Before I start the final review of 2025 (and Series 92) here, I'm sure all of us would like to join in to wish Countdown's Series Producer Damian Eadie a speedy recovery given that he has been ill for some time as mentioned by Colin even though some people in the Daily Chat already knew about his condition before today and were not surprised. This has been one cracking Series and it's a shame he missed so much of the action, so hopefully he'll be back in Series 93 to see the next Finals through in June.
Back to the present (Shoutout to Adam Beach, whom Jase invited to watch the recording and told us this was recorded on 07 October) and aw, Colin's not wearing a sweater here, so as promised, I'll just say he's got a nice selection and credit to whoever designed them for him (Alan Partridge, Sleigher, Christmas-themed Ghostbusters and Snowasis to top it off given how relevant it has been). Jase's probably in a cinematic theatre watching the show since he's nowhere to be seen in the Daily Chat
, and Brett, of all places, is in his clinic, attending to a toddler (nice to see him temporarily stopping his procedure yesterday by the way since his patient wanted to watch the epic showdown between him and Ben
). They have common things, 116 points each in their Semi-Finals and busy in their own ways here, so enough said, may the best person win!
First Third: As you would expect, no one falters in the first two rounds of the show, and also, where in R2 have we all seen this before? Oh that's right, it appeared 24 episodes earlier and was arranged differently. No wonder why it looked familiar until I memorised some of the maxes already. Hello there, Jase wants to go for a Ciaran McCarthy special in the form of 3 Large for R3, and it's nice for him to pay tribute to the latter in such a manner
Easy target for a Grand Final once you see 60 × 8, but oh no, Brett's missed it and Jase pulls ahead with a ten point deficit! Unlucky
Um, Brett just typed in the Daily Chat his patient the toddler "is gonna have a f***ing field day", hide his tools, run!!!
Second Third: I hope all of you have FORESIGHT to not forget wrapping Christmas Presents for either your colleagues or relatives per the Teatime Teaser! Excellent R4 in which Jase had HENBIT to match Brett's MINTED (I thought both were going to go for BEHIND which was more obvious) as well as perhaps a shoutout to the community with APTEROUS in R5! Understandable choice of 1 Large from Brett to prevent himself falling behind further if a misfire happens in R6 which not only luckily doesn't happen here, you could tell both had the answer within 15 seconds, nice one! In R7, why did I have a gut feeling Jase and Brett would have those exact two words? Anyways, standard's still high even though both miss the nine-letter word DECALITRE in R8 (sadly no "U" for CURTAILED as that was what Brett would have wanted as per the Daily Chat). Wow what's this?! Jase goes for another Ciaran special in R9. Oh shoot, double "1"s, but fortunately the target's not high.
Philip A wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 3:04 pm
I think these 3 large numbers games — the least popular selection mind — shows how easy it is to forget to factorise the target figure, or spot nearby factors. It's instinctively done for 6 small, but we forget that it can work for any numbers chosen: 1/2/3 and even 4 large.
Checks after the show reveals that there are only two possible solutions that do not require the use of 60 × 8 in R3 and a lot of us in the Daily Chat showed that under pressure in R9 here, we would have struggled since if we did not find 76 × 3 there's no other way out, with this being the only possible solution. Even though Jase and Brett did not spot it either, it's the former who's closer and recuses himself out of the crucial conundrum territory! Brett says "Hide the toddler now!" Argh!!!
Last Third: Let's see if Brett can close the gap after a final, LIGHTENED Christmas Teatime Teaser for the afternoon in the year. Another familiar selection in R10 and points go to you if you spot the familiar words, and nice spot of EQUATOR from Brett in R11 which I thought was difficult enough to use the "Q" for a Max. However, the crucial breakaway came with Jase soaring like a MAJESTIC eagle in R12 and the round after, with Brett saying "Well done, 7", we have a winner and the Jase is over (Get it? Thank you to Logan Skelton in the Daily Chat for suggesting such a nice phrase)! Last Numbers Round, and since Brett said the Numbers Rounds were a determining factor here, 3 Large and I hope it's nice to him. Ok maybe not, gulp and the best is 1 Away. I bet you must be smirking if you managed to beat Jase which is quite doable
, so let's see if you can solve the Grand Final conundrum, and this one's for you if you enjoy watching FOILs in the sky with GUSTO at night. I hadn't even pieced together as to what the answer could end in when Jase buzzes in with UFOLOGIST (switch the "R" from UROLOGIST out) in just over two seconds, leading me to be like Colin and have that "Wow" expression. The last time we had 5/7 Solves for the Finals was in Series 88 two years ago, so great work to all in improving the solving trend after a year!
