c4countdown

Surprised that Des I only got 1.8, given his "housewives' favourite" status and the fact that the show had been off air for some months. He must have been getting well over 2m by Spring 2006 (thanks to the exploits of Conor Travers and the fact that the tabs were running a story a day abo...

Did Carol nick the pencam on her way out?

Well it looks like the contestants were checking each other's, rather than Jeff and DC doing so. Is this a deliberate new policy, or forced upon the prog because they accidentally made the desks too long? I don't know the answer to whether it was deliberate or not, but I will say that I think it's ...

1.26 million? With all the publicity, I expected it to break 2m. Des the First's debut got 1.8m including timeshift; Des the Second's debut didn't make the C4 weekly top 30 (neither will Jeff Stelling's, it appears) so BARB doesn't provide a figure for that but it was below 2.18m. Thanks Jennifer. ...

I've just seen the overnights. The viewing figure is 1.26m. Does anyone know how this compares to the Lynam/O'Connor debuts?

Congratulations to David and James on a great contest.

Here's The Guardian's (minute by minute) recap with people playing along in the comments section:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... ments=true

"It may be Des O'Connor's 77th birthday, but today all eyes will be on Jeff Stelling, the perma-tanned entertainer's tikka-tinged replacement as the host of Countdown..." From The Guardian's Rumour Mill column. Apparently they're doing a minute by minute report at 3.25pm today. http://www....

I found the Richard/Kai match really difficult to call though. Reckon it will be a close one. I had the same trouble. It was the only one I thought about for more than 5 secs. I take it neither of you has read the Guardian article discussed in another thread then? I glanced at it for about 20 secon...

David O'Donnell
Junaid Mubeen
Jon Corby
Kai Laddiman
Nick Wainwright
Jonathan Coles
Charlie Reams
Steven Briers

I found the Richard/Kai match really difficult to call though. Reckon it will be a close one.

For those who are interested... Some soundbites from Jeff Stelling: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/showbiz/Stelling-takes-over-a-TV.4842451.jp Sun hack makes up a story about Carol Vorderman: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article2098007.ece I enjoyed 'The Curse of Carol' in...

@ Ben - Didn't think you could surpass the fat baby avatar (wasn't so keen on Janet tho') but you've managed it.

Top man!

Charlie Reams wrote:

Charlie Reams, another programmer, doing a PhD at Oxford

Sigh...

I thought you'd seen sense and come over to 'the dark side'.

But Hattenstone's famously a Man City fan. He's gonna get things wrong...

In case anyone is interested there is an article about the new look Countdown in today's (Saturday 3rd Jan) colour magazine. And it appears to be a reasonably accurate report of a day's recording of Countdown. It's available on The Guardian's website (in the Weekend section) too. But the print vers...

Im hoping to emigrate to Victoria/Vancouver area in a couple of years, is the weather usually ok? It rains a lot. I lived in Vancouver for six months a few years ago. It rained every day for the first month. However it's such a wonderful city, you won't care. Very jealous of you. What's so nice abo...

Matthew Green wrote:Im hoping to emigrate to Victoria/Vancouver area in a couple of years, is the weather usually ok?

It rains a lot. I lived in Vancouver for six months a few years ago. It rained every day for the first month. However it's such a wonderful city, you won't care. Very jealous of you.

The thing that strikes me about the photos of Jeff and Rachel is how American they look. I've long thought that Jeff Stelling is the spit of the greatest Channel 4 quizmaster of all time: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/1515514966_139a84debb.jpg?v=0 Do you have a logon on f365 now it's gone mem...

Pete Fraser wrote:The thing that strikes me about the photos of Jeff and Rachel is how American they look.

I've long thought that Jeff Stelling is the spit of the greatest Channel 4 quizmaster of all time:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/151 ... bb.jpg?v=0

Andy Thomson wrote:An alternate title? A different title for every second episode? Or perhaps you meant an alternative title.

But Jason's American. Alternative and Alternate are interchangeable in standard American English:

http://www.bartleby.com/68/12/312.html

I thought everyone knew that.

So it's the city which gave the world: the finest dictionary in the English language; Frank Cooper's Marmalade; the Morris Minor; Radiohead; some of the finest literature for children ever written; the serial comma; George and Davis' ice cream; Hermione in the Harry Potter films; Supergrass; the Hea...

Jason Larsen wrote:Will one of you who sees the show tell me how she's doing, please?

Jason, you can see for yourself: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7777032.stm

But JS has been at Sky for about 16 years and he helms 6 hours of live TV every week which would seem to speak to his loyalty and stamina. He should have more staying power than Des L.

Michael Simmonds wrote:

Mike Brown wrote:

Damian E wrote:JS eh? Now there's a thought.

Ah, there you are!

JS standing for Jeff Stelling of course!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/no ... television

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'. I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify '...

I think you could make a case for 'fennels' using the 'restaurant menu exception'. I've ordered it as a vegetable side dish. If you ordered two portions of it, a conversation in the kitchens along the lines of "Have you plated up the fennels?" would be feasible. I've heard Susie justify 'p...

As for diphthongs, as I understand it, being a Yorkshireman with a funny accent, I don't use a diphthong for words such as "gate". Is that correct Lucy? Absolutely right, Ian. I'm originally from Durham and we Mackems don't hold with diphthongal pronunciations for words like gate either. ...

The 'A' in GATE is the diphthong 'ei'. I had to write a riveting paper on the subject as part of my English degree. My tutor was an OED lexicographer who described himself as "too ugly for dictionary corner"! Hum. I guess I don't understand what a diphthong is then. Can you elaborate? Sur...

The A in GATE is a diphthong and GATE is certainly one syllable, but there is certainly something extra in FRAIL. I would call that something extra a syllable. I suppose it comes down to your definitions, but if syllable means what I think it does, FRAIL has two of those. Unless you speak a totally...

According to a thread on tvforum.co.uk , the shows screened last week were filmed on July 16th. In her interview with The News of the World , Carol said she heard about her pay offer on July 16th. http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28197&start=204 http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news...

The real reason why David Mitchell is playing hard to get: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1WaCfFtCsbw

Possibly....

I thought she was right to be circumspect as the etymology of the phrase is fairly unclear.

The earliest citations of the tail variant date from the 1850s and have been recorded in the OED since about 1929 which would suggest a fair degree of usage in the late 19th Century/early 20th Century.