c4countdown

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Fri Nov 06, 2026 3:20 pm Are we not even doing days of the week in the thread titles now?

Dropped standards

Philip A

Maybe I'm wrong. but didn't the challenger use the 2 twice in the final numbers round?

No. She first used the 2 in the selection, and later on, she made another 2. Hope this explains.

Having re-watched it, she said “times 2” when she likely intended “times 60” and Rachel assumed the latter in ...

Philip A

Matthew Brockwell wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2026 10:03 pm MUNCHIES is valid now, it's a separate plural noun entry meaning snacks or small items of food.

Ah, thanks for correction. So MUNCHIES but no more munchie*.

Philip A

Couldn't help but notice the BBC article about Hazel's achievements used her full name....

This too has always been the case with Big Brother since it started 26 years ago: they've never done surnames on show but media outlets disclose surnames anyway. "Nasty Nick" = Nicholas Bateman for ...

Philip A

Deserved positive publicity: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg5jl4nrm2lo

Philip A

Chris Wylie wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2026 9:15 am I thought it should have an s at the end.

Yeah it looked like it but actually the correct spelling of the singular was 'munchie' and not 'munchy'. One other example is 'beastie' (no 'beasty').

So 'munchies' is now invalid too.

Philip A

Aneurin is not only a Welsh boys' name: coincidentially, aneurin it's also an old word for 'thiamine' (Vitamin B2), although it was more commonly spelled 'aneurine'.

You can't play these words on Countdown, btw; only in Scrabble.

Philip A

Note that MUNCHIE* has since been removed from Oxford Dictionaries Premium in an update; so it was valid at time of recording, but not anymore. It is due to be removed from Apterous too: https://www.apterous.org/ticket_view.ph ... 19#p109053

Philip A

Channel 4 has scrapped its tradition of repeating the previous episode at the early morning time slot, usually 5:50 am, replacing it with the usual US sitcom repeats. So if you're a regular early morning viewer, you'll have to stream it online. Sucks really.

Philip A

Fiona T wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2026 5:29 pm I really think the under 30 page should get zapped. It's basically a hall of shame and doesn't reflect well on any of us.

Couldn't agree more.

Philip A

I think if a team guesses an invalid word on a Lingo which can be stolen, then the line below that guess should reveal yellow and green letters anyway. It's common for a team to guess a non-word on the first line, making it impossible to correctly steal it without yellow and green letters.

Philip A

She did it! 1,001 Nights to celebrate for becoming the first female member of an exclusive club and highest-scoring female octochamp!

Now onto the finals in December.

Philip A

It's episode 8888. Hazel has 888 points with a game in hand. Will she join the 1,000 club?

Philip A

Philip Wilson wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2026 5:07 pm Just when I thought there would never again be any new editions of general public Lingo, series 5 began this week.

Series 6 has been filmed as well. But ITV have sadly delayed so many shows lately; they often take 2-3 years to air.

Philip A

That's a no to my above suggestions then

But yeah I think as well as more SM protocols I think larger contestant reach-out and a new board game would help, at least a little. I still think increasing age limit to 18 would be sensible too.

Philip A

Countdown definitely feels more out of touch with The Countdown Community than it did before. The audience and the first/last name tradition gave it a community feel, and the later time slot of 4:30 (even the 3:10 slot worked well to a degree) made it easier to settle down and actually watch it ...

Philip A

At this average Hazel will be the founding member of the... *gulp*... 1100 club.

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 4:19 pm It's certainly been a very good start. But however it continues, Hazel, and indeed everyone else in this series, will miss the CoC. It's a bit disappointing but there you go.

At least, if she is picked for CoC, she’ll have at least 3 or 4 years to practise for the CoC after.

Philip A

What you are witnessing is extraordinary talent.

Hazel is living proof that dyslexia is not a disability, it is a different form of ability.

First woman ever to max 15 rounds in a game. Congratulations.

Interesting trivia: very first max game (at least believed to be) was achieved by a female ...

