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Ciaran McCarthy
Ciaran McCarthy was a contestant in Series 70 and 92, from Bedford. At the time of the former appearance, he was a Performing Arts/Creative Media Production student at Bedford College. He is also an Apterite and is believed to have been the first deaf contestant on Countdown. His score of 104 is one of the highest losing scores in a heat game.
Three years later, he made ten appearances on 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. He will make his second debut on Countdown in Series 92; before that, 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 | |||
