The spin-off was aired only in the Yorkshire area, with Whiteley earning the nickname of "Twice Nightly Whiteley" because of his daily appearances on both programmes. Aimed at being a spin-off of their regional news programme Calendar, the programme's host deemed the natural choice for the concept.
#Motion countdowns series#
The concept was purchased in the early 1980s by Yorkshire Television, which commissioned a series of eight shows under the title Calendar Countdown, which were broadcast between April and June 1982. After watching the programme, Belgian record executive Marcel Stellman brought the format to Britain on the belief it could be popular overseas and proposed his concept for the British version to several networks. Guest presenters and co-presenters of Countdown NoĬountdown originated from the format of the French game show Des chiffres et des lettres ( Numbers and Letters), created by Armand Jammot. Contestants of exceptional skill have received national media coverage and the programme, as a whole, is widely recognised and parodied within British culture. The best eight contestants are invited back for the series finals, which are decided in knockout format. During the series heats, the winning contestant returns the next day until they either lose or retire with eight wins as an undefeated "Octochamp". The two contestants in each episode compete in three game types: ten letters rounds, in which the contestants attempt to make the longest word possible from nine randomly chosen letters four numbers rounds, in which the contestants must use arithmetic to reach a random target number from six other numbers and the conundrum, a buzzer round in which the contestants compete to solve a nine-letter anagram. Susie Dent has been the permanent lexicographer since 2004 and appears in "Dictionary Corner" alongside a celebrity guest. She left in 2008 at the same time as Des O'Connor and was replaced by Rachel Riley. In the early years, the show had multiple assistant presenters, including Carol Vorderman who was hired for Series 1 to check calculations in the numbers round and her role expanded to include placing the number and letter tiles. It was announced in January 2023 that Murray had moved from interim host to permanent host. Guest hosts would return later that year as part of the show's 40th anniversary celebrations, with Floella Benjamin, Richard Coles, Trevor McDonald (for a second time) and Moira Stuart each hosting one week's worth of episodes. On 25 July 2022, it was announced that Les Dennis would guest host the show from 4 to 15 August followed by Jenny Eclair from 16 to 19 August because Colin Murray tested positive for COVID-19.
Colin Murray then returned on 14 July as a stand-in host. The programme was then presented by Anne Robinson (its first female presenter) from July 2021 until July 2022. It was then presented by Des Lynam from October 2005 until December 2006, Des O'Connor from January 2007 until December 2008, Jeff Stelling from January 2009 until December 2011 and Nick Hewer from January 2012 until July 2021, with Colin Murray standing in for Hewer during part of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The programme was presented by Richard Whiteley for 22 years until his death in June 2005. Following the development of MediaCityUK, Countdown moved again in 2013 to the new purpose-built studios at Dock10, Greater Manchester. Countdown was produced by Yorkshire Television and was recorded at The Leeds Studios for 27 years, before moving to the Manchester-based Granada Studios in 2009. With over 8,000 episodes, Countdown is one of Britain's longest-running game shows, along with the original French version, Des chiffres et des lettres (Numbers & Letters), which has been running on French television continuously since 1965.
It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4 and 87 series have been broadcast since its debut on 2 November 1982. It is broadcast on Channel 4 and is currently presented by Colin Murray, assisted by Rachel Riley with resident lexicographer Susie Dent. Countdown is a British game show involving word and number tasks that began airing in November 1982.
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