Countdown (TV Show) Trivia
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38 free Countdown (TV Show) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Countdown has been on British teatime screens since 1982, and its mix of word-building, mental arithmetic and a ticking clock has barely changed. That stability is exactly why it rewards trivia: the rules, the rituals and the people who have sat at the desk are all fair game. This quiz covers the presenters and their predecessors, the scoring of the letters and numbers games, the prizes, the studio moves, the record-breaking contestants and the late-night comedy spin-off. It works for a pub quiz round, a family teatime showdown or anyone who has ever shouted a word at the television.
30 of 38 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which animal bit Countdown host Richard Whiteley on regional television in 1977, in a clip replayed for decades?
A ferret
A ferret sank its teeth into Whiteley's finger during a 1977 news-magazine item and hung on until its owner prised it off, and the clip became a fixture of out-take shows around the world.
Q 02What nickname does Countdown give the electronic machine that generates the random target in its numbers rounds?
CECIL
CECIL stands for Countdown's Electronic Calculator In Leeds, and the machine has kept the name even though the show left its Leeds studios in 2009.
Q 03Whose mother answered a 1982 newspaper advert on her behalf, landing her the Countdown numbers job at 21?
Carol Vorderman
Carol Vorderman stayed for 26 years, then left in 2008 after her agent said she had been told to take a 90% pay cut.
Q 04Who became Countdown's first female host in June 2021, in the programme's 39th year on air?
Anne Robinson
Anne Robinson left after a year and 265 episodes, saying she hoped she had shown TV bosses that not all women in their late seventies are 'in care homes playing bingo'.
Q 05Who hosts 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, the comedy spin-off born on a Channel 4 'mash-up night'?
Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr already fronted 8 Out of 10 Cats, so he took the chair when Channel 4 had its shows swap presenters for a night, and the one-off proved popular enough to become a series.
Q 06Where on the Countdown set do a lexicographer and a weekly celebrity guest verify the words contestants declare?
Dictionary Corner
Dictionary Corner also offers longer words the contestants missed, and the production team sometimes feeds them to its celebrity guest through an earpiece.
Q 07How long does the Countdown clock run each round while contestants hunt for their longest word or a numbers solution?
30 seconds
30 seconds of ticking music accompany every round, and when producers tried a more intense version of the tune in 1996 it lasted less than a month before the original returned.
Q 08Which Strictly Come Dancing professional married the Countdown numbers presenter he partnered in the 2013 series?
Pasha Kovalev
Pasha Kovalev and his 2013 celebrity partner became a couple after that series and married in Las Vegas in June 2019.
Q 09What does Countdown call its final round, a nine-letter anagram solved against the clock on the buzzer?
The Conundrum
The Conundrum is worth ten points, and when the scores are within ten of each other going into it, the host bills it as a 'Crucial Countdown Conundrum'.
Q 10Which Oriel College maths graduate, fresh from university, took over the Countdown numbers board in January 2009?
Rachel Riley
Rachel Riley beat about 1,000 applicants to the job, saying there was 'only one cool maths job around' and she had been lucky enough to get it.
Q 11Which former adviser to Lord Sugar on The Apprentice hosted Countdown from January 2012 until retiring in June 2021?
Nick Hewer
Nick Hewer was a public relations man who came to television late, first as Lord Sugar's boardroom adviser from 2005 and then, in his late sixties, as a daily quiz host.
Q 12Which Match of the Day veteran took over Countdown in October 2005, then quit after 2006 over the travel to Leeds?
Des Lynam
Des Lynam lived in West Sussex, about 250 miles from the Leeds studios, and gave up the commute after little more than a year as host.
Q 13Which comedian captained a team on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown from its 2012 launch until 2021?
Sean Lock
Q 21Which Radio 5 Live broadcaster became Countdown's permanent host in January 2023?
Colin Murray
Colin Murray had first stood in during 2020, and was holding the fort again as a temporary host when Channel 4 gave him the job for good.
Q 22For what sartorial trait did Richard Whiteley become known on Countdown, with his co-presenter often commenting on it?
