Was 2013 Countdown’s Peak Year?

[Philip A]

After talks of The Traitors possibly peaking out in 2026 in the same way as Big Brother, The X Factor and The Apprentice did in 2004, 2010 and 2012 respectively according to popular opinion, it got me wondering, when was Countdown’s finest year?

I think it’s 2013 – the last full year to use the paper dictionary, before switching to an online one in 2014, then accepting predominantly obscure words in 2015, all of which were permanently erased in 2024. By 2013, Nick Hewer was nicely settling in to the host role. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though, as I’m about to describe.

In 2012, Countdown reached a milestone 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion, albeit delaying it by a couple of months, Countdown decided to reinvite 41 past players back to take part in the 30th Birthday Championship, which aired from January to March 2013. 16 of those players would otherwise have made up a regular Champion of Champions. Some of the other 25 appeared as early as the 1980’s.

Indeed, the standard was at the ceiling, with 5 games featuring maximum scores achieved by the winner. 3 of those came from the tournament winner Conor Travers, and missing the first numbers game in the grand final evaded an unprecedented 4th max game in a row but nevertheless equalled the then-record score of 146. The other two perfect games were achieved by Kirk Bevins and Jon O’Neill, who took Travers all the way in the semi-final, only to be beaten on a crucial conundrum.

As the championship occupied the first 8 weeks of 2013, the next regular series (65) had to be 2 months shorter than the usual 6 months. Because of this, the No. 8 seed qualified with only 2 wins. Nevertheless, the No. 1 seed Giles Hutchings set the record 8-game cumulative score with 965 points and won the grand final by 9 points. Dylan Taylor bettered that 8-game record in Series 69 with 974, with the No. 2 Jen Steadman on 952 (the highest by a female player) and Glen Webb on 945 which includes 7 wins from the Series 65 before carrying over to Series 66. Amazingly, all 3 lost to No. 7 seed Callum Todd, who scraped through his first win with a score of 70! Indeed, the grand final was a case of David beat Goliath.

In short, 2013 had the lot.

[Graeme Cole]

As the championship occupied the first 8 weeks of 2013, the next regular series (65) had to be 2 months shorter than the usual 6 months.

68.

[John Garcia]

After talks of The Traitors possibly peaking out in 2026 in the same way as Big Brother, The X Factor and The Apprentice did in 2004, 2010 and 2012 respectively according to popular opinion

Is this the same popular opinion that voted for Brexit?
I would argue that Big Brother peaked in 2000. The first ever series was a genuine social experiment where no one knew what was going to happen, and it was dynamite. Every year subsequent was full of talentless losers hoping to become famous, so it became self-defeating.

The celebrity version largely avoids that problem in that they are already famous. I would argue celeb BB peaked in 2006. Certainly that's the series I most remember.

I hope countdown doesn't go down the route of BB, and I hope countdown hasn't peaked already, but you could be right about that!

[Jon O'Neill]

If the CoC in 2002 was in 2001, I think 2001 would probably have a shout. It was a significant leap forward in quality of the gameplay, had Whiteley-Vorderman and it was a golden age of TV.
Hard to argue though.

[sean d]

Callum - Dylan - Jen etc was Series 69 (I know, I was there!) in the second half of 2013. Giles Hutchings and Andy Platt were in the final of 68 earlier in the year, not as insane a standard in that series but 2 great finalists. I think the 30th Anniversary Champion of Champion of Champions series inspired a lot of top Apterites to apply, all at the same time, so Series 69 in particular was a bloodbath.

[David Williams]

I don't think the four million people who watched it in the 1990s and didn't watch it in 2013 would agree. Although most of them had probably died.

Nice little story in the Times today about Rick Wakeman doing a conversational stage show where a fair number of the audience knew him mainly as a celebrity guest on Countdown. One asked him if he'd ever thought of a career as a professional musician, because he was rather good at it.

[Gavin Chipper]

There was a peak around 1986 to 1988 with a lot of good players. CoC III in 1987 was a classic, especially the final with Harvey Freeman beating David Trace, both champions from 1986. It also featured John Clarke and Stephen Balment, champions in 1987.

1987 finished with Nic Brown becoming series champion and xicount before winning the CoC at the start of 1989. Allan Saldanha also first appeared in 1988.

But picking a single year from these, it would be 1987. Just remind yourself of the CoC III final.