Philip A

BBC Three is (mostly) boring - I say this as someone who fits their target demographic. I won't miss it.

Philip A

Countdown definitely feels more out of touch with The Countdown Community than it did before. The audience and the first/last name tradition gave it a community feel, and the later time slot of 4:30 (even the 3:10 slot worked well to a degree) made it easier to settle down and actually watch it ...

Philip A

Fred Whibley, who hasn’t yet been on Countdown but at many Co:events, represented Edinburgh on University Challenge on 12th October 2026.

Philip A

Appears this has carried over into the podcast world. Richard Osman said on a recent Rest is Entertainment episode (can't remember which one) that they can't say the full names anymore for the questions and answers editions. He didn't sound overly happy about it

Yep even on the live Big Brother ...

Philip A

Annoyingly though, non-series winners are invited on merit, I believe, not statistics. So a semi-finalist with a lower average score than a runner-up can play a CoC.

CoC did used to be seeded in the 80s and 90s, but not any more.

Philip A

Filming schedules 2026:
12th Oct: S94 Finals spanning QF3/4, SF1/2 and GF
13th Oct: CoC XVII 1st Rs 1-5
14th Oct: CoC XVII 1st Rs 6-8, QF1/2

then…

2nd Nov: CoC XVII QF3/4, SF 1/2 and GF

In other words, the CoC Final will be filmed on Countdown’s birthday.

So we're saying 16 players? Did we ...

Philip A

The clock will have a banner which reads, ‘CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS’ at the top; nice bit of 1990s nostalgia there.

And, congratulations to Damian Eadie on 30 years as producer.

30 years this year is the Supreme Championships and that was the last time you saw Damian Eadie play a full game of ...

Philip A

The clock will have a banner which reads, ‘CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS’ at the top; nice bit of 1990s nostalgia there.

And, congratulations to Damian Eadie on 30 years as producer.

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2026 5:27 pm
Philip A wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2026 2:32 pm Very sad to see Oliver go: high standard and even contest determined by fine margins; one of those games that felt like a finals match in all but name.
It was a very good game. I think most expected Owen (not Oliver?) to become an octochamp!

S***

Philip A

Very sad to see Owen go: high standard and even contest determined by fine margins; one of those games that felt like a finals match in all but name.

Philip A

We'll get to know who they all are soon. At this point, the players don't yet know who they're playing against in Round 1 until they're actually in the studio - so it's not like 2018 when we were all told 2 months before it filmed.

Philip A

Had a feeling OPALINES would eventually be disallowed and it was today. Unfortunate but will be kicked out of Apto next update. Didn’t affect Owen’s great form though.

Philip A

Filming schedules 2026:
12th Oct: S94 Finals spanning QF3/4, SF1/2 and GF
13th Oct: CoC XVII 1st Rs 1-5
14th Oct: CoC XVII 1st Rs 6-8, QF1/2

then…

2nd Nov: CoC XVII QF3/4, SF 1/2 and GF

In other words, the CoC Final will be filmed on Countdown’s birthday.

Philip A

Reacting to Facebook comments with the 'Laughing' reaction because you disagree with their opinion is very rude.

Philip A

Rhys Benjamin wrote: Mon Sep 21, 2026 8:18 am Clearly that's a pre-scripted answer they'd had in anticipation of people emailing them en masse.

I doubt this TBH. Sometimes they reply instantly, like when a contestant used 25 twice un-penalised and they sent the correspondents a Countdown mug as a gift on the day it aired.

Philip A

Unfortunately, they've gone again. Same bug has returned. How annoying. I have emailed the OUP and hopefully this will soon be fixed again. Other Apterites have noted it.

Philip A

This is why some competitions which involve bidding amounts or registering judges’ scores are done electronically and simultaneously, to try to prevent candidates from being influenced by each other’s declarations.

Philip A

This is the reason why:

Hi Philip,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and noticing the change.

We are using contestants' first names as this is standard practice for most game shows / quiz shows on TV and is in line with our duty of care to contributors.

We hope you continue to enjoy ...

