British Telly

[DanaC]

There's been a flurry, for the last three or four years, of celeb versions of quiz shows - usually with prize money (if there is any) being donated to charity. Sometimes they are moden quizzes that are also running as their normal version - other times they bring back an old favourite and give it a twist.

One of these started out as part of a Channel 4 'Mash Up' to celebrate the anniversary of the channel's launch - with lots of crossover stuff going on across the year, but it's become a regular thing now: 8 out of 10 Cats Do Countdown

Initially it was just a special and counted as part of the current run of 8 Out of 10 Cats - now it has its own run and is into its third series.

The original Countdown is a very long running quiz show - a bit of an institution, it was the first programme for the newly launched Channel 4, back in 1982 and has now run for 70 series. It's still running, though with a new host after the death of the original host a few years back.

Here's a little clip of an episode from the 90s just to give you a sense of what the show is like - a little words and numbers game, which plays in the afternoons - exciting things and raucousness are not part of Countdown's brief :p



It's updated itself a little in recent years but is basically the same beast.

Needless to say, 8 out of 10 Cats does it a little differently. So, here's what the Cats do with Countdown: the woman on Dictionary Corner is the current incumbent for the regular show, as is the gorgeous mathematician, who took over from Vorderman a couple of years back.

Fair warning - nsfw language