New series, new set, new presenters...same old S4C

[Malcolm James]

Despite Countdown's cult, iconic status, it's clearly not a priority for S4C. It's got a 2.15 slot, but it doesn't start until Tuesday, so they will be a day behind everyone else, so viewers relying on analogue shouldn't visit tthe spoiler section of this site. And what devastatingly important programme have they got at 2.15 on Monday. Supernanny! This is the start of the drift, whereby by the end of Feb S4C will be about a week behind and I've never quite sussed when they catch up.

Living in Cardiff, I got Channel 4 from the Mendips for many years, but now I have to rely on C4's diggital service, which is OK, except that you cannot record it without leaving your TV on, and I'm not prepared to risk buring my house down - even for Countdown.

[Phil Reynolds]

Despite Countdown's cult, iconic status, it's clearly not a priority for S4C. [... By] the end of Feb S4C will be about a week behind and I've never quite sussed when they catch up.

It certainly is frustrating. My mum has to watch it on S4C and, even though it's a pre-recorded show, gets annoyed by references to "today's" date (i.e. the C4 first transmission date) which are invariably wrong by the time she sees it. And she missed Carol's final programme (and the tribute show) entirely because she came up to stay with us for Christmas on Dec 23rd, at which point S4C hadn't yet shown it. (They actually showed it on Christmas Eve, but we realised too late, otherwise she could have watched it at our place on digital.)

[Malcolm James]

Not to mention press coverage of contestants such as Conor, Kai and Jeffrey Hansford being massive spoilers. It's fairly easy not to go to the spoiler section of this site, harder to miss the press articles.

[Stewart Gordon]

I've seen worse - IIRC the Loughborough Echo published the result of James Roberts's go at it days before he even appeared on the screen.

When I spoke to the Echo and the Leicester Mercury about my going on the show, I was given the impression that it was their job not to publish spoilers. I was also led to believe that my article would be published during or just before my run, with a "tune in to find out how well I do" attitude, but in the end both ended up being reports of my appearance that was by then already broadcast.

OK, so my QF appearance might've been still pending broadcast at the time, but I can't remember OTTOMH what the articles said about this.

[Howard Somerset]

S4C certainly does seem to regard Countdown as an afterthought. My guess is that because it chooses to show the programme at 14:15 it's not allowed to show the current day's programme because that would be earlier than the first showing on Channel 4. (For a short while a few years ago, S4C was transmitting Countdown programmes 15 minutes before Channel 4, but this was soon stopped.)

14:15 is an unfortunate time, because it gets hit by Channel 4 (and S4C) racing much more frequently than does the 15:25 timing, and so the preferred one day delay keeps getting lengthened when S4C interrupts its coverage for such things as racing or eisteddfods. The delay only seems to get back to one day when there's a break in Channel 4's coverage, as has just happened.

Regarding Phil's mother wanting to watch the S59 final and Carol's special programme, she'd have been unlucky even if you'd realised that S4C was showing it on Christmas Eve. It's only the S4C terrestrial service that shows Countdown; S4C chooses not to show it on its digital service, which is the only S4C service she'd have been able to see when with you, Phil.

Details of S4C coverage are here, a page which is usually kept up to date.

[Phil Reynolds]

Regarding Phil's mother wanting to watch the S59 final and Carol's special programme, she'd have been unlucky even if you'd realised that S4C was showing it on Christmas Eve. It's only the S4C terrestrial service that shows Countdown; S4C chooses not to show it on its digital service, which is the only S4C service she'd have been able to see when with you, Phil.

Crikey - I had no idea. Thanks Howard for a genuinely useful piece of information. It explains a small mystery, inasmuch as I went through a couple of days' worth of Sky listings when my mum arrived and didn't see Countdown among them - I only noticed it when we took her back to Wales on Boxing Day and it was there in her listings magazine for Christmas Eve. I assumed I'd just failed to spot it on Sky.

[Stewart Gordon]

Regarding Phil's mother wanting to watch the S59 final and Carol's special programme, she'd have been unlucky even if you'd realised that S4C was showing it on Christmas Eve. It's only the S4C terrestrial service that shows Countdown;

More specifically, it's the S4C analogue terrestrial service.

S4C chooses not to show it on its digital service, which is the only S4C service she'd have been able to see when with you, Phil.

That's because digital viewers in Wales have access to C4. So rather than giving them the same stuff twice, they run S4C Digidol, a dedicated Welsh-language channel, instead of the S4C that mixes C4's programmes with its own.

