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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