I watched it and she was terrible, trying overly hard to be funny, and drawing on her face with the marker pen for laughs? honestly, it was the worst episode I had ever seen.

Although I don't mind Claudia, and even think there's something weirdly attractive about her, she's clearly no Rachel. Does anyone know how many recordings she missed? Was it only the one? Can we expect normal Riley service to resume this week?

She's murdering another show on Thursday aided and abetted by the terminally unfunny Johnny bloody Vegas:

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/dq...es-8-episode-7

That is going to be painful.

Thanks for the warning, series link cancelled. Shame as it has been quite an