Garish suits and ties
Garish suits and ties fitted the absent-minded eccentric image he enjoyed projecting, and his wardrobe was said to run to 200 vivid jackets and more than 500 loud ties.
Q 23Which soap opera began on Channel 4's opening night in 1982, the same evening Countdown launched the channel?
Brookside
Sean Lock died of cancer in August 2021, and guest captains took turns leading his team until Rob Beckett was named its permanent captain in 2025.
Q 14After 27 years at the Leeds Studios, Countdown moved its recordings in 2009 to Granada Studios in which city?
Manchester
Manchester took the show in 2009 when ITV proposed closing its Leeds studios, though the company later changed its mind and refitted them instead.
Q 15What does Countdown call a contestant who retires undefeated after the maximum run of wins allowed in the series heats?
Octochamp
An Octochamp has won eight games in a row, a cap that seems to date from the early days of four shows a week, when eight wins meant two unbeaten weeks.
Q 16Which publisher is Countdown's authority on disputed words, having long supplied the show's lexicographers too?
Oxford
Oxford also supplied the series prize, a 20-volume OED bound in leather, though one vegan champion turned it down and took the CD-ROM instead.
Q 17What nickname did Richard Whiteley earn for reading Yorkshire's teatime news and hosting Countdown the same evening?
Twice Nightly
'Twice Nightly Whiteley' stuck because he fronted the regional news and Countdown on the same evenings, and he liked to counter that 'once yearly, nearly' was closer to the truth.
Q 18Which former Tory MP has made over 300 guest appearances on Countdown?
Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth nearly had a version of his own: in 1982 he hosted the pilot for a children's edition, Junior Countdown, but it flopped and was never broadcast.
Q 19Which entertainer, who topped the UK singles chart with 'I Pretend' in 1968, presented Countdown in 2007 and 2008?
Des O'Connor
Des O'Connor, whose singing Morecambe and Wise mocked for years, quit Countdown after two years because he missed 'the thrill of stepping out on a live stage'.
Q 20Which football broadcaster hosted Countdown from 2009 to 2011, then left to concentrate on the sport?
Jeff Stelling
Jeff Stelling left at the end of 2011 to focus on his Sky commitments, which that year grew to include fronting the channel's live Champions League coverage.
Brookside ran for 21 years before ending in 2003, while the quiz that opened the channel has outlasted everything else from that night except the news.
Q 24How many number tiles does a Countdown contestant pick, large and small, at the start of each numbers round?
Six
Six tiles are drawn from four large numbers and twenty small ones, and the contestant chooses how many large ones to risk, anything from none to all four.
Q 25Which composer of the Grange Hill and Channel 4 News themes also wrote the ticking clock music used on Countdown?
Alan Hawkshaw
Alan Hawkshaw's library music was later plundered by hip-hop producers, Jay-Z among them, and he liked to joke that he was one of the oldest rap artists in the world.
Q 26Which Yorkshire Television news magazine lent its name to Countdown's eight-episode regional pilot run in 1982?
Calendar
Calendar Countdown began as a lightweight filler spun off from the regional news magazine, which is why that programme's presenter, Richard Whiteley, came with it.
Q 27Which member of Countdown's on-screen team in the 2020s first appeared in 1992?
Susie Dent
Susie Dent began as one of several lexicographers who took turns in the chair, and only became the show's permanent word referee in the 2000s.
Q 28Which four 'large numbers' can Countdown contestants pick alongside the small tiles numbered one to ten?
25, 50, 75 and 100
25, 50, 75 and 100 are the only large tiles, though for two special matches between champions in 2010 the show swapped in awkward numbers such as 12 and 37.
Q 29Which deadpan comedian was the costumed, prop-wielding assistant in early episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown?
Joe Wilkinson
Joe Wilkinson was billed as the assistant to the show's numbers expert, wandering on in the second half, and went on to become one of its regular panellists.
Q 30Which comedian has captained a team on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown since 2012, longer than any rival captain?
Jon Richardson
Jon Richardson was one of the two original captains at the first special, when the 8 Out of 10 Cats team took over the Countdown studio for a night as part of a presenter job swap.