[Kathleen Batlle]

I must mention how much I hated the deception of the reference to 'today's date' in the old show, when everyone was quite aware that the shows were recorded several weeks beforehand. I nearly turned off one day when Des O'Connor (or was it the other Des?) asked Carol how she had fared at the Cheltenham races, when we knew that the races hadn't taken place before the recording. I really found this so annoying as I loathe any kind of deception. So it's a refreshing change to find that the new show doesn't refer to the date at all. Well, so far so good!

[Chris Corby]

I must mention how much I hated the deception of the reference to 'today's date' in the old show, when everyone was quite aware that the shows were recorded several weeks beforehand. I nearly turned off one day when Des O'Connor (or was it the other Des?) asked Carol how she had fared at the Cheltenham races, when we knew that the races hadn't taken place before the recording. I really found this so annoying as I loathe any kind of deception. So it's a refreshing change to find that the new show doesn't refer to the date at all. Well, so far so good!

I agree with you Kathleen, in fact Jeff took a little bit of a chance by opening up his first programme with the words, "It's cold and it's wet....."; obviously he had a fairly good chance of being right but we have had heatwaves in January before now.

I do remember when Tom O'Connor was a guest, and it was on Tuesday (ie the second of five recordings that day) and Des said to him, "Knowing how much you like golf, Tom, I am surprised you aren't at home watching it." (PGA was on). Tom meekly replied, "As soon as this is over I am nipping off to watch it!" That annoyed the hell out of me.

[Kathleen Batlle]

Thanks Chris, I'm glad I'm not the only one to be annoyed. This should have all been picked up when there were the problems about deceiving viewers regarding tv quizes, but that all kicked off because of people being conned out of telephone call money when winners had already been chosen. That of course was much more serious and needed to be dealt with. However, pretending that the Countdown show was going out live each day was also deception.

[Gavin Chipper]

I don't have a problem with them just saying "It's Monday" or something simple like that. And I think referring to horse races that wouldn't have happened when recorded is OK if it's done in a sort of humorous way, where the viewer realises that they are just having a laugh.

[Ralph Gillions]

Gardener's Question Time insert a live weather forecast into their recorded programme, but they refer to it as if it was happening at the same time.
Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue refer to "returning" to the same venue, when actually it is the second part of a recording made earlier in one session. (Often the audience reaction betrays the facts.)
For the last few months Strictly Come Dancing have been pretending to do a live Sunday night results show when in fact it was recorded the previous (Saturday) evening.
There is a lot of it about!

[Sue]

My aunt is a huge fan of Countdown but has to watch it on S4C. I'm able to watch it on C4, despite only living a few miles away from her. As a result of this, we've rarely been able to discuss it ~ at least not in "real time".

I think the S4C situation worsens even more around holidays? I believe she's had to watch two shows in a day at certain times whilst S4C "catches up" ...

[Martin Gardner]

Ha yes, I remember when Ken Bruce was on with me, and he was due to comment on the Eurovision Song Contest during his run (i.e. about five weeks after the real filming) Richard asked him about it and Ken replied "yes, who'd have expected that result?!"

[David Williams]

Wasn't it you, Martin, who when Richard Whiteley said something along the lines of "You must have been very excited at your win last Friday", replied "I haven't had a wink of sleep since". I can also remember Terry O'Farrell, who'd obviously said he was a horse racing fan, being badgered by RW day after day about how he'd done at Cheltenham the previous week, and really not knowing how to respond.

I do think it's one of the strengths of Countdown that it has the continuity of the returning champion each day, and some reference to the date, day of the week, happy Christmas, whatever. There's a continuing story, and they can't just fob you off with a couple of repeats and think you won't notice. But in the current climate, I'm surprised they ever go beyond "Welcome to Monday's show", "Have a good weekend", "Who do you fancy for the Cup this year". No harm done, though.

David

[Martin Gardner]

Wasn't it you, Martin, who when Richard Whiteley said something along the lines of "You must have been very excited at your win last Friday", replied "I haven't had a wink of sleep since". I can also remember Terry O'Farrell, who'd obviously said he was a horse racing fan, being badgered by RW day after day about how he'd done at Cheltenham the previous week, and really not knowing how to respond.

I do think it's one of the strengths of Countdown that it has the continuity of the returning champion each day, and some reference to the date, day of the week, happy Christmas, whatever. There's a continuing story, and they can't just fob you off with a couple of repeats and think you won't notice. But in the current climate, I'm surprised they ever go beyond "Welcome to Monday's show", "Have a good weekend", "Who do you fancy for the Cup this year". No harm done, though.

David

Close, he said (roughly) "what's wrong, you look a bit gruff" and I said "well I didn't have the best night's sleep, as you can imagine." I'm not usually that witty, so that was a bit of a surprise.

[Callum Carton]

The new Countdown Is really good . I like it