c4countdown

So, not just me then it seems: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a43 ... tudio.html

James Robinson wrote:So, not just me then it seems: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a43 ... tudio.html

Actually, just you.

Countdown Team wrote:

James Robinson wrote:So, not just me then it seems: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a43 ... tudio.html

Actually, just you.

You know that's not funny. (I don't think you'd find it funny if you were banned from something/someone you care about for over 3 years and have to try and live with it as best you can.)

I think I deserve an apology for that unfunny p**s-take. Or at least a face-to-face meeting to resolve it once and for all.

Wow, the tine of this forum really has changed since Countdown Team joined...

By the way I'm siding with James here.

James, it wasn't intended to be funny.

James Robinson wrote:

Countdown Team wrote:

James Robinson wrote:So, not just me then it seems: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a43 ... tudio.html

Actually, just you.

You know that's not funny. (I don't think you'd find it funny if you were banned from something/someone you care about for over 3 years and have to try and live with it as best you can.)

I think I deserve an apology for that unfunny p**s-take. Or at least a face-to-face meeting to resolve it once and for all.

Just a thought, is this a ban from Granada Studios or Countdown itself?

She so should have been invited back for the 30th anniversary episode

Countdown Team wrote:

James Robinson wrote:So, not just me then it seems: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a43 ... tudio.html

Actually, just you.

Hahaha, quality.

Ciaran Thompson wrote:She so should have been invited back for the 30th anniversary episode

Why did you edit out the part where you highlighted what 'Countdown Team' had edited out of their post?

Given that the countdown team are obviously reading this message board I'd like to add my support for James and say that I think his studio ban should be lifted. True I don't know the background of the why he was banned in the first place but i'm sure he is older and wiser now and has been punished enough and surely everyone deserves a second chance.

For what is worth I think Carol should also be incuded in the 30th anniversary celebrations in some way -maybe presenting the prizes?

Not exactly "In the news" but there is a feature in this months Reader's Digest about Countdown.

Countdown Team wrote:James, it wasn't intended to be funny.

And would you like to explain why I can't follow @C4Countdown on Twitter either

Countdown Team wrote:James, it wasn't intended to be funny.

What was it intended to be then with the piss-taking emoticons?

In other news, it seems that Countdown is being moved to 2:40pm in 2 weeks time, thanks to this new show presented by Sandi Toksvig.

James Robinson wrote:In other news, it seems that Countdown is being moved to 2:40pm in 2 weeks time, thanks to this new show presented by Sandi Toksvig.

This teatime teaser thing is becoming more and more of a misnomer.

Come to think of it, they don't call it that any more, do they?

Another notice that I've just realised, there's no Countdown this Friday, cos of the noisy "neigh"-bours.

P.S. Don't forget 2:40pm from tomorrow.

It's a real shame they don't have Channel 4 +1 +1. I rarely watch Countdown now, as Nick Hewer has really killed Countdown off for me now. I find it impossible to get home for 4:10 to catch it on Channel 4 +1 (due to some plebs who board the bus and take ages over it. Either that or the bus is late so I miss the train and have to wait 7.5 minutes for another one, since the tube always runs on time these days). I'm not even going to try now. At least I can reallocate my weekday afternoons to trainspotting.

Rhys Benjamin wrote:It's a real shame they don't have Channel 4 +1 +1. I rarely watch Countdown now, as Nick Hewer has really killed Countdown off for me now. I find it impossible to get home for 4:10 to catch it on Channel 4 +1 (due to some plebs who board the bus and take ages over it. Either that or the bus is late so I miss the train and have to wait 7.5 minutes for another one, since the tube always runs on time these days). I'm not even going to try now. At least I can reallocate my weekday afternoons to trainspotting.

Do you not have 4seven, Rhys

The repeat of that is on at 5:15pm each day.

I do, but I have an annoying brother who wants to watch whatever CBBC are showing at that time. They don't do children's TV like they used to.

They don't do children like they used to, Rhys!

Matt Morrison wrote:They don't do children like they used to, Rhys!

Rhys Benjamin wrote:due to some plebs who board the bus

Indeed.

James Robinson wrote:

Rhys Benjamin wrote:It's a real shame they don't have Channel 4 +1 +1. I rarely watch Countdown now, as Nick Hewer has really killed Countdown off for me now. I find it impossible to get home for 4:10 to catch it on Channel 4 +1 (due to some plebs who board the bus and take ages over it. Either that or the bus is late so I miss the train and have to wait 7.5 minutes for another one, since the tube always runs on time these days). I'm not even going to try now. At least I can reallocate my weekday afternoons to trainspotting.

Do you not have 4seven, Rhys

The repeat of that is on at 5:15pm each day.

