUJIESY	FEISTY	17 – 32	joy ☓	JUSTIFY	50
TTT	RIMSANTA	What a cheeky monkey!			TAMARINS
Rnd	Selection	Joe & Danny	Score	Jon & Roisin	Others	Max.
7	AOGIRETNM	GREAT GREAT	22 – 42	remoating ☓ GREAT	MORGANITE	73
8	ANGELNUTS		22 – 63	UNTANGLES (20.5 seconds)		94