How many contestants?

[Stuart Earl]

Just that - really. How many people have ever been contestants on the first 57 series of Countdown? And how many teapots have been won?

Stuart

[David Roe]

You can get the number of contestants very close by number of episodes + number of octochamps. [On second thoughts, you need to deduct 7 x number of series to allow for series finals; and then all the C of C games; and that whole series where 64 champions were invited back. Not quite so simple.]

There are anomolies, such as the odd person on twice, the odd one who won less than 8 but didn't come back, early series replays before they invented penalty shoot-out conundrums, special one-offs like Morrissey v Saldanha, etc. Someone might have to spend a few weeks working it out.

[Jason Larsen]

Literally hundreds, I would guess!

[Joseph Bolas]

Probably a silly question, but would have teapots been a prize from the very first series?

[Conor]

Probably a silly question, but would have teapots been a prize from the very first series?

I'm pretty sure they were only brought in quite later, Series 40-something.

[Charlie Reams]

Kate Ogilvie was the first teapot winner in Series 39.

To answer Stuart's question, I believe the total number of contestants is 4085 including today's game. This correctly accounts for people who spanned series, appeared in a "double newbie" battle following an octochamp's run, played in the Supreme Championship et al, appeared several times (e.g Amey Deshpande) or appeared under several names (Saladin Khoshnaw). It might be 4086 if it turns out that there really are two Ola Odutolas, but I think that's very unlikely.

[Stuart Earl]

Thanks for this, Soo.
How many teapots, therefore, are there in circulation? Didn't RW once give one to someone who lost?

Stuart

[Charlie Reams]

Much harder to say for certain. I know, for example, that Jerry Humphreys has one, but I'll let him tell that story.

[Joseph Bolas]

Thanks for this, Soo.
How many teapots, therefore, are there in circulation? Didn't RW once give one to someone who lost?

Stuart

I believe you get one when you get a score of '0' as well.

[Conor]

Kirk also has a teapot.

[Joseph Bolas]

I think now and then, someone puts one on eBay, so you never know who has one.

[Jon O'Neill]

My mum bought mine off me to stop me flogging it on eBay.

[JimBentley]

I gave mine to my mum, because I am kind.

Amey Deshpande, however, has got about six.

[Joseph Bolas]

I think the most a contestant can get is 2?

You get one for winning any number of games from 1-8 for sure, but do you also get one in your goodie bag for losing in the QF's, SF's or Final?

[Conor]

I think the most a contestant can get is 2?

You get one for winning any number of games from 1-8 for sure, but do you also get one in your goodie bag for losing in the QF's, SF's or Final?

Nope, you don't.

[Julian Fell]

That's interesting about the teapots Charlie, I didn't know that. What's this about Saladin Khoshnaw appearing under different names?

[Charlie Reams]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's on the wiki.

[Julian Fell]

Should have guessed it would be on the Wiki!

Karl Kurdistan? Did nobody see through that?

Incidentally Charlie how did it come to light that they were the same person?

[Charlie Reams]

I think he's a fairly well-known character on the Scrabble circuit and someone must've recognised him, but I don't actually know - Ben wrote that article.

[Ben Wilson]

...On information provided by Stewy. I think he was invited back, much like Helen Grayson/Darryl Francis in series 6, and later James Squire/terry Rattle/Amey Deshpande.

[Martin Smith]

I can understand it with Amay, as he looked about 10 when he was first on it. Inviting back players who nearly beat eventual Octochamps might be worth doing (Austin Shin comes to mind), but otherwise it should probably be a one-attempt show.

[Ben Wilson]

Inviting back players who nearly beat eventual Octochamps might be worth doing (Austin Shin comes to mind).

Agreed on all counts. If given enough time to prepare Austin would be absolutely deadly. And probably would've been 2 years ago too if he hadn't gone headlong into John Davies in his first show.

[Stuart Earl]

So, if Kate Ogilvie won the first teapot, two further questions:

a) what did winners get before that?
b) how many teapots since Kate?

[Joseph Bolas]

When considering the one-off specials would any contestants actually get a teapot because the eventual winner would not be on the next show?

Inviting back players who nearly beat eventual Octochamps might be worth doing.

I don't think there has been many, but I don't think thats why there are invited back.

[Julian Fell]

Inviting back players who nearly beat eventual Octochamps might be worth doing (Austin Shin comes to mind).

Agreed on all counts. If given enough time to prepare Austin would be absolutely deadly. And probably would've been 2 years ago too if he hadn't gone headlong into John Davies in his first show.

Hmmm... but then where do you stop? How do you define "nearly beat"?... and if you invite back those who "nearly beat" an Octochamp, why not those who nearly beat a 7-time winner, 6-time winner, etc. etc. until you end up making every beaten contestant ever, eligible to come back?

I think there was a debate about this on the old mailing list, and Damian basically said that, because you could never know where to draw the line, there couldn't be any exceptions to the 'one attempt' rule. I'm not sure what happened with James Squires, but with Amey Deshpande and Terry Rattle, wasn't at least part of the reason for their re-appearance, that Countdown was getting short of new contestants applying around that time? Damian may be able to tell us...

