8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown
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40 free 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown started as a one-night experiment and became one of Channel 4's most durable comedies. Jimmy Carr takes the host's chair, Rachel Riley and Susie Dent keep their Countdown jobs, and comedians wrestle with letters, numbers and a conundrum that rarely looks polite. This quiz covers the whole show: how the crossover came about, the rules it borrows and bends, team captains Sean Lock and Jon Richardson, Joe Wilkinson's interruptions, the regular guests and the episodes fans still talk about. A few questions follow the cast beyond the studio. It is written for people who watch the repeats as happily as the new series. Casual viewers should get most of the early questions, while the later ones reward anyone who remembers individual episodes.
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Q 018 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown owes half its title to a much-misquoted advert for which cat food brand?
Whiskas
Whiskas adverts cited a survey of cat owners, but the public remembered the claim as being about the cats themselves, and the misquote stuck.
Q 02Sean Lock read his pub parody of which children's book on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown?
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
The Tiger Who Came to Tea became Lock's The Tiger Who Came for a Pint, and after his death fans called for the parody to be published.
Q 03Which presenter stood in for Rachel Riley on two 2016 episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown?
Claudia Winkleman
Claudia Winkleman covered the numbers board for episodes in series nine, and she later came back to the show as a panellist and guest captain.
Q 04On 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, how long does the famous clock give players to find a word?
30 seconds
30 seconds is all the clock allows, and Jimmy Carr often fills it with a stunt such as stacking a house of cards or tempting a bird of prey onto his arm.
Q 05Rachel Riley of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown took over Countdown's numbers board from which presenter?
Carol Vorderman
Carol Vorderman had been on Countdown since 1982, and Riley beat roughly 1,000 applicants to replace her despite having no TV presenting experience.
Q 06Before comedy, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown host Jimmy Carr worked in marketing for which oil company?
Shell
Shell was where Carr felt miserable enough to take voluntary redundancy in January 2000, and he played his first paid stand-up gig later that month.
Q 07On 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Susie Dent and a celebrity guest sit in which named part of the set?
Dictionary Corner
Dictionary Corner pairs Dent with a guest who performs a poem, song or sketch after each numbers round.
Q 08Which Taskmaster creator often brings his band along as Susie Dent's guest on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown?
Alex Horne
Alex Horne had already faced the real Countdown clock, winning three matches as a contestant in 2008 before returning with The Horne Section.
Q 09What does Jimmy Carr ask each panellist on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown to show off, often a ludicrous prop?
A mascot
A mascot on the show is usually an impractical object with a tall story attached, turning the introductions into a prop comedy routine.
Q 108 Out of 10 Cats, the panel show that merged with Countdown, built its rounds around what kind of data?
Opinion polls
Opinion polls drove the rounds, with fresh surveys commissioned for the programme and teams guessing what the public had said.
Q 118 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown began in January 2012 as a one-off for which Channel 4 anniversary event?
Mash-up night
Mash-up night merged pairs of Channel 4 shows for the broadcaster's 30th birthday, and this pairing drew 2.49 million viewers.
Q 12Which muscular prize-bearer on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is billed as Joe Wilkinson's half-brother?
Fabio
Fabio is one of the muscular men in black swimming trunks who carry on the show's deliberately low-value prizes, a parody of Countdown's teapot.
Q 13Which anagram puzzle is shown before each advert break on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown?
Teatime Teaser
Teatime Teaser anagrams on this version are scrambled to look rude or suggestive, yet the answer revealed after the break is usually innocent.
Q 21Sean Lock, a captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown until 2021, was honoured with applause by which football club?
Chelsea
Chelsea, the club Lock supported, held a minute's applause in the 58th minute of a match, matching the age at which he died.
Q 22Rachel Riley of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown married which professional dancer, her partner on Strictly Come Dancing?
Pasha Kovalev
Pasha Kovalev danced with Riley in the 2013 series, where they went out in week six, and the pair married in Las Vegas in 2019.
Q 23Jon Richardson became a captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats by replacing which comedian, who had succeeded Dave Spikey?
Jason Manford
Q 14Which comedian replaced Jimmy Carr as host of an all-female 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown special in 2018?
Katherine Ryan
Katherine Ryan fronted the special marking 100 years of women's suffrage in the UK, with every male member of the cast and crew replaced.
Q 15Which comedian became a permanent team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown in 2025, filling Sean Lock's old seat?
Rob Beckett
Rob Beckett was no stranger to the format, having played in one of the 2013 specials and captained a team on 8 Out of 10 Cats itself.
Q 16Which Not Going Out star stood in for an unwell Sean Lock on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown in 2013?
Lee Mack
Lee Mack captained the team in both April 2013 specials, the first editions to give each captain a celebrity teammate.
Q 17Which original Countdown host, decades before 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, was the first person seen on Channel 4?
Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley opened Channel 4 with Countdown on 2 November 1982 and stayed in the chair for 23 years.
Q 18The Countdown format used in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown was adapted from a 1960s game show from which country?
France
France launched the show in 1965 as a letters-only game, and Belgian record executive Marcel Stellman brought the format to Britain after watching it.
Q 19Rachel Riley, the numbers expert on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, studied mathematics at which university?
Oxford
Oxford gave Riley her maths degree at Oriel College, and she turned away from a finance career after an internship at Deutsche Bank.
Q 20Jimmy Carr, the Countdown crossover's host, has fronted which other Channel 4 panel show since 2004?
Big Fat Quiz of the Year
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year has aired around every New Year since 2004, with three celebrity pairs quizzed on the previous twelve months.
Jason Manford departed after series 10, and Richardson captained from series 11 to 18 opposite Sean Lock.
Q 24Jon Richardson, team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, was born and raised in which northern English city?
Lancaster
Lancaster is where Richardson grew up and went to grammar school, though the football club he supports is Leeds United.
Q 25Sean Lock of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown co-wrote and starred in which BBC sitcom alongside Benedict Wong?
15 Storeys High
15 Storeys High grew out of 15 Minutes of Misery, a Radio 4 series in which Lock eavesdropped on tower-block neighbours, and won a cult following on television.
Q 26Joe Wilkinson of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown plays a nosey postman in which Ricky Gervais comedy-drama?
After Life
After Life cast Wilkinson as Pat, the incompetent postman on the main character's street, in the Netflix series that ran from 2019 to 2022.
Q 27Susie Dent of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown launched the podcast Something Rhymes with Purple with which broadcaster?
Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth and Dent later turned their word-lovers' podcast into live theatre residencies using the same formula.
Q 28Susie Dent was born in which Surrey town, where her 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown colleague Sean Lock grew up?
Woking
Woking links the two by coincidence: Dent was born there in 1964, while Lock, born in Chertsey a year earlier, went to school in the town.
Q 29Sean Lock and Jon Richardson of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown explored which US state in a 2012 road-trip series?
Louisiana
Louisiana was the setting for The Real Man's Road Trip: Sean & Jon Go West, a two-part Channel 4 series sampling local culture and lifestyle.
Q 30Rachel Riley of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown took which football club as her Celebrity Mastermind subject?
Manchester United
Manchester United, the club Riley supports, earned her joint second place on Celebrity Mastermind in 2012.