I love the movie and book ABOUT A BOY. Both reference COUNTDOWN a good bit and the movie has clips. Obviously it’s a word game, but is it similar to SCRABBLE or BOGGLE or what exactly? I’m curious from watching the clips what the aim is (and is the host always as unexciting as he is in the clips from the movie). Any Brits or others who watch the show?
You have two contestants, and two basic rounds.
In the first round, one contestant gets to pick 9 letters. He can tell Carol (the assistant and maths genius) to pick a Consonant or a Vowel from a random pile of each. Usually, the tactic is to pick three consonants, three vowels, and three consonants again. The two contestants are then given half a minute (the “countdown”) to make the longest word out of those letters as possible - so a word of nine letters would be the best. Usually they manage to get around 5-7 letter words. They get given points depending on how long their word is - so more points for words with more letters in. In order to stop cheating, the contestants are asked for the length of their words - the person with the lower number is asked to say his first, so that he doesn’t cheat and just say what the other, higher scoring person, says. In addition, if the two get the same word, the second contestant must show his writing pad with the word on to one of the hosts, to prove he didn’t just say what the other one did.
The second type of round is the numbers round. The contestant is allowed to pick random numbers from another two groups - the “small numbers” from 1-10, and the “large numbers” which are a multiple of 5 from 25- 1000. Carol puts the numbers on a board, and a computer calculates a total. The contestant then have half a minute to use those numbers (but only once per number) and basic arithmetic (plus, minus, multiply, divide) to get a total as close to the target total as possible. Again, they are awarded points for getting closer. Usually, the contestant that gets closest says his method for working it out afterwards, while Carol writes it out and checks it to make sure it’s correct. If the two get the same number, the second must show his working out on his writing pad. If neither of them get the target number, Carol usually works out a method of getting it.
These rounds take turns, which each contestant picking the numbers/letters for one round, until the end of the final round.
The final round is the conundrum. The conuncrum is an angram of 9 letters, which are given to the contestants to work out in one minute. The contestant who gets the conundrum (if one does) receives extra points.
The person with more points at the end, wins. And it’s a tournament-style contest - with each person defeating another and advancing to the final.
It’s on in the afternoons when most of us are at work, so is mostly beloved by pensioners, students and the unemployed. What I always used to like about it is that there’s no age limit on the contestants, so you quite often get freakishly clever children beating the adults week after week.
Superb explication, Revenant Threshold.
I’ll mention also the “celebrity” and word geek who have a dictionary and magnifying pen-camera, who sit in the corner and whose purposes are, respectively, to be witty (usually a cringe-making abject failure) and to look up/confirm long anagrams. I don’t know how much they get paid, but it can’t be much. The humour is aimed at the very elderly, as far as I can tell. The show has very low production standards.
Countdown also has the distinction of being the first show on the new Channel 4 when it was launched in 1982.
It was based on a similar French TV programme called “Des Chiffres et Des Lettres”.
Richard Whitely was famous for being dull, avuncular and generally beige; it was his trademark and he revelled in it and was adored for it.
Sort of so far out the other side of square that he became hip, and as a result, he would turn up as a guest, or even co-presenter in the most unlikely contexts.