4:45 now if that's any good to you Rhys.

Matt Morrison wrote:They don't do children like they used to, Rhys!

The BBC?

Not really about Countdown, more about Rachel Riley. But anyway:

http://www.praguemindsportsfestival.com/news/

In short she'll be working at the Mind Sports Festival (which includes Scrabble) start of next month in Prague (feel free to enter). I'll ask her if Kirk's head as gotten any bigger but I'll probably be busy most of the time as I'm organising/directing the Scrabble.

Craig Beevers wrote:Not really about Countdown, more about Rachel Riley. But anyway:

http://www.praguemindsportsfestival.com/news/

In short she'll be working at the Mind Sports Festival (which includes Scrabble) start of next month in Prague (feel free to enter). I'll ask her if Kirk's head as gotten any bigger but I'll probably be busy most of the time as I'm organising/directing the Scrabble.

Sorry, what? Is this me you're talking about?

Fight

This contestant, who will be on next week, sounds interesting: http://www.kirkintilloch-herald.co.uk/n ... -1-2661880

James's article wrote:He prepared for the competition by playing an old ‘Countdown’ DVD game which he exhausted over a period of three days.

Can't help but feel a slight twinge of guilty aptoelitism here.

Ben Wilson wrote:

James's article wrote:He prepared for the competition by playing an old ‘Countdown’ DVD game which he exhausted over a period of three days.

Can't help but feel a slight twinge of guilty aptoelitism here.

Yeah, I found that kinda adorable.

Michael Wallace wrote:

Ben Wilson wrote:

James's article wrote:He prepared for the competition by playing an old ‘Countdown’ DVD game which he exhausted over a period of three days.

Can't help but feel a slight twinge of guilty aptoelitism here.

Yeah, I found that kinda adorable.

Got a mention on tonight's Have I Got News For You, in which Nick was a panellist. Quite like how he tried to sidestep the looking down Rachel's top remark.

I just got a message on facebook about a trending article about how Countdown is fake. The article was from Feb 1999. How is that trending?

Not so much trending, more old hat. But it was interesting to see that Peter Mandelson being gay is somehow relevant to Countdown's astonishing use of earpieces. Or maybe the connection is just that Matthew Parris has very acute hearing?

Hahaha, yeah... "MATTHEW PARRIS, the man who "outed" Peter Mandelson, has exposed another beloved national institution" I don't think Mandelson was ever a beloved national institution in the first place.

Mark James wrote:I just got a message on facebook about a trending article about how Countdown is fake. The article was from Feb 1999. How is that trending?

I love how that article implies that the earpiece is literally the only thing that saves Susie and the celebrity from downright embarrassment.

Wasn't this article from the time when the newspapers were desperate to expose as many TV shows as being fake as possible. Have I Got News For You got accused of faking (in reality, the panel gets to see the questions beforehand but that's it) as well as Vanessa Feltz's chat show... although, to be fair, they were right on the nose about that one.

Mark James wrote:I just got a message on facebook about a trending article about how Countdown is fake. The article was from Feb 1999. How is that trending?

I had that too. How queer.

I won series 41, not Scott Mearns. Everyone knows that. Also, I was only 10 years old and therefore all this stuff about Conor being the youngest series champion is nonsense.

Adam Gillard wrote:I won series 41, not Scott Mearns. Everyone knows that. Also, I was only 10 years old and therefore all this stuff about Conor being the youngest series champion is nonsense.

Haha, wondered if you would see that! I have no idea where they got that from, I described you to them as "a runner-up from a couple of years ago" - guess that didn't make an interesting enough story.

You'd think they'd get bored by mentioning this all the time, clearly not: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/coun ... ng-1855954?

Well, at least it's not that bitch from the Daily Mail.

James Robinson wrote:Well, at least it's not that bitch from the Daily Mail.

In true Robbo fashion:

James Robinson wrote:You'd think they'd get bored by mentioning this all the time, clearly not: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/coun ... ng-1855954?

Well, at least it's not that bitch from the Daily Mail.

Anthony? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -show.html

Chris Marshall wrote:

James Robinson wrote:You'd think they'd get bored by mentioning this all the time, clearly not: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/coun ... ng-1855954?

Well, at least it's not that bitch from the Daily Mail.

Anthony? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -show.html

I was just thinking we were due another one of these.

The 260,000 figure is new. Besides that, there's nothing in that article that they haven't said before. Repeatedly. For years. And guess what, Countdown's still going.

Funny how the Mail couldn't even be bothered to do the bare minimum research required to find out how many series there have been beyond "more than 65". In fact, that paragraph is just one of several to be copy-pasted from this article from two years ago. And then in that little "Countdown in Numbers" box they say there have been 65 shows. Facepalm.

