c4countdown

Martin Hurst

They gave the surname of the person who submitted the OOW email today on the show. Hope he is ok.

Martin Hurst

Earth, Wind and Wildfire

Martin Hurst

Amy Hunt (who won 4 golds at the recent European Athletics Championships and is now odds-on favourite to win SPOTY) is the 25th fastest women in the world this year at the 100m. 9 Americans and 9 Jamaicans have ran faster.

https://worldathletics.org/records/toplists/sprints/100-metres/all/women ...

Martin Hurst

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 2:36 pm Series 18 champion Rajaretnam Yogasagarar famously came across four other Rajaretnam Ys in his run, which is why he was given the nickname "Yoga".

Which one of your multiple names will you use when you apply?

Martin Hurst

Rhys Benjamin wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2026 10:44 am Series 53 quite famously had John Brackstone, John Mayhew, and Jon O'Neill - even then Richard Whiteley was struggling to differentiate between all the Johns.

Would it have been more difficult/impossible for RW if they were commonly referred to as John B, John M and Jon O instead?

Martin Hurst

I would assume they would just talk to John Bell and John Brown and one of them would agree to change their onscreen name (e.g to "JB" if "John" cannot be changed otherwise)?

Have we ever had a common firstname/initial in a series finals (or a CoC) before, or has there ever been an episode with ...

Martin Hurst

Just the nameplates or their name as referred to on the show at all times?

Just listing the greatest players: Harvey Freeman, Julian Fell, Conor Travers, John from Coventry.

"Michael, 73 from Hampshire played Peta, 23 from Essex, with Peta, 23 from Essex winning 69 - 17."

Then Michael ...

Martin Hurst

This rule will make Family Fortunes impossible!

Martin Hurst

Ian Volante wrote: Mon Jun 29, 2026 12:18 pm Sausages?

https://youtube.com/shorts/g5qLcjcJ3UQ? ... Q1B5wz1jbm

Martin Hurst

Mel Schilling from Married at First Sight - she was in dictionary corner only a few weeks ago

Martin Hurst

Philip A wrote: Sun Feb 22, 2026 12:54 pm The Floor recommissioned for Series 2 and we haven’t even reached the final of Series 1. No news yet on Time Is Money. I like both shows.

They were appealing for contestants at the end of the show yesterday - get that application form in Philip!

Martin Hurst

Philip A wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 12:57 pm With Colin Murray unavailable for the recordings, Les Dennis returns to guest host this week’s 5 shows. Great to have him back.

Where is Colin?

Martin Hurst

Sorry to sound picky but on today’s Time Is Money, a contestant’s answer, "Maria” Carey, was accepted. It’s definitely Mariah Carey. I’d say that’s wrong.

Reminds me of a recent controversy on Jeopardy in the USA where they disallowed an answer of "what is Gangster's Paradise" because it should ...

Martin Hurst

Mark Deeks wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 7:25 pm What's it all about when you go deaf in an ear for a few seconds for no obvious reason and then it's fine?

Sounds like a conversation to have with your doctor. Better to be safe than sorry etc.

Martin Hurst

On Taskmaster, the contestants are sat in first name alphabetical order from left to right (the exception being the latest New Year show, where Rose needed to be sat 5th as she had a BSL interpreter)

Martin Hurst

Really liked The Floor - the format means it should only get better as the series develops too.

Time is Money is good as well.

ITV have now produced a few good new game shows in the last year or so.

Martin Hurst

Well I think as we discussed off forum, the fact that he solved that easier one in more time than the other harder ones pretty much shows the other ones to be not legitimate. He may have solved some of them in some amount of time, but the filming would have been afterwards and a "reconstruction ...

Martin Hurst

Surely you would live stream it to avoid the obvious suspicion?

Martin Hurst

Well done Marc - great job

Martin Hurst

Celebrity Sabotage looks like a proper turkey - feels like a rip off of Impractical Jokers, but with the same tired old faces.

Martin Hurst

If you fill up a bath with hot sparkling water and get in, do you get the same sensation as being in a hot tub?

Martin Hurst

Series 66 contestant James Belshaw admits cheating in his audition to get on the show (not totally sure how this makes the news, but there you go!!!):

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-ra ... -backfired

Martin Hurst

Day 1 of the John Cowen court hearing:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15084513/Growling-knifeman-31-stabbed-fellow-Countdown-competitor-arm-convention.html

(apologies for using the Daily Fail as the main link, but it is the most comprehensive report amongst many I have seen)

A couple of ...

Martin Hurst

It's back

Martin Hurst

Down now for 38 hours (no vitriol, just facts)

Martin Hurst

L'oisleatch McGraw wrote: Fri Aug 29, 2025 2:58 am Why did the Appearance of the 5Ks on OC go unmentioned here?
Fiona Titcombe, Thomas Carey, and captain James Haughton.
Hopefully the nerves will settle a bit in their 2nd outing...

It was discussed (relatively briefly) on the Only Connect thread

Martin Hurst

My opinion: the non-winners had tougher questions overall in Rounds 1 and 2.

Agree, and the painful Missing Vowels Round answer. Oh well, to make up, they got the easier wall in Round 3 imo.

[spoiler] The first question was pretty much 3 points or 0 points depending on if you recognised ...

Martin Hurst

The latest team consisting of Countdowners were on tonight.

Martin Hurst

Footballer James McAtee and Callum Todd? Or has reading this thread over the years just made me think that everyone looks like Callum now?

https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1954859358984019970

Martin Hurst

Congrats Brett on the max (insert fire emoji)!

I was wondering if this episode potentially broke a couple of records?

Most combined maxes (25) in a preliminary?
Most maxes (10) by a losing challenger?

