Spoilers for Tuesday 16th December 2025 - Series 92 4th Quarter-final

[Philip A]

Ciaran McCarthy plays John Payne in a battle of the multi-quiz show contestants! The winner will return tomorrow to face Jase Cullen.

[samir pilica]

R5 PACHOULI

[Philip A]

R5 PACHOULI

Almost - it’s spelled PATCHOULI with a T. I had an anagram of COPULA, which is CUPOLA.

[Philip A]

Very sorry for Ciaran, but definitely an inspiration and great advert for Countdown. Numbers can be especially nervy, like a 3-foot putt for par. Well done both, but a nervy game.

And irrespective of whether Payne plays online or not, he’s a top number cruncher and clearly good at puzzles. An interesting semi-final beckons tomorrow.

Brett scored the most maxes of all quarter-final winners, so this is going to be an exciting end to the week.

[Gavin Chipper]

This was the only QF I won playing at home.

[John Garcia]

I'm predicting 1 will beat 5 and 2 will beat 3 to set up 1 v 2 in the final, where 1 will win.

[Ryan Lam]

If you were here on Monday and you were one of the eagle-eyed viewers who spotted the Countdown studio table is much longer on Colin's side compared to Susie's side, then congratulations, you're not seeing things, because very likely, that was to accommodate Ciaran's BSL Interpreter Sarah who was seated with Colin earlier in the year. High-five to her and of course, let's thank her for all the incredible work she's done over eight episodes going into her ninth. Happy 77th Birthday to Christopher Biggins (which I don't recall the show marking over the past two years, wow...), and haha, the letdown with the Countdown mug as his birthday present which was wrapped up as if it was a giant sweet! Moving right along, both contestants today have appeared on other game shows before, something I forgot to mention beforehand! On one side, Ciaran's ready to go even though he's nervous. The other, we've got John(?!) who now has long hair and a "wonderful" beard. He looks so different after considering some "life choices" Let's see if his goatee brings him luck here!

First Third: Great opening round with BLOWIEST by both in R1, but John takes a back seat after he has seignors but it's not spelt like that, unlucky You know the drill, Ciaran likes 3 Large and goes for it in R3. If you know your multiples of 7, this one shouldn't be exactly too much of a challenge. Ciaran misses and John takes the lead by two points! Also, it's worth pointing out that it seems like John likes the clock music a lot with him bobbing his head to the beat

Second Third: Nice Colin for "destroying" Christmas reality for children with the first Teatime Teaser with money But anyways, R4 comes along and good spot of TAVERNA to both and as well to DC for VERANDA, giving us ideas to stay warm this season or to chillax (if you know what I mean). As predicted later on, John goes for his usual 4 Large in R6 and it's considered easy once you spot it, good work to both! Excellent spot of TAUTOMER from Ciaran in R7 afterwards (only one person had that in the Daily Chat), give yourself a pat on the back for that, but DC spotted an extra "R" which he did not know in R8 to get INTONERS! Here we go, another Numbers Round, but instead of the 3 Large everyone had expected, Ciaran shocks the studio (and those watching too) by playing safe and goes for 1 Large! Small target and it's an easy one, but I can only scream "ARGH!!!" afterwards, because Ciaran not only missed, his tactic backfired on him with John retaking the lead after getting it! (Some of us thought he might have tried to find a way for 2×100 - 2, but it's hard to think of this on-the-spot with those numbers in the selection...)

Last Third: A very nice "Catsdown" Teaser after seeing the answer to the second one, but even nicer I bet was when John's risk of PLAIDED paid off in R10. "Happy Christmas" with death next in R11 with a GRUESOME sight to behold in MORGUES (although I'll stop here in view of the tragedies around the world at time of airing, and I do wonder if there was time for the editors to take out Colin joking around especially with those multiple casualty events), and with that former word being spotted, John's out of the crucial conundrum danger zone! Ciaran doesn't give up and fights back with FATHOM in R12. What's this? Oh no, he saw PHANTOM too late, and with such a close contest, let's hope this isn't the game changer! The last three rounds now, can anyone spot the nine in R13? No, it's a disastrous round with toluene only existing in the singular and it's elocution rather than elocutes! Bad luck, if Ciaran wants to have a fighting chance, John must miss the last Numbers target or do worse. 4 Large here we go again in R14, but it's straightforward, and Ciaran knew the game was over, with John going through to tomorrow's game. However, even in the midst of him being LOWLY, the conundrum turned out FINE for him, because he knew it was a type of tuna and you could see how proud he was to get it!

I predicted the game was going all the way down to the wire with Ciaran to come out with a less than ten point difference over John and him solving the conundrum which was not to be crucial. While the overall margin and conundrum solve did happen, it was a complete flop where John won instead. Poor Ciaran, there was so much salt rubbed into his wounds, and I'm sure him not spotting INTONERS in R8 and PHANTOM in R12 is going to haunt him. But, being the first contestant to have a sensory disability to make it to the Series Finals since Zarte Siempre in Mid-2018 is definitely an inspiration especially to those who have doubts about applying and whether the show can accommodate such people. I still remembered when he was on "!mpossible" all those years ago, he did not speak a single word on-screen, so to see him showing and expressing his thoughts verbally is a remarkable and emotional achievement by itself, and I'm sure all of us really wished we were there just like John to give you that big hug and embrace you as the show closed. You have done yourself proud, keep breaking barriers be it on television or elsewhere!

The stage is set for the Semi-Finals. First-up, it's Jase vs John to see which "J" named guy will come out tops! Will Jase survive the 4 Large challenges that will come his way, or will John find a way to outsmart him in the letters instead? Turn up the heat just like the "Heats" mentioned in the "Origins of Words" yesterday and we'll find out who gets to play in the Grand Final, soon!

Progress:
QF1 (11 December 2025): Jase Cullen (#1) vs Shemina Kirby (#8) (121 - 43)
QF2 (12 December 2025): Brett Davids (#2) vs Mark Allen (#7) (116 - 91)
QF3 (15 December 2025): Ben Hocking (#3) vs Ricky Cohen (#6) (108 - 61)
QF4 (16 December 2025): Ciaran McCarthy (#4) vs John Payne (#5) (79 - 82)
SF1 (17 December 2025): Jase Cullen (QF1 Winner) vs John Payne (QF4 Winner)
SF2 (18 December 2025): Brett Davids (QF2 Winner) vs Ben Hocking (QF3 Winner)
GF (19 December 2025): (SF1 Winner) vs (SF2 Winner)