Countdown - Printable Version
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RE: Countdown - RhysJR - 21-10-2023
The UK version went rather meta yesterday.
https://x.com/DavidMooney/status/1715365195248255004?s=20
RE: Countdown - James2001 - 21-10-2023
Speaking of which, was a bit disappointed last time I looked and the conundrum has gone CGI! It's not the same.
Means we won't get any more outakes of the letters falling out when it flips over too.
(21-10-2023, 03:54 AM)"kianworld Wrote: Wink Martindale's YouTube channel posted a US pilot for Countdown from 1990, hosted by Michael Jackson (not that one):"Executive producer Tony Danza"- the actor from Taxi? There's some bizarre producer credits on some US shows!
Very funny that they don't even bother with the numbers round but overall it seems like a fine enough American way to do it?
RE: Countdown - Steve in Pudsey - 21-10-2023
The CG Conundrum was introduced while they were working under COVID restrictions.
CatsDown (which uses a bigger studio and probably has a bigger budget) uses the classic board
RE: Countdown - Neil Jones - 21-10-2023
(21-10-2023, 09:40 AM)Brekkie Wrote: Well it arguably at least counts down rather than counts up like you could say the Countdown clock does.
I could argue our version "counts down" to the 30 second mark on the board, whereas the one on the pilot posted counts upwards back to 0.
Indeed the original French show, Des Chiffres et Des Lettres were going all round a digital clock by 1990, for a round that looks like it was 45 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oOD76YUGDI
Though in fairness they've had a few ways of presenting that, from not at all to the current digital version that looks like the clock function on Android phones
RE: Countdown - James2001 - 21-10-2023
The digit displayer on the number round is one of those petrol station pump/old train station clock clickety sort of things as well, as opposed to the light up seven segment displays our version always had, until it was replaced with video screens.
RE: Countdown - Steve in Pudsey - 22-10-2023
The UK pilot used a fruit machine style contraption for the random number generator.
Interesting that the American pilot doesn't have a credit for Alan Hawkshaw for the music, although I guess that might not be required as it's Library music? (Does the UK show have a separate deal these days hence the credit?). They credit the French original but not YTV, which surprises me as it's using their name and elements of their format tweaks.
RE: Countdown - lookoutwales - 22-10-2023
(22-10-2023, 09:44 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote: Interesting that the American pilot doesn't have a credit for Alan Hawkshaw for the music, although I guess that might not be required as it's Library music? (Does the UK show have a separate deal these days hence the credit?). They credit the French original but not YTV, which surprises me as it's using their name and elements of their format tweaks.
Suppose it comes down ultimately to Armand Jammot having the original idea to begin with (though didn't Marcel Stellman have his say in how the format was tweaked for the UK?)
Had it gone to a commission, Hawkshaw would have probably got credit somewhere. Interesting they had no qualms about using the rerecorded (1989?) version of the sig tune as a bed while using a synthed-up version as their main theme.
It's not a bad reworking by any means - enough bells, whistles and tropes typical of a US daytime game show, right down to getting in Charlie O'Donnell as announcer.
Not sure if something more akin to the UK format would have worked on PBS as some of the YT comments suggested - though it appeared to serve SBS in Australia well during its two year run as Letters and Numbers.
RE: Countdown - Brekkie - 02-11-2023
41 years old today - they opened the show with a bit of gloating about their ratings being the highest since 2012, which in today's climate is frankly something to gloat about. A decent host makes all the difference.
RE: Countdown - JMT1985 - 03-11-2023
(02-11-2023, 06:55 PM)Brekkie Wrote: 41 years old today - they opened the show with a bit of gloating about their ratings being the highest since 2012, which in today's climate is frankly something to gloat about. A decent host makes all the difference.
What are the actual viewing figures for Countdown now in 2023? Do they even get to the 500,000 mark per day which if they do, is really good for Channel 4 at 2.10pm.
RE: Countdown - Brekkie - 03-11-2023
The latest official ratings on Thinkbox have three episodes in the top 50 at 36, 44 and 50 with 506k (Fri), 456k (Wed) and 430k (Mon) respectively.