Martin Hurst

James Burley's (series 83 octochamp) stand-up gig at Glasgow yesterday to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation (link on the video). He smashed it :) (shared with his permission)

https://www.facebook.com/james.burley.77/videos/1114065117438965

Did he joke that if he married Liz Hurley ...

Martin Hurst

A property was mentioned as having an inglenook fireplace on Location Location Location this week.

Martin Hurst

Good question. Since this is the spoilers thread, we can talk openly about it. (50*25*10*5-100)/75 = 832. So 62400/75, reaching 62,500 along the way. I'm not sure if it's the highest number that it's been necessary to reach in a game on the show, but it's not the highest possible. See the ...

Martin Hurst

Monday was June 9th, not 10th

Anyone get the last numbers game?

If you didn't see it

100 75 50 25 10 5

Target 832

Good luck!

Martin Hurst

I don't like the UK entry at all this year - too much speeding up and slowing down to make it effective, one line repeated over and over, and generally forgettable. Will be surprised if it is not very close to last.

A shame as we seemed to have finally cracked what it took to do well with Sam ...

Martin Hurst

Great performance by Rhys. Should be a cracker against Anthony tomorrow.

Martin Hurst

How many episodes have there been that have pitted two contestants both with verbs as surnames against each other?

Martin Hurst

https://forgeous.fun/

Another one of these daily things - this one is about speed-forgery of artwork....

Martin Hurst

Was that the second lowest combined score for a 15-rounder? I can only find one lower at a glance.

Martin Hurst

Don't mind it - family-aimed mix of Taskmaster and Squid Game. Pretty well paced. Presenters are a couple of twerps, but you get used to them, and at least neither of them are called Ant, Dec, Stephen or Bradley. More than adequate Saturday teatime viewing.

Martin Hurst

Brilliant work as ever Graeme

Martin Hurst

People who think a film is crap because it "isn't the same as the book". You are watching a film, not watching a documentary of a book.

Martin Hurst

Poker Face is the one that immediately springs to mind for me - one of the better ones in that strange "more pointless talking than action" era of gameshows (Golden Balls, Deal or no Deal, etc)

Problem with Poker Face is it didn’t matter whether you got the answers right or wrong, so that’s ...

Martin Hurst

Poker Face is the one that immediately springs to mind for me - one of the better ones in that strange "more pointless talking than action" era of gameshows (Golden Balls, Deal or no Deal, etc)

Martin Hurst

Gavin Chipper wrote: Wed Jan 08, 2025 9:22 am
Thomas Carey wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2025 7:03 pm Fiona and James Burley chat a bit in today's BBC South Today at the UK Scrabble thingy. Fiona's rather rude word is visible on the TV...
Is this available anywhere?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m ... s-07012025

Jump to 22 minutes

Martin Hurst

Gavin Chipper wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2024 12:56 pm
Ian Volante wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2024 12:51 pm What was the answer then?
512.

Actually it was incubate.

Ha - 512 was my (knowingly wrong) submitted answer

Martin Hurst

I'm still struggling with the super tough 1% question from Wednesday 'the 99% of 100 in the room one '
If someone could break it down for me I would appreciate it as logic suggested it was one person not 50

99 out of 100 is 99%
If one leaves it is 98 out of 99, which is not 98%
If 50 leave ...

Martin Hurst

Chris looks a class apart from anyone else we have seen so far this series for sure.

Martin Hurst

https://dartsnews.com/pdc/just-gets-wor ... m-of-darts

Kirk Bevins involved in a minor spat at the darts. Not sure he will be entirely happy with that photo!

Martin Hurst

I'd be surprised.

Martin Hurst

Gevin 17

Martin Hurst

You are at a co-event, and about to watch the final between Players A and B. The host wants some help picking a good conundrum for the final, and the pull you over to consider three options.

One of the options is a word which came up in a group chat with Player A yesterday. You know that if this ...

Martin Hurst

Did they comment that dation was in but now it is not, or just disallowed it without comment?

Have they mentioned the dictionary cull on the show at all?

Martin Hurst

Gavin Chipper wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2024 3:22 pm Have you checked anhistoric?

Brilliant. Where's the upvote button?

Martin Hurst

Can anyone explain Turkish barbers to me? They're everywhere. My local used to work on his own, was always busy and talked of little other than Everton FC - and he talked a lot about that. Overnight he disappeared and the premises became a Turkish barbers. Two of them, very little English but I ...

Martin Hurst

We’re back. 75 shows of Series 90 left.

This is the last week of shows in which words from the historical dictionary (OED) were imported into the living dictionary (OD Premium) at the time of recording. From 16th September, historical words such as ‘mislodge’ and ‘paulins’ will no longer be ...

Martin Hurst

Philip A wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2024 10:27 pm Series 77 contestant Alex Smith on Password (Episode 2) on ITV X. (Hilarious btw)

Would be a great daily daytime show with a "winner stays on" format and different celebrities each week.

Martin Hurst

Andrew Hulme has made it to the final six in a poker tournament in Barcelona where the first prize is over €1.5m, and is already guaranteed to win 300k euros.

https://www.pokernews.com/tours/ept/2024-pokerstars-ept-barcelona/5-300-ept-main-event/chips.687979.htm

Looks like he finished 2nd and ...

Martin Hurst

Andrew Hulme has made it to the final six in a poker tournament in Barcelona where the first prize is over €1.5m, and is already guaranteed to win 300k euros.

https://www.pokernews.com/tours/ept/202 ... 687979.htm

Martin Hurst

Toby McDonald wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2024 10:21 pm OVULATE in R4

Do I have to?

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