I saw this in the Mirror yesterday and if that figure is accurate, I would say it is worrying for a show that is a British institution. I believe that if you are going to get increased figures you need to put Countdown on at a later time and back when it was on at 4:15-4:30 all those years back I think it was drawing in 3-4 million viewers. I know for a fact that had Countdown broadcast at 2:40 when I was a teenager, I almost certainly would never applied to go on because it was always something I watched when I got home from school and would therefore never have been back in time to see it.

It was bad enough having it at 3:15 let alone moving it back to 2:40 and I'm sure that's one of the reasons why its lost more viewers and every newspaper link I've ever seen about viewing figures over the years have steadily plummeted over time.

Not sure what the true facts are about the falling number of viewers though I'm sure the broadcast time is one of the main ones. Also some people I've spoken to don't seem to speak too highly of Nick Hewer. When I met him, although a bit error prone I thought he was decent enough and put his own good spin on things.

Maybe a point to go in another topic, but when I've spoken to players and read recaps, it seems that people are getting a second bite at the cherry; if anyone can answer this, is this just because the show has seemingly changed its ways as Countdown seemed to be a one-opportunity show back in the days or is there an actual shortage of new contestants applying hence the reason players are getting another crack? I only really ask as if the figures are actually this low and there is a shortage of new contestants applying, the surely the prospects for the future of the show can't be too good off the back of that?

Tom wrote:I saw this in the Mirror yesterday and if that figure is accurate, I would say it is worrying for a show that is a British institution. I believe that if you are going to get increased figures you need to put Countdown on at a later time and back when it was on at 4:15-4:30 all those years back I think it was drawing in 3-4 million viewers. I know for a fact that had Countdown broadcast at 2:40 when I was a teenager, I almost certainly would never applied to go on because it was always something I watched when I got home from school and would therefore never have been back in time to see it.

It was bad enough having it at 3:15 let alone moving it back to 2:40 and I'm sure that's one of the reasons why its lost more viewers and every newspaper link I've ever seen about viewing figures over the years have steadily plummeted over time.

Not sure what the true facts are about the falling number of viewers though I'm sure the broadcast time is one of the main ones. Also some people I've spoken to don't seem to speak too highly of Nick Hewer. When I met him, although a bit error prone I thought he was decent enough and put his own good spin on things.

It'd be useful if we could check up on the viewing figures, and particularly compare Countdown's audience with other daytime shows, but BARB jealously guard their raw data so much that you can't see it all unless you pay a hefty subscription fee. All you can see on the website is the overall channel data, and the audience figures for only the most popular shows. So we're forced to work with only what the newspapers want us to see. I'm reasonably certain that any significant drop in audience numbers would correspond exactly with Channel 4 putting the show earlier in the day. Perhaps Countdown Team has some more detailed information?

However, snippets in both articles are telling. The "source" quoted by the Mirror (I'm guessing a Channel 4 source, as it immediately follows an official quote from a Channel 4 spokesperson) tells us that the series so far is averaging half a million viewers. Both articles also say that the viewer count "struggled to reach 400,000" on other days this week. Ignore the obvious deliberate spin the papers have applied there. By "struggled to reach" what they mean is "reached". They're just weasel words. If the figure had been less than 400,000 they'd have said "failed even to reach 400,000", wouldn't they?

What about the source they've got saying "these figures are very worrying"... "the clock is ticking"... "the numbers don't add up"? Pretty scathing, isn't it? They want to you go away with the impression that the source is someone important, for example, someone associated with ITV or Channel 4 who's about to swing the axe. But if you read it, it doesn't say "a Countdown source", or "an ITV source", or "a Channel 4 source" or even "an insider". It just says "a TV source", which could be anything. "TV source"? An employee at an unrelated production company? Another entertainment columnist? A salesman at Currys? A bloke down the pub who watched the telly last night?

Boil away all the obvious filler, speculation, copy-and-pasted paragraphs from previous articles, pointless waffle about the show's history, irrelevant digressions about Rachel's wardrobe and the circumstances in which Carol Vorderman left the show, and comparisons with viewing figures from a time when there were only four channels and the show was on at 4.30, and there's very little left in terms of new facts. All we can say is that one episode, in one week, had an audience of 260,000, the figures for other episodes in the same week were in the region of 400,000, and the average for the series so far is 500,000. By the way, this implies there were some episodes which had an audience of higher than 500,000, but would you expect the Mail to run a story like "Countdown viewership picks up to 550,000, maybe it's time we stopped our pathetic little anti-Countdown crusade"? Or even mention it, at all?

