Ultimately though you only need to look at the contestants in recent times to see they need to broaden their appeal - overwhelmingly white and male. They average less than one female contestant a week in recent times, and went a period of three weeks a couple of months back without a single female contestant.
So I appreciate everyone has to be very Daily Mail about things on here but honestly if you'd step back and actually think for a moment.
Countdown is unusual in that it has three hosts, and while the nominal "host" is a man, in reality its the two women co-hosts that run the show, the "host" just keeps score and introduces the contestants. Rachel and Susie are the stars of the show, and of Cats does Countdown, whereas Nick is much lower profile (although very good).
Therefore taking a show from 66/33 to 100% women I'd suggest is unlikely as it's already, subtly a female dominated show. Especially given that, unlike panel shows that rely on mostly male standups, they get a reasonable spread of contestants.
(Absolutely no stereotyping, prejudice or discrimination of any kind is intended at any point in the following post.)
The actual game *has* been dominated by men over the last two decades or so - and many of them have been white, young, and put in a very great deal of practice on the computer (very often all three).
There hasn't been a female series champion since Kate Ogilvie in series 39, all the way back in 1998. And I don't believe there has been a mature series champion since John Rawnsley in series 45 in 2001 (and worth pointing out that that particular series ran for only three months rather than six, due to C4's decision to expand the show from 30 minutes to 45, and so had only four contestants in the finals rather than the usual eight). The last non-white series champion, meanwhile, was Junaid Mubeen in series 59 in 2008 (and even then, he was young and had almost certainly spent plenty of time practicing on the Apterous site or something similar).
Incidentally, the finalists for the current series were confirmed last week. All eight are men, seven are unambiguously white, six are members of the aforementioned Apterous, and only one cannot be said to be young at all.
(Once again, absolutely no stereotyping, prejudice or discrimination of any kind intended.

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