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Being unfamiliar with Countdown, I was curious about the output format; looking around, I found the author's original announcement[1], which shows the following

Being unfamiliar with Countdown, I was curious about the output format; looking around, I found the author's original announcement[1], which shows the following: "For 'EOEFPRCTSN' Word prefects is 8 letters long. Word perfectos is 9 letters long." [1] http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1260790&p=42291145&viewfull=1#post42291145 http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1260790&p=42291145&vie... - also seen at http://twitter.com/countdownanswer http://twitter.com/countdownanswer

jessedhillon 13y ago
I knew I had heard of Countdown before at some point in the past. I searched my bookmarks and found this video, which apparently really happened in one of their episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_...
- unfunco 13y ago
  This one wasn't actually real. TV shows in the United Kingdom have a tradition of creating crude and funny references to their show as a Christmas gift to executives or people that work on the show and this happened to leak out, a similar thing happened with the children's TV show Rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc However, it is hilarious and deserving of attention.
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    This did happen the other day though: http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18/countdown-channel-4-conundrum http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18...
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jared314 13y ago
  That was an episode of the IT Crowd[1] showing a character on Countdown, like a character from The Big Bang Theory appearing on Jeopardy in the storyline of the show. As for the actual show, I am partial to the BBC "mashups" mixing "8 out of 10 cats", a comedy panel show, with Countdown. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ Actual Countdown Episode: http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown: http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s
jlees 13y ago
Both contestants in Countdown have 30 seconds to find the longest anagram that is also a valid entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. The one with the longer valid word wins, gaining equal points if there is a tie. There is always an expert in "Dictionary Corner" who attempts to find the longest possible word, usually something obscure. There are also two special rounds. One is mathematical (pick a combination of 6 large and small numbers -- large = {100,75,50,25}, small = {1..10} -- and attempt to make a randomly generated three-digit number using only addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. The other is a 9-letter handcrafted anagram which always has a 9-letter solution. It would be interesting to have a bot that used information on word frequency in common vocabularies/usage to guess what the contestants were likely to find, vs. the expert with an open-book. I imagine few people would find 'perfectos' but many more would find 'prefects'. Having said that, I'd imagine most people going on the show -- especially at this stage! -- would be armed with many more obscure words than the average reader. (I auditioned back when I was 16, in fact, but failed at the anagram round. Oh well! Growing up 'playing' Countdown certainly made for a fun childhood, and I was frequently called Carol at school because I was good with numbers. :))

jessedhillon 13y ago

I knew I had heard of Countdown before at some point in the past. I searched my bookmarks and found this video, which apparently really happened in one of their episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHhw_x-gHxI&feature=youtube_...

unfunco 13y ago
This one wasn't actually real. TV shows in the United Kingdom have a tradition of creating crude and funny references to their show as a Christmas gift to executives or people that work on the show and this happened to leak out, a similar thing happened with the children's TV show Rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc However, it is hilarious and deserving of attention.
- JonnieCache 13y ago
  This did happen the other day though: http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18/countdown-channel-4-conundrum http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2013/dec/18...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jared314 13y ago
That was an episode of the IT Crowd[1] showing a character on Countdown, like a character from The Big Bang Theory appearing on Jeopardy in the storyline of the show. As for the actual show, I am partial to the BBC "mashups" mixing "8 out of 10 cats", a comedy panel show, with Countdown. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1676563/ Actual Countdown Episode: http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s http://youtu.be/d1L8uBzW6hQ?t=45s 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown: http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s http://youtu.be/cu4chThprVk?t=8m6s

jlees 13y ago

Both contestants in Countdown have 30 seconds to find the longest anagram that is also a valid entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. The one with the longer valid word wins, gaining equal points if there is a tie. There is always an expert in "Dictionary Corner" who attempts to find the longest possible word, usually something obscure. There are also two special rounds. One is mathematical (pick a combination of 6 large and small numbers -- large = {100,75,50,25}, small = {1..10} -- and attempt to make a randomly generated three-digit number using only addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. The other is a 9-letter handcrafted anagram which always has a 9-letter solution. It would be interesting to have a bot that used information on word frequency in common vocabularies/usage to guess what the contestants were likely to find, vs. the expert with an open-book. I imagine few people would find 'perfectos' but many more would find 'prefects'. Having said that, I'd imagine most people going on the show -- especially at this stage! -- would be armed with many more obscure words than the average reader. (I auditioned back when I was 16, in fact, but failed at the anagram round. Oh well! Growing up 'playing' Countdown certainly made for a fun childhood, and I was frequently called Carol at school because I was good with numbers. :))