Historical scheduling

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Guy Barry
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Historical scheduling

Post by Guy Barry »

While I'm visiting the forum, does anyone have details of the time slots in which Countdown has been scheduled since it's been on the air? It's moved around quite a lot. I know that when it started on Channel 4 it was broadcast at 4.45pm, Monday to Thursday - the first programme in the daily schedule (can't remember what was on Fridays). It wasn't a permanent fixture then of course, and they tried out all sorts of other game shows in the slot, including "Television Scrabble" (would you believe). Then I think it may have moved later in the afternoon, possibly to 5pm; I'm pretty sure one series went out as late as 5.30pm. It eventually settled into what I regard as the "classic" 4.30pm slot, first alternating with Fifteen to One, then taking over the slot all year round, with 15-to-1 at 4pm. Then it was extended by 15 minutes and the start time was put back to 4.15pm. After that it's gradually moved earlier in the afternoon, to 3.15pm and eventually to its current slot.

Can anyone fill in the details?
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JimBentley
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Re: Historical scheduling

Post by JimBentley »

Mike's site has it, I believe (plus a whole lot more):

http://www.thecountdownpage.com/cdtimes.htm
Guy Barry
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Re: Historical scheduling

Post by Guy Barry »

JimBentley wrote:Mike's site has it, I believe (plus a whole lot more):

http://www.thecountdownpage.com/cdtimes.htm
Ah, thanks very much. Not quite as I remember it but almost!

When did it change from four to five days a week? That doesn't seem to be recorded.
James Laverty
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Re: Historical scheduling

Post by James Laverty »

It's shuffled around quite a bit in the last few years. This is all I can remember

Towards the end Series 67, it moved to 2:40 to accomodate "1001 Things You Should Know". It stayed there for the start of 30thBC, but I think it was back at 3:10 around Februaryish (Johnny or James Robinson will probably know the exact date).

Not long after there was another short lived moved to 2:40, but think this was only for a week or two to accomodate some "event show".

At somepoint in series 70 (think it was to do with Winter Paralympics coverage), they moved to 2.10, but was back at 3.10 by the end of Series 71. Might have been another spell at 2.10 during 72/73 as well.

Even at 3.10 the odd episode has had flux. Few episodes late in the year have gone out at 3.30 to accomodate horse racing with earlier finishes (thankfully won't be a problem next year), and there was at least one episode that started at 3pm on the dot earlier in the year so they could fit in F1 coverage.
Definitely not Jamie McNeill or Schrodinger's Cat....
James Laverty
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Re: Historical scheduling

Post by James Laverty »

First series on all five days was Series 5. Says so on the wiki page. http://wiki.apterous.org/Series_5
Definitely not Jamie McNeill or Schrodinger's Cat....
Guy Barry
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Re: Historical scheduling

Post by Guy Barry »

James Laverty wrote:First series on all five days was Series 5. Says so on the wiki page. http://wiki.apterous.org/Series_5
Ah, thanks. Probably the first ever daily game show then.
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