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Ciaran McCarthy
| Ciaran McCarthy octochamp statistics | |
|---|---|
| Final position | TBC |
| Seeding | TBC |
| Points total | 842 |
| Conundrums solved | 6 |
Ciaran McCarthy was a contestant in Series 70, and an octochamp in Series 92. At the time of his 2014 appearance, he was a Performing Arts/Creative Media Production student at Bedford College while also living in Bedford. But by the time of his second set of games, he was living/working in London. He is also an Apterite and will almost certainly return for the end-of-series finals in December.
Contents
Appearances
Series 70
On his debut, which was believed to have been the first from a deaf contestant on Countdown, he had the great misfortune of running into eventual octochamp and series champion Mark Murray. His highly impressive debut score of 104, which was not enough to win after Murray spotted the crucial conundrum RENOVATED, still stands to this day as one of of the highest losing scores ever recorded in a heat game.
Series 92
After that rather unfortunate matchup and with more time on Apterous under his belt, McCarthy returned just nearly 11.5 years later and kicked off with a strong second debut against fellow Apterite Lju Lazarevic, despite it not being a century this time. He followed that up with seven further victories, which included five centuries among them. He managed to spot six nine-letter-words in his heats which was more than any other contestant in the series to date; those being UNGODLIER, ANTISERUM, DEROGATES, LIMESTONE, QUANTILES and DREAMIEST. The fourth one actually was revealed to be a substitute as McCarthy originally spotted the also valid MOLESTING, which had to be cut from the broadcast with one of the letters being changed in the edit.
He also stood out by his devotion to a three-large numbers round pick every time he was asked, and in keeping with the other octochamps in the series avoided a crucial conundrum in all of his heats despite facing some challenging opponents; his conundrums as well were routinely solved as well in a very brisk manner. After his eighth victory which saw him rack up a personal-best of 124, McCarthy confirmed his octochampdom and membership of the 800 club with a final tally of 842, which was good enough for the third seed at the time just ahead of John Payne. Rachel then christened him as "The Omen" as a final-send off to mark his achievements on the show to date.
Appearances on other Quiz shows
Three years after his Series 70 appearance, he recorded ten shows for the BBC quiz show !mpossible on the same episodes as Series 78 contestant Alyssa Critchley, with whom he would appear on Tenable on ITV on 21 September 2022, as part of the 'Buzz-in Buddies' team.
On 18 June 2023, he won £40,000 on Sitting on a Fortune.
ZoomDown
Before his second debut on Countdown in Series 92, he made his debut appearance in ZoomDown Series 5 in August 2025, winning four games and becoming the sixth tetrachamp of the series with 390 points. This secured him the seventh seed for the finals but unfortunately his opponent, second seed MSR overpowered him to knock McCarthy out of the tournament with a still respectable final score of 72 points.
Episodes
| # | Date | Type | Contestant 1 | Score | Contestant 2 | Presenters | Guest | Lex | Max | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5904 | 14/04/2014 | P | Mark Murray | 120 – 104 | Ciaran McCarthy | Nick Hewer | Rachel Riley | Michael Whitehall | Susie Dent | 137 | ||
| 8601 | 10/09/2025 | P | Lju Lazarevic | 39 – 96 | Ciaran McCarthy | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Chris McCausland | Susie Dent | 129 | ||
| 8602 | 11/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 87 – 67 | Tom Sydenham | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Chris McCausland | Susie Dent | 135 | ||
| 8603 | 12/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 105 – 75 | Mark Baker | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Chris McCausland | Susie Dent | 124 | ||
| 8604 | 15/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 112 – 33 | Martyn Smith | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Shirley Ballas | Susie Dent | 145 | ||
| 8605 | 16/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 112 – 63 | Kay Shrubb | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Shirley Ballas | Susie Dent | 140 | ||
| 8606 | 17/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 99 – 65 | Gaurav Kamath | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Shirley Ballas | Susie Dent | 130 | ||
| 8607 | 18/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 107 – 37 | Mick Jary | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Shirley Ballas | Susie Dent | 143 | ||
| 8608 | 19/09/2025 | P | Ciaran McCarthy | 124 – 57 | Paul Bainbridge | Colin Murray | Rachel Riley | Shirley Ballas | Susie Dent | 155 | ||
