November's featured article
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The first episode of Countdown was broadcast at 4:45pm on Tuesday 2 November 1982, and was the first ever programme shown on the brand new Channel 4. It was hosted by Richard Whiteley (pictured) alongside "hostesses" Cathy Hytner and Beverley Isherwood, who placed letter and number tiles on the board respectively. Isherwood also created three-digit targets for the numbers rounds using a random-number generator, introduced as CECIL – "Countdown's Electronic Calculator in Leeds". This name is still used today, despite production of Countdown moving to Manchester in 2009. Carol Vorderman was the programme's "vital statistician", responsible for checking contestants' calculations and solving numbers rounds where necessary. During Series 1 and Series 2, this role was alternated with Dr Linda Barrett. In what would come to be known as Dictionary Corner, farmer and television personality Ted Moult sat alongside the programme's first ever lexicographer, referred to only as Mary. Although Carol Vorderman is usually said to be the first woman to appear on Channel 4, Mary was in fact introduced to viewers earlier in the episode than Vorderman.
The first ever champion was solicitor and Scrabble player Michael Goldman, who beat accountant Jeff Andrews by 50 points to 27. The structure of the game was essentially the same 9 round format used until Series 45, broadcast in 2001. However, there were some notable differences from more recent episodes – beyond the multiple co-hosts whose roles Carol Vorderman would fulfil single-handedly from 1989 until 2008. Only the contestant whose word was longest stated it during letters rounds; their opponent just declared the length of their word. Also, the scrambled nine-letter word in the final round wasn't called a conundrum, and was manually revealed by Hytner pulling a lever in-vision. Furthermore, whereas Countdown conundrums today are usually rearranged into a short phrase (such as TINYROLES from the Series 66 final), the final round in earlier series saw the letters of a nine-letter word shuffled into a random and often nonsensical order. (more...)
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Today in Countdown history
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- A brief overview of Countdown and some of its records and terminology.
- The team – Colin Murray, Rachel Riley, and Susie Dent.
- The show's institutions – the conundrum, the Countdown clock and its music, Dictionary Corner, the pencam, and the Teatime Teaser.
- Arthur Page, the reigning series champion, and his series grand final against Michael Calder.
- The most recent Championship of Champions grand final between James Haughton and Ahmed Mohamed.
- The 30th Birthday Championship grand final between Conor Travers and Jack Hurst.
- Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Carol Vorderman, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer and Anne Robinson – the show's former permanent presenters.
- The highest ever score – 154, achieved by Tom Stevenson on 29 September 2022 and Cillian McMulkin on 31 January 2023.
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Everyone can edit the Countdown Wiki, just register and then click the edit link at the top of any page (except this one!) and start editing. Here are some useful links:
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- Apterous, an online game from the same people that run this site.
- The Countdown Android App, created by Series 63 champion Jack Hurst.
- The Countdown Database, detailed statistics and round-by-round details of over 7,800 episodes.
- FOCAL, regular in-person events that anyone can enter.
- c4countdown, Countdown's main online forum, populated by many past octochamps.
- Quantum Tombola, a numbers game solver designed by Series 65 champion Graeme Cole.
- Greem, a website listing nearly all Co-event scores until early 2020.
- The Countdown Page, the original site of Countdown stats, by Mike Brown.
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Upcoming Countdown tournaments
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The full list of FOCAL tournaments for 2025 is here.
The next scheduled events are the concurrent 2024 FOCAL finals and Milton Keynes Open on 30 November 2024.
Almost all online tournaments are now held on Apterous: the list of ongoing tournaments is here. |
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