Brett Davids wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 5:17 pm
So, series runner up! I never thought I’d go back on Countdown. I’d loved my time in 2014, got my teapot, and was genuinely happy with how I’d done. I enjoyed playing online but with no real aspirations of anything more. But about a year ago, I started to wonder… could I do it again? Could I maybe do better? Was it a midlife crisis? Probably. But a bit safer than a motorbike! It certainly hasn’t been easy. I failed my audition! Thankfully, the production team saw something in me and let me have a second shot.
And I got on! After that, it’s a been a bit bonkers. Scraping past Angus Faraday, who would be a Octochamp himself most times. 136 on telly! A blooming MAX GAME!
The finals - with everyone able to take a guest and the most amazing group of finalists, to a man (and woman!) made for such a supportive, positive and genuinely magical couple of days. Mark playing out of his skin in the quarters and scraping past him. 30 seconds of torture getting nowhere near the crucial conundrum in the semi and Ben buzzing in on 28 seconds. Being hugged by Christopher Biggins of all people!
And the final? Not my best game in truth, but I left everything out there, gave it my best shot and, ultimately, it wasn’t quite enough. And I’m quite OK with that. If you’d have asked me a year ago would I have been happy with being series runner up, I’d have snapped your hands off.
So there ends my Countdown tenure. Proud I’ve done it, sad it’s over, and no regrets.
I predicted that Jase would beat Brett with a margin of around 20 points without a crucial, but the margin was way wider at 42 points instead. Dr. Brett, allow and pardon me to squeeze your post here so that I don't take up too much space and hope you don't mind. I think you summed up perfectly your whole journey here in that one post. It's definitely been a whirlwind for you and to be the first person since Ronan Higginson in Mid-2023 to score a Max Game is nothing short of incredible (and nearly came close to a second one if you had not screwed up R9 in your Quarter-Finals). As Colin put it, you'll be remembered by these 3 "S"-es, Shirts (you're so like Dan Byrom our Series 85 Grand Champion!
), Smiles (which I'm sure your patients would love to see. Heck if I was your patient I would want that to reassure myself that you'll polish my teeth or extract my wisdom tooth out safely without incident!) and most importantly, Sportsmanship. You put it aptly, that it was an honour for you to be here again and get this far, well done and let's hope your clinic's website updates your bio to say "Series Runner-Up on Countdown in December 2025" soon!
As for Jase, it never crossed my mind that a young Series 84 Semi-Finalist by the name of Stu Harkness faced you in the only episode that's available to the public in your first stint back in 2007. 15 years later, you "rejoined" the community and then just like Brett, had another shot at the show and were successful. This whole Grand Final could been very different if you had lost to John Pakenham or if Brett had lost to Angus Faraday months ago, so the fact that you were here today as one of those contestants, you have now certainly lived up to Colin's nickname, in that you have cemented your status in history as another Grand Champion. I hoped everyone in that cinematic theatre if you were there gave you a standing ovation, because you deserve one and may the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy be displayed neatly in your office or home for the next half a year!
That is it for the Year called 2025 and no doubt this has been one of the best Series to date since I've started recapping. It's great to see Colin acknowledging the camaraderie between the contestants over the past six months both on and off-screen. This is no doubt one of the strongest Series as well even with the ODP Cull, and it gives me hope that there are people out there whom we've yet to see their true potential and do well far in the future.
Philip A wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 3:04 pm
The trophy broke!!! Brilliant telly.
Hold up, as the episode closed, guess what?! Oh LMAO, the lid of the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy fell off on-camera in what must be a hilarious moment and all of us were laughing away over the fact that the production team did not bother with a retake. Brett even joked in the Daily Chat "He’s (Jase) dropped the trophy lid! Automatic disqualification. I am champion"
Another moment for the books, and to top it off, it was definitely nice to see post-episode pictures from Brett and Adam Beach of Jase holding the trophy (although our user Brocky pointed out it'll probably now be called "The Susie Dented Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy"!
). However, Countdown is still not over for the year as Catsdown is back with a Christmas Special (after a hiatus in 2024) on Christmas Eve itself. What's more, for the next two weeks, I'm sure you can find plenty of entertainment on other Quiz/Game shows such as "Only Connect", "University Challenge", "Big Fat Quiz of the Year", "Taskmaster" and many more, the last most notably will feature Susie Dent making an appearance in the 2026 New Year Specials on 02 and 03 January just before we return for Series 93! Speaking of which, four-time winner Megel Barker will be back on Monday, 05 January to see if he can successfully complete the second half of what could be the first Octochamp run of the year and if so, cement his status as the first Finalist. For now, may all of you have in advance, a Merry Christmas in this most wonderful time of the year, and a healthy Happy New Year to everyone! May 2026 be a brighter year for us all!
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) (
116 - 78)
SF2 (18 December 2025):
Brett Davids (QF2 Winner) vs Ben Hocking (QF3 Winner) (
116 - 108)
GF (19 December 2025):
Jase Cullen (SF1 Winner) vs Brett Davids (SF2 Winner) (
118 - 76)