Presenter
A presenter is a professional TV personality that presents Countdown. There have been seven main presenters in the history of the show: Richard Whiteley, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor, Jeff Stelling, Nick Hewer, Anne Robinson and Colin Murray. Trevor McDonald covered an episode when Robinson was inappropriate. Les Dennis and Jenny Eclair presented episodes when Murray had COVID-19. And Floella Benjamin, Richard Coles, McDonald and Moira Stuart deputised during Countdown's 40th birthday.
The main job of the presenter is to anchor the show such as asking the contestants for their declarations, reading out the Teatime Teaser since Series 46, marshalling the show, telling the contestants to make their selections and starting the clock in each round (excluding Anne Robinson due to her height when she presented the show). Richard Whiteley did not miss presenting a single episode (including the Calendar Countdown series and pilot episodes) until Christmas Day 1997 when he appeared as a contestant against Carol Vorderman, with the presenting being given over to William G. Stewart. Whiteley then continued to present every episode from Championship of Champions IX before his death in 2005, following the Series 53 grand final.
Des Lynam, Des O'Connor and Jeff Stelling all spent a short while in the presenter's chair before the role was given to Nick Hewer in 2012, whose longevity was eventually only the second after Whiteley. When the COVID-19 pandemic affected the show starting after 17 April 2020 until 12 December 2022, Hewer was absent in the 2020 Christmas specials and some of Series 83 during which Colin Murray deputised before Hewer was replaced by Anne Robinson. Robinson presented the show for just over a year before resigning as Murray stepped in once again, before gaining the full-time job in early-2023.
Since Series 18, the co-presenter's job is synonymous with that of the arithmeticians when Carol Vorderman took over the letters portion of the game as well. Prior to that, the two roles were split up with the co-presenter's sole job being to put up the letters and numbers on the board. During the Calendar Countdown series, the presenters did not even speak with Whiteley reading out the selections instead. A separate person, Beverley Isherwood, was wheeled out twice per show to put the numbers up between Series 1 and 3. But this role was subsumed by Cathy Hytner once it was realised that it was rather silly to have two separate roles for this. Hytner was replaced by Karen Loughlin for Series 14, and Loughlin was replaced by Lucy Summers for Series 17.
Between Series 54 and 59, Vorderman introduced the guest in Dictionary Corner but this responsibility was returned to the main presenter from Championship of Champions XIII when O'Connor and Vorderman were replaced by Stelling and Rachel Riley. During this time, Vorderman was given equal credit with Lynam and O'Connor as the main presenter rather than the co-presenter.
Since Series 72, Susie Dent was given a co-presenting credit and thus is given equal credit with Riley.
From Series 1 to 17, the Dictionary Corner guest was credited as the co-presenter; this is not the case in this wiki.
