Teatime Teaser

The Teatime Teaser is an anagram presented for the viewers to solve during each commercial break. The name comes from the fact that this feature was introduced at the beginning of Series 46 along with the 15-round format, at which point Countdown aired at teatime.

Lengths of Teatime Teasers
Seven	24 September 2001	5 December 2003
Eight	8 December 2003	30 November 2016
Nine	1 December 2016	17 November 2020
Eight	18 November 2020	17 September 2021
Nine	20 September 2021	8 October 2021
Eight	11 October 2021	13 July 2022
Nine	14 July 2022	3 August 2022
Eight	4 August 2022	present

Initially, seven-letter anagrams were used; from 8 December 2003 to 30 November 2016, the anagrams were eight letters long; and from 1 December 2016 to 17 November 2020, the anagrams were nine-letter anagrams. Eight-letter Teasers were then resumed from 18 November 2020 to 17 September 2021, with many being direct copies of those used in the earlier eight-letter era. After this, the 20 September 2021 edition reintroduced nine-letter anagrams but it was short-lived, lasting only three weeks until 8 October 2021 before eight-letter ones were reintroduced between 11 October 2021 and 13 July 2022, when they became nine letters again between 14 July 2022 and 3 August 2022. Teatime Teasers have been nine letters long since 4 August 2022.

The scramble and a clue for the solution are read out by the presenter each time a commercial break is introduced. The puzzle then appears on the Countdown logo screen; at the end of the commercial break, the solution is displayed.

Before the name "Teatime Teaser" was decided, this feature was known at different times by the names "Granagram", "Intergram" (from "interval") and "Telegram". It was also briefly renamed the "Santagram" during at least one Christmas season, and “Tinsel Teasers” for Episode S47, S48, and S49. They were initially clue-less, but clues became standardised at some point during Series 47.

A forerunner to the Teatime Teaser was used from Series 40 through 42, when Countdown was sponsored by Seven Seas Cod Liver Oil, whose sponsorship screen presented an anagram, between five and nine letters in length, for viewers to solve during the 9 round format's single commercial break. Despite its having appeared in more than 300 episodes, only about 100 distinct Seven Seas Teasers were ever used, with many scrambles having been repeated up to four times over the course of the feature's history.

Unlike conundrums, Teatime Teasers can have more than one solution, for example NUDEMAN could give MUNDANE or UNNAMED. The clue would most likely indicate that one is more acceptable than the other.

On Letters and Numbers, the Australian adaptation of Countdown, Teatime Teasers were known as Word Mixes. They were eight letters in length and there were two per game, one at each advert break.