The annual ritual of the Daily Mail telling us that "Countdown's going to get canned, no really, we mean it this time" is becoming a tradition now. It's almost as much a part of Countdown as the manual conundrum flippythings, the creaky old clock that requires the production staff to hit it occasionally to get it working, and both of Dudley Doolittle's jokes. These articles are perfect for some idle laughing at the Mail's expense on a Sunday evening, but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Graeme Cole wrote:both of Dudley Doolittle's jokes

Harsh

If audience figures are falling, then why was Channel 4 so keen to get an extra minute of advertising during the programme? That really doesn't add up.

Rachel is still in the FHM list for 2013 at no 90 - see http://www.fhm.com/girls/100-sexiest-women
and http://www.fhm.com/girls/covergirls/Rachel-riley

Well, it looks like they maybe listening a bit, because Countdown is returning to its 3:10, then 3:15 slot on the week commencing the 20th of this month.

Might not be 4:15/4:30, but it's a start.

James Robinson wrote:Well, it looks like they maybe listening a bit, because Countdown is returning to its 3:10, then 3:15 slot on the week commencing the 20th of this month.

Might not be 4:15/4:30, but it's a start.

Excellent!

Adam Gillard wrote:

James Robinson wrote:Well, it looks like they maybe listening a bit, because Countdown is returning to its 3:10, then 3:15 slot on the week commencing the 20th of this month.

Might not be 4:15/4:30, but it's a start.

Excellent!

Especially in relation to Nick Hewer's comments in the Mail today

Yay! I haven't seen the Mail yet, but... yay!

James Robinson wrote:Well, it looks like they maybe listening a bit, because Countdown is returning to its 3:10, then 3:15 slot on the week commencing the 20th of this month.

Might not be 4:15/4:30, but it's a start.

I'm really pleased also.

Channel 4 seem to be promoting and demoting Countdown at the same time, so I find it hard to be pleased with them. They've given us the 8 out of 10 Cats episodes which I think are a real boost and yet they put Countdown to its earliest and worst ever slot just after it celebrated its 30th birthday (along with C4 itself) last November. Admittedly the celebration in that episode (and across C4) was almost non-existent unlike the 25th anniversary, 18th and other celebratory episodes. The real celebration of Countdown's long history was of course the 30th birthday championship earlier this year.

I think in honour of what Countdown's done for C4 over the last 3 decades, they should have put it to a better time slot not a worse one. Despite the ever-changing and ever-worsening time slots, you can view it on +1, on C4 YouTube Channel (although its hard to find sometimes), 4oD, catch up on Virgin or record it on Sky, it's still shown early in the morning 5 days a week and for a while it was on More 4. I don't think it's on More 4 now but hey, it was there for a while. So when we hear of plummeting figures, are the figures for just C4 or for every which way people can view it? Nick has mentioned a number of times on Countdown and on other shows (Room 101, HIGN4U, The One Show, Radio 1 etc) that they get great figures. Either he's just saying that with or without knowing what they are or he is getting figures fed through, which are consolidated. I remember him saying on The One Show (I think) that Countdown gets more than 1 million. That episode did give some good publicity for Countdown just before it's 30th birthday reminding people that the show is still on lol!

What concerns me and what is a clear sign of lower viewing figures is the struggle to get contestants now as mentioned above - that ticker tape that runs across the screen during Susie's bit every episode, the application forms left on the audience seats from time to time, allowing more former players back (although I do like that idea), the increasing number of phone interviews because they perhaps can't drum up enough people in cities as much as before and so forth might all 'spell' a slight bit of trouble. I do think the big championship of championship boosted interest in the show as Damian said himself. Ironically a reason for having an 8-week one could have been also due to lack of people wanting to come on the show. Altering the format has improved it for me as it's broken up the show better although I doubt that it'll change the figures by a noticeable amount.

2014 will see the start of Series 70! So I think a brand new studio would be great and hopefully a better time slot. Though I think the current opening credits look really jazzy and the best they've had, they could do with updating the opening, closing and TTT theme-tune as the current version hasn't changed since the mid-90's, whereas before it changed every 5 years, like virtually all long-running shows. I hope Channel 4 put more into it in every way they can.

Fully agree! Good words.

Probably the most bizarre celebrity fan of recent times, but apparently Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, has been watching the show while she's been over here, and is now a big fan
http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/miley- ... n-tv-show/

It's a shame a million-or-so others don't think the same

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... -1-6057259


Clarke Carlisle article with a mention of Countdown.

Was looking through some guy's train videos and came across this and was surprised to hear the Countdown theme tune mid-video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0VxiV2RD_A

My home town!!!

It took me about 10 seconds to solve the anagram at the top when I saw this this morning...

Sad news though