We count down everything. So it makes sense that there is a TV show in the UK that has this name. It has been on since 1982.
On 26 March 2010, Queen Elizabeth II congratulated Countdown for amassing 5,000 episodes. On 5 September 2014, the programme received a Guinness World Record at the end of its 6,000th show for the longest-running television programme of its kind during the course of Series 71.
It is a game show where contestants attempt to make the longest word possible from nine randomly chosen letters, four numers rounds in which contestant must use arthimetic to reach a random target figure from six other numbers and the conundrum, a buzzer round in which the contestants compete to solve a nine-letter anagram. The show has a resident lexicographer.
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 best eight contestants are invited back for the series finals, which are decided in knockout format. Contestants of exceptional skill have received national media coverage and the programme, as a whole, is widely recognised and parodied within British culture.
Wow! That’s no North American TV show. Neither Canadians or Americans would have any idea of what to make of an “Octochamp”.
This is a wonderful game show with brilliant contestants and many of them children. See the full description HERE at Wikipedia.
I hadn’t thought of the Outtakes Section where words deemed unsuitable are cut out. But there are lots over the long history - particularly the “wanker” word.
- A round in which Dictionary Corner offered the word gobshite
- In 1991 contestants Gino Corr and Lawrence Pearse both declared the word wankers
- A round where an anagram of the word fucked appeared on the board in the string "A U O D F C K E G", although neither player chose to use the word and Dictionary Corner was able to find two seven-letter words that could have been made from the board's offerings
- On 2 February 2017, the board for the letters round was "M T H I A E D H S", and with both players offering sevens, Dictionary Corner found the word "shithead", which was bleeped out in the audio and censored on-screen with the poo emoji
Don’t you think this image of the chessboard at the Bathurst Street Park seems on topic?
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