The "given enough time to prepare" thing reinforces the idea that, because you only get one shot, you really should wait till you're the best you can be, before applying... from the sounds of it I think Kirk is now regretting not waiting a bit longer, and no doubt Austin is as well...

[Joseph Bolas]

Hmmm... but then where do you stop? How do you define "nearly beat"?... and if you invite back those who "nearly beat" an Octochamp, why not those who nearly beat a 7-time winner, 6-time winner, etc. etc. until you end up making every beaten contestant ever, eligible to come back?

I am dying to know the answer to this.

The "given enough time to prepare" thing reinforces the idea that, because you only get one shot, you really should wait till you're the best you can be, before applying... from the sounds of it I think Kirk is now regretting not waiting a bit longer, and no doubt Austin is as well...

You could be as ready as you will ever be and still choke.

EDIT: To add to this, I am actually going to say that in some cases, its probably better to get on as soon as possible. The longer you leave it, the worse you could possibly get.

[Jon O'Neill]

I think Damian is biased towards inviting back nice, interesting, good looking young people.

How do you think Amey got reinvited and me into the CoC? Countdown is about more than simply being good at Countdown for most people.

I would also love to see Austin Shin back in a real series, and a Shin vs. Beevers CoC final. Yay!

[Jason Larsen]

Between college students and retired people, I guess that's a very big number.

Countdown is a game for everyone.

[Mike Brown]

I know I'm late joining in on this thread, but...

1. I think the first teapots were handed out to both Kate Ogilvie and Richard Saldanha after the Series 39 Grand Final (not sure if Soo included Richard in his calculations).

2. I don't think anyone has ever got a teapot for scoring zero, although I think Richard did give one once because it was their birthday. This seems to be a Countdown urban myth (I feel a separate thread coming on!) that the two players to score zero were given teapots, as perpetuated in the 2008 calendar. The last person to score zero was Sylvia Pitman in Series 39 and I believe she was given the winner's goody bag, which didn't however include a teapot at that time. (Damian et al, please feel free to correct me!)

Mike.

[Jason Larsen]

Richard Whiteley?

[Kirk Bevins]

The "given enough time to prepare" thing reinforces the idea that, because you only get one shot, you really should wait till you're the best you can be, before applying... from the sounds of it I think Kirk is now regretting not waiting a bit longer, and no doubt Austin is as well...

The most annoying part is when new people find out I've been on Countdown (like some girl did at a party the other night) they ask how I did. When I said I lost my first game she said "oh" and then ignored me for the rest of the night!!

[Jon Corby]

The most annoying part is when new people find out I've been on Countdown (like some girl did at a party the other night) they ask how I did. When I said I lost my first game she said "oh" and then ignored me for the rest of the night!!

Yeah, whereas if you win a few games, the chicks are all over you.

[Dinos Sfyris]

The most annoying part is when new people find out I've been on Countdown (like some girl did at a party the other night) they ask how I did. When I said I lost my first game she said "oh" and then ignored me for the rest of the night!!

Yeah, whereas if you win a few games, the chicks are all over you.

Hell yeah! I only won 3 and have to beat them off with a stick!

[mackenzie]

You should have lied and told her you beat the all-time high score record! Because really, a girl that gets off with you at a party because you're a gameshow winner probably won't put any effort into doing the research.

[Martin Gardner]

Actually I hate telling people I've been on Countdown because people ask me the same frigging questions all the time. They usually ask what's Carol like, how many games I won and what did I won (what?! you don't win money?!). There's only one person at uni that knows and he didn't really care, which was fine by me to be honest.

Martin

[Derek Hazell]

Here is a rough count of the number of contestants per series. (This does include people who've been on the show in more than one series more than once though):

Series 1 - 25
Series 2 - 38
Series 3 - 47
Series 4 - 43
Series 5 - 37
Series 6 - 49
Series 7 - 42
Series 8 - 51
Series 9 - 34
Series 10 - 46
Series 11- 42
Series 12 - 44
Series 13 - 35
Series 14 - 59
Series 15 - 46
Series 16 - 50
Series 17 - 42
Series 18 - 66
Series 19 - 59
Series 20 - 58
Series 21 - 47
Series 22 - 60
Series 23 - 60
Series 24 - 59
Series 25 - 54
Series 26 - 59
Series 27 - 60
Series 28 - 61
Series 29 - 52
Series 30 - 59
Series 31 - 61
Series 32 - 60
Series 33 - Supreme Championship
Series 34 - 59
Series 35 - 61
Series 36 - 60
Series 37 - 55
Series 38 - 109
Series 39 - 126
Series 40 - 126
Series 41 - 121
Series 42 - 115
Series 43 - 109
Series 44 - 126
Series 45 - 41
Series 46 - 66
Series 47 - 126
Series 48 - 110
Series 49 - 101
Series 50 - 101
Series 51 - 113
Series 52 - 113
Series 53 - 120
Series 54 - 153
Series 55 - 134
Series 56 - 119
Series 57 - 125
Series 58 - 117
Series 59 - 103
Series 60 - 96

[Gavin Chipper]

I didn't realise that "Supreme Championship" was a number!

[Sue Sanders]

I didn't realise that "Supreme Championship" was a number!

Yeah, all that time that the world's super maths brains spend looking for the next prime number.....I expect Derek could find one for them.