[SuperSajuuk]

In the future, one person who could become host of Stephen Fry, who is also a huge fan of the show, and loves it so much that he would make a great host - he would probably be brilliant at both words and numbers with that mind of his, which feels like is the size of Westminster Abbey.

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Are they still not producing the show with a studio audience? The Covid restrictions are long gone - feels like a bit of laziness here, not worth bothering offering tickets, and recording the episodes in an even more conveyor belt style of production

Do they still record five shows a day?

The lack of audience is a cost-cutting measure: remember that getting an audience requires a whole range of other costs to be included, such as the need to pay for stewards to make sure only ticketed people entered the studio, security to monitor for suspicious audience members, insurance to cover for any incidents involving audience members, the floor manager needing to keep the audience in check etc. These all mount up over the course of a series, and cutting that out from a production allows them to focus the money on other things instead.

Also, to my understanding, the studio used by Countdown now doesn't support audiences being present in any way at all. If they wanted audiences back, they would have to pay more for a larger studio to support having an audience. In todays' highly inflated society, there's just no scope for Channel 4 to support bringing it back. I wouldn't say no to them having a limited audience for series finals though, then it won't cost as much and will make the final more authentic.

As for number of episodes per day, as confirmed by a contestant who'd appeared on the programme on another website, its 6 a day now with breaks of 2-3 weeks in filming at presumably scripted parts of the year.