What is Countdown (game show)?
{{Italic title}} '''''Countdown''''' is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[game show]] on [[Channel 4]]. It began on 2 November 1982 as the first programme to air on Channel 4. It is currently presented by Colin Murray and [[Rachel Riley]] with [[etymologist]] [[Susie Dent]] in Dictionary Corner alongside a celebrity guest. It was hosted by [[Richard Whiteley]] until his death in 2005, then by [[Des Lynam]] from 2005 to 2006 and then by [[Des O'Connor]] from 2007 to 2008. Both O'Connor and Carol Vorderman, the show's co-host who has been on the programme since it began, left the show in December 2008. From 2009, [[Jeff Stelling]] and Rachel Riley replaced O'Connor and Vorderman respectively. It has been hosted by Nick Hewer from 2012 to 2021, on 28 June 2021, Anne Robinson became the host but she presented her final show on 13 July 2022 with Colin Murray taking over the next day. The show was 30 minutes long, but since 2001, it is 45 minutes long. With nearly 8,000 episodes, it is one of the longest-running game shows in the world, along with the original French version '''Des chiffres et des lettres''' which has been running on [[France|French]] television continuously since 1972. ==Origin== ''Countdown'' originated from the format of the French game show ''[[Des chiffres et des lettres]]''<!--Only the first word is capitalised: see the article linked to--> (''Numbers and Letters''), created by [[Armand Jammot]]. 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. The concept was purchased in the early 1980s by [[ITV Yorkshire|Yorkshire Television]] which commissioned a series of eight shows under the title ''Calendar Countdown'', aimed at being a spin-off of their regional news programme ''[[Calendar (British TV programme)|Calendar]]'' with the programme's host Richard Whiteley deemed the natural choice for the concept. The spin-off was aired only in