STPS!

Yay!!

Claire and Lee were annoying as their surnames are full of consonants.

The missing vowels round does not fit with the theme (or indeed title) of the quiz show. It's a convenient filler which probably carries too much weight.

What's needed is a direct competition round, having say three 'connected' items displayed with points or penalty for getting or not getting the connection.

Incidentally, as for keeping viewers' interest, I'll still watch UC to the end even if Scumbag College is on -15 and Footlights on 275.

This is not a test of "who is most clever" it is purely a test of "who is best at this quiz" and as such being better on the buzzer in the final round is part of being better at the quiz and therefore it is fair that those who are better at the quiz win the match.

The final round has been part of the game since it started, both teams know the format well, and I expect them to plan their team to have strengths in all aspects of the quiz. Indeed, you could field a team where one player is useless at the connections in the first rounds, but is lightning fast on the buzzer for the missing vowels, it's a risk but a valid tactical decision as, as you've said, there are a lot of points on the board in the final round.

I found the quickest way to write them out is to write them out in full with all the vowels, then delete them, rather than trying to work out how to spell them without the vowels.

What comes 4th in this sequence?

5
6
7
...?

Well presumably not eight. That would be a bit obvious.

Corrrect - the answer is 9.

Because its the postal numbers of a street in Harwich, where the plot that should have been 8 was forgotten about when the house numbers were allocated, and they issued 9 instead.

But "8" does follow the sequence so it would have to be accepted as an answer.

I just googled both but did not get either name come up. Does it not depend on what you have googled before?

As for the issue of the missing vowels round sometimes turning the game around, is that not the point? Yes it can make the arguably more difficult early rounds seem relatively less important, and is largely about being quick on the buzzer, but it is about making the end of the show more interesting. OC is hardly the most dynamic of quizzes so this element adds a more dynamic ending. Personally I feel the issues around what gets accepted, or not, in earlier rounds is a bigger deal. Not that any of it matters anyway. I think most contestants know that the show is deliberately obtuse at times.

It might, I have googled liz mcclarnon before.

How about 15? Convert the following number to text and count the amount of letters, then take it away from the earlier number (as a number). So 6 has 3 letters, take it away from 5, it makes "2". Then 5 letters in 7 from 6 is "1". So the last number is the first to have 7 letters so that it makes zero. That would be 15. You can't get it on the first clue but that is sometimes the case. Confused?

What is the next in this sequence...?

GR GL ZNBY
T MTH YD LTN
PR CBRS NN
???

Dnl Crg

DNLC RG.

Crgr Vlh Rwd
Dr Cybs Sll
Lng Dmn
?

BR NTNL

This next one is related to your one but no googling...

JYM CG NSS
CRL NF LCK
BB YCL NCY
???

LS SMTH but KMBRLY WLSH was robbed!

Sad that I am, I made a fairly simple Excel spreadsheet, which does the job for me (enter name/phrase, then it puts it all in upper case, strips the vowels out, and adds random spaces! )

That is very clever. I'm quite good with Excel but there's no way I'd know how to do that.

It's not amazing - I'd like it to do the random spaces better - but it's a nice bit of fun and I do enjoy creating stuff with Excel!

If anyone's still wondering about the relative importance of the missing vowels round - you're not the first people to do so. Michael Wallace, one of the winners of series 8 (and also a postdoctoral lecturer in statistics) looked at this ages ago, when there'd been 99 shows rather than the present 200. He concluded that across the first seven series it was no more important than any other round, and that only once in every seven shows would a team who were behind after round 3 go on to win.

Interesting stuff and it does lay some of the complaints to bed. It also seems likely that since it was written the final round is still not normally crucial. Also it was notable that the team in the lead also tend to do better in the final round anyway.

Perhaps what is not acknowledged, however, is possibility as opposed to actuality. It is possible that a team could know every answer in the last round but end up with nothing, or losing ground by 12+ points. All because of speed on the buzzer (which I presume some think should not be so potentially influential, on OC anyway). In the other rounds if a team knew every answer they would not end up with no points or losing so much ground. So it may be that it doesn't often result in big swings, or that the final round doesn't give that many more points, but it could. Personally I have no problem with the final round, incidentally, but I think this is the issue for some others rather than necessarily that it has often actually reversed the lead.

Yes, yes it would, because it IS the right answer.
People have often been accused of taking things too seriously in this thread, and here was a prime example.

I quoted the previous answer and topic of Steps. Their debut hit was called 5,6,7,8, it was a very simple, deliberately low-brow question about a fluffy, pop band.

You do realise that with the current trend, there's a danger VCM will make you sing it !!

All together now "My boot scootin' baby is drivin' me crazy.....etc.

Looks like you'll all have to put up with even more singing and cake eating from now on - Only Connect has been recommissioned for the next two series and it's going to be 37 episodes a year. God knows what kind of convoluted format it'll need to be to end up at that number.