Countdown

British game show

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February 24 2025 Dr. Tom Crawford makes his first appearance as the show's first-ever male arithmetician, standing in for Rachel Riley for three weeks.
April 20 2023 8,000th episode aired during Series 87.
January 2023 The 16th Champion of Champions tournament was held.
January 2023 Colin Murray is announced as the programme's new permanent host.
January 31 2023 Cillian McMulkin equalled the record score of 154.
September 29 2022 Tom Stevenson set a new record score of 154.
September 10 2022 Special episode on Channel 4's Black To Front Day, guest presented by Trevor McDonald with Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon and Lemn Sissay.
July 25 2022 Les Dennis and Jenny Eclair announced as guest hosts due to Colin Murray testing positive for COVID-19.
May 2022 Anne Robinson announced her departure from the show after one year, with Colin Murray taking over for majority of Series 86.
April 20 2022 The 8,000th episode of Countdown is aired.
2021 The last year physical dictionaries were included in the series prize before being discontinued.
2021 Sean Lock passed away, ending his role as a team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
2021 Physical dictionaries were discontinued as a prize after Series 83, being deemed obsolete.
December 2021 Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon stands in for Rachel Riley during her maternity leave, covering Dictionary Corner from December 2021 to March 2022.
June 28 2021 Anne Robinson became the first female host in Countdown's 39-year history.
June 25 2021 Nick Hewer's final show aired.
February 15 2021 Anne Robinson announced as Nick Hewer's replacement.
December 23 2020 All-time greats special episode hosted by Colin Murray
December 22 2020 Series 63 & 69 Champions special episode hosted by Colin Murray
December 21 2020 Battle of Bingley special episode hosted by Colin Murray
December 7 2020 Nick Hewer announced he would step down as host at the end of Series 83 in Summer 2021.
November 16 2020 Episode dedicated to the memory of former host Des O'Connor, who died on 14 November.
November 14 2020 Des O'Connor passed away after suffering a fall at home.
January 9 2020 Second celebrity series of Countdown ends after 6 episodes.
2019 Second series of Celebrity Countdown aired.
2019 Elliott Mellor became the first octochamp to break the 1,000-point barrier, scoring 1,061 over eight preliminary games, but finished as runner-up in the series.
November 12 2019 Second celebrity series of Countdown begins, hosted by Nick Hewer. The series ran for 6 episodes until 9 January 2020.
May 2019 Elliott Mellor beat the previous record score with 152 points.
January 30 2019 7,000th episode aired during Series 80.
January 17 2019 Zarte Siempre set a new record score of 150 in the quarter-final of the 15th Champion of Champions tournament, and went on to win the tournament.
July 2017 Slight set redesign while retaining the blue background.
July 2017 Set received a slight redesign while retaining the blue background.
February 2 2017 A letters round board spelled out 'MTHIAEDHS', with Dictionary Corner finding the word 'shithead', which was bleeped and censored with a poo emoji.
May 8 2015 Veterans special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
April 10 2015 Law & Order special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
April 6 2015 Sisters special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
January 2015 Susie Dent is officially credited as a co-presenter of the show.
December 23 2014 Battle of the Mc's special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
December 22 2014 Senior Females special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
December 12 2014 Battle of the Bobbys special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
September 29 2014 6,000th episode aired during Series 71.
September 5 2014 Countdown received a Guinness World Record for the longest-running television programme of its kind at the end of its 6,000th show during Series 71.
2013 Countdown relocates to the newly built Dock10 studios in MediaCityUK, Greater Manchester.
September 2013 Original clock replaced after 30 years of use.
August 2013 Dylan Taylor achieved an octochamp score of 974, beating Giles Hutchings' record, but lost the Grand Final.
July 2 2013 Lovebirds special episode hosted by Nick Hewer
April 2013 Giles Hutchings broke the record for the highest octochamp score, amassing 965 points over 8 games and winning Series 68.
March 2013 Conor Travers won the 30th Anniversary Champion of Champions series with a record-equalling top score of 146.
March 25 2013 Show format changed in Series 68 to comply with Channel 4's advertising requirements, reducing show length from 36 to 35 minutes.
January 2013 New modern displays for scores and numbers round introduced.

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