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Nick Hewer quits Countdown

Anne Robinson announced as replacement - page 11 (December 2020)

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NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
JKDerry posted:
Countdown will never be axed as it has a pride of place in the history of Channel 4 as being the first programme to air on the channel on November 2nd 1982, with that special opening line from the late Richard Whiteley:

"As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new countdown begins"

So it had a place in history, which will be very hard for Channel 4 to end.


As sentimental as that is, it doesn't guarantee the survival of any TV programme.
Realistically if the networks kept all the stuff that was on air on their first day, there would never be anything new.

Its probably safe to say the only reason Countdown survives at all is that its cheap to make and still generates a relatively good return. On commercial channels that's all that matters, that it makes money (on the whole as an average). If it didn't do that it goes out the door or elsewhere in the schedule. Simple as.

Channel 4 might be publicly owned but doesn't mean its a charity/dumping ground for programming that has sentimental value. Countdown will end one day, that much is guaranteed.
BR
Brekkie
In recent years Countdowns survival has pretty much down to C4 not firing elsewhere in daytime, and therefore despite ratings about a fifth of what they were a decade earlier relative to other shows it still performs well, plus 8 out of 10 Cats has given it new life.
JO
Jonwo
Neil Jones posted:
JKDerry posted:
Countdown will never be axed as it has a pride of place in the history of Channel 4 as being the first programme to air on the channel on November 2nd 1982, with that special opening line from the late Richard Whiteley:

"As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new countdown begins"

So it had a place in history, which will be very hard for Channel 4 to end.


As sentimental as that is, it doesn't guarantee the survival of any TV programme.
Realistically if the networks kept all the stuff that was on air on their first day, there would never be anything new.

Its probably safe to say the only reason Countdown survives at all is that its cheap to make and still generates a relatively good return. On commercial channels that's all that matters, that it makes money (on the whole as an average). If it didn't do that it goes out the door or elsewhere in the schedule. Simple as.

Channel 4 might be publicly owned but doesn't mean its a charity/dumping ground for programming that has sentimental value. Countdown will end one day, that much is guaranteed.

If Channel 4 did axe it, there's nothing stopping ITV Studios from selling it to another broadcaster.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Jonwo posted:
If Channel 4 did axe it, there's nothing stopping ITV Studios from selling it to another broadcaster.


Depends whether there would be an exclusivity deal; remember when Challenge tried to get old episodes of Countdown they had to go through Channel 4 for them, even though they were made for Channel 4 and not by Channel 4.

Also of note (similar principle, but not 100% the same thing): When Home & Away left ITV they had a "time out" clause before Channel 5 could start airing it. Which they used (and then wasted, but that's an entirely different subject).
JO
Jon
Jonwo posted:
Neil Jones posted:
JKDerry posted:
Countdown will never be axed as it has a pride of place in the history of Channel 4 as being the first programme to air on the channel on November 2nd 1982, with that special opening line from the late Richard Whiteley:

"As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new countdown begins"

So it had a place in history, which will be very hard for Channel 4 to end.


As sentimental as that is, it doesn't guarantee the survival of any TV programme.
Realistically if the networks kept all the stuff that was on air on their first day, there would never be anything new.

Its probably safe to say the only reason Countdown survives at all is that its cheap to make and still generates a relatively good return. On commercial channels that's all that matters, that it makes money (on the whole as an average). If it didn't do that it goes out the door or elsewhere in the schedule. Simple as.

Channel 4 might be publicly owned but doesn't mean its a charity/dumping ground for programming that has sentimental value. Countdown will end one day, that much is guaranteed.

If Channel 4 did axe it, there's nothing stopping ITV Studios from selling it to another broadcaster.

Apart from other broadcasters interest or lack thereof in the format.
Meridian AM, Brekkie and Jonwo gave kudos
JO
Jonwo
Jon posted:
Jonwo posted:
Neil Jones posted:

As sentimental as that is, it doesn't guarantee the survival of any TV programme.
Realistically if the networks kept all the stuff that was on air on their first day, there would never be anything new.

Its probably safe to say the only reason Countdown survives at all is that its cheap to make and still generates a relatively good return. On commercial channels that's all that matters, that it makes money (on the whole as an average). If it didn't do that it goes out the door or elsewhere in the schedule. Simple as.

Channel 4 might be publicly owned but doesn't mean its a charity/dumping ground for programming that has sentimental value. Countdown will end one day, that much is guaranteed.

If Channel 4 did axe it, there's nothing stopping ITV Studios from selling it to another broadcaster.

Apart from other broadcasters interest or lack thereof in the format.


I don't know, I think it'd work quite well on BBC Two either at 6pm alternating with House of Games or at a push perhaps changing the format to weekly and airing in the Quizzy Monday block with Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge.
MarkT76 and TVArchive gave kudos
JL
JamesLaverty1925
AlexS posted:
SuperSajuuk posted:
Johnr posted:
Presumably Colin does a lot of his other shows from MediaCity anyway so logistically that could work out well

Colin is also the main presenter for Eurosport's snooker coverage of the Triple Crown events (UK just last week, Masters in mid-January and Worlds in mid-April), and since those are fluid start/end times for consecutive weeks, those would be disruptive to any recording as he won't be available while those tournaments are playing.

In normal times a couple of weeks of planned absence a few times a year should have little impact. The filming schedule can be planned around such things pretty easily on a show that typically records a weeks worth of episodes per filming day.


That shouldn't be a problem. They've worked round the others schedules before. When Nick was still doing The Apprentice, there was a two month filming gap in May and June, and last year with Rachel's pregnancy, they filmed more regularly than normal right up to the end of November to accomodate, and have enough episodes in the can before restarting filming in March.

The show normally films about 6-8 weeks in advance, so I think they'd be able to work around Colin's schedule easily enough if he takes the job
BR
Brekkie
Ultimately it is about 50 days filming a year, with 3 or 4 days filming a week usually, so around 13-16 weeks filming a year.
JA
JAS84
Jonwo posted:
Neil Jones posted:
JKDerry posted:
Countdown will never be axed as it has a pride of place in the history of Channel 4 as being the first programme to air on the channel on November 2nd 1982, with that special opening line from the late Richard Whiteley:

"As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new countdown begins"

So it had a place in history, which will be very hard for Channel 4 to end.


As sentimental as that is, it doesn't guarantee the survival of any TV programme.
Realistically if the networks kept all the stuff that was on air on their first day, there would never be anything new.

Its probably safe to say the only reason Countdown survives at all is that its cheap to make and still generates a relatively good return. On commercial channels that's all that matters, that it makes money (on the whole as an average). If it didn't do that it goes out the door or elsewhere in the schedule. Simple as.

Channel 4 might be publicly owned but doesn't mean its a charity/dumping ground for programming that has sentimental value. Countdown will end one day, that much is guaranteed.

If Channel 4 did axe it, there's nothing stopping ITV Studios from selling it to another broadcaster.

Or just airing it on ITV.
DV
DVB Cornwall
JAS84 posted:
Jonwo posted:
Neil Jones posted:

As sentimental as that is, it doesn't guarantee the survival of any TV programme.
Realistically if the networks kept all the stuff that was on air on their first day, there would never be anything new.

Its probably safe to say the only reason Countdown survives at all is that its cheap to make and still generates a relatively good return. On commercial channels that's all that matters, that it makes money (on the whole as an average). If it didn't do that it goes out the door or elsewhere in the schedule. Simple as.

Channel 4 might be publicly owned but doesn't mean its a charity/dumping ground for programming that has sentimental value. Countdown will end one day, that much is guaranteed.

If Channel 4 did axe it, there's nothing stopping ITV Studios from selling it to another broadcaster.

Or just airing it on ITV.


Depends on who owns the licence to the UK version of the format. Channel 4 might not be keen on transferring it across. Hypothetical though, it's not in my view going anywhere.
BR
Brekkie
It wouldn't work as an ITV show - and ITV are quite smart about realising where shows work better away from ITV itself.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
There's the added factor of the spin-off Cats does Countdown format doing better business for C4 than the original. Catsdown without Countdown might not work so well?
Matthew_Fieldhouse and DE88 gave kudos

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