Philip A

Had an email - thanks Countdown Team:

Hi Philip,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and noticing the change.

We are using contestants' first names as this is standard practice for most game shows / quiz shows on TV and is in line with our duty of care to contributors.

We hope you ...

Philip A

Martin Hurst wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 10:13 pm They gave the surname of the person who submitted the OOW email today on the show. Hope he is ok.

Hadn’t noticed that. I skip anecdotes when I catch up.

Philip A

The first name only policy for contestants takes effect today. This I believe is a permanent change.

Philip A

OK, that was a fun gimmick. Back to normal tomorrow?

Yeah not surprised it's happened on a Bank Holiday Monday for a number of reasons. Sadly this change IS permanent. Think the Married At First Sight scandal has proven too much and has necessitated this change. Sad for the community but ...

Philip A

You can tell repeats really put people off. 14th August was a repeat and it had 417,000 (it did clash with athletics but even so), a drop of almost 300k on previous week which was a new episode.

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2026 5:59 pm
Philip A wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2026 5:35 pm Anyone else think the minimum age for applicants should be increased from 16 to 18?
Why is that something for us to worry about?

Just think it would be another sensible safeguarding protocol, that's all.

Philip A

Anyone else think the minimum age for applicants should be increased from 16 to 18?

Philip A

Looks like the latest series has stopped after just 2 episodes and has been swapped with repeats. Last series only got 3 episodes, and the series before had just 4. Clearly struggling to find its audience. I know they’re recording a few more but not sure this series has much of a future.

Philip A

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 ...

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2026 10:35 am Regardless of anything else, nicknames wouldn't be a problem. They base nicknames on many things so they don't need to use the surname.

Agree. They do have nicknames on The Finish Line so no reason why it wouldn’t work for Countdown and it doesn’t have to be restricted to just Octochamps.

Philip A

I wonder how Colin’s nicknames for the octochamps will work this time round then. Because they are so often surname based, as mentioned above.

I don’t think this decision makes much sense to be honest. As said, if two contestants have the same name, it makes sense using the first initial, but ...

Philip A

Yeah I suspect with shared surnames they’ll either use initial letter od surnames or use alternatives such as John VS Jonathan. Anyway Colin Murray’s Instagram photo chekcs it out and it’s been done. They will all use first names only.

Philip A

It's true and I have been reliably informed so disseminating this here. Surnames have now been dropped and will take effect on screen later this series.

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2026 5:10 pm I didn't even know this had started up again. Looks like there's been two episodes!

That’s why I’m not keen on new episodes in the summer. What surprises me more though is the last series was only 4 episodes.

Philip A

Series 30 Episode 1 amassed 699,000 viewers including 1-week of catch-up but still placed 6th in Channel 4's weekly top 10; daytime Countdown had 390,000 but audience share was an impressive 13.5%.

Philip A

Obscure 9 in MELIORIST to beat LIMITERS.

Philip A

Susie disallowed EXTOLER in yesterday's show saying it was the North American spelling. It's also not valid on Apterous etc. if that makes a difference. What does the dictionary actually say in its entry?

It says:

No exact match found for “extoler” in British & World English
Did you mean ...

Philip A

Here's a situation I thought of earlier. The letters are

RIGNEOLAS

P1 with an Anguished "I'll stick with an 8"
P2 declares 9

P1 regional
P2 regionals

It then transpires that P2's word was NWD, and they had only written down the 7LW legions. P1 is unhappy because he believes P2 has gambled that ...

Philip A

Unpopular opinion: Rein Me In is an okay song.

Philip A

Excellent solve in Round 14 from the champion and I saw that method too. Not easy when you need to do division to make another number to multiply by a large one.

Philip A

Bonnie Tyler :_(

Philip A

Martin Hurst wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2026 9:10 am This rule will make Family Fortunes impossible!

And Ask The Family!

Philip A

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2026 1:55 pm Just the nameplates or their name as referred to on the show at all times?

It's both, I think. Times are a'changing.

Search found 1830 matches