Countdown : Jeff and Rachel take over

Though that media Guardian article suggests otherwise, with ITV claiming it owns the rights and it's nothing to do with him.

Or rather also, this must come down to typical ITV and Greedy Grade in the sense of "We own it, we want to get rid of it.. ah *waves wedges of cash* but nobody else can have it".

Give it to Endemol.

Alan Car get £3millions yet Ch4 wont pay Carol about £500'000 for edcaution programmer

I'm sure you're right. I just was under the impression a few of the indoor scenes of The Royal, Touch of Frost and Heartbeat are still shot at YTV though? Although as you say, most of those are produced on location.

In fairness there will be bits and pieces produced at YTV, but probably nothing that can't be rationalised, that's the problem.

ITV have allowed YTV's studio usage to wither away just as they did with Central, Anglia, Tyne Tees etc before them. Even if Countdown does continue, the studios' future remains bleak when your one regular production is a cheaply-made gameshow that is struggling to keep its presenters and treats their one remaining loyal host like dirt.

So it seems like the situation is entirely of Channel 4's doing by cutting the budget. It's quite obvious that Countdown doesn't feature very highly in Channel 4's plans. This new revamp sounds like it will be a disaster like many other shows that have a revamp and then end at the end of that series

Talk about spin...

The audience for the programme has gone down by 80% in recent years. C4 decrease the budget by 35%, so ITV respond to that by cutting one of the host's pay by 90%. Des O'Connor's leaving probably merely pre-empted a similar cut in pay.

And this is Channel Four's fault?

Seems to me that ITV are factoring in the cost of keeping the studios open when considering what the overall viability of the programme is. Else why not just reduce the stars' pay by 35% in line with the overall budget cut?

Can't imagine your a fan!

Most people love countdown,

I think you missed Wells' point

OH because I can;t spell, so I would have NO CHANCE of getting anything right! I can still to the maths

Good God - can you imagine that? An audition for such an esteemed role on Television, it'll be like bloody X Factor - the crappiest person wins.

Contrary to MediaGuardian, the BBC News website have said that William Hill have put Ulrika Jonsson, Anthea Turner and Myleene Klass as favourites to be Carol's successor. I think it would be a bad move to put Ulrika and Anthea in there, given their histories. Myleene would potentially be better, but considering she has no mathematical talent (to my knowledge,) I am equally unsure.

At first I was hesitant when some suggested the plug to be pulled on Countdown, however I am starting to think that if the makers cannot be bothered to put their time and money into such a loved show, any future efforts for the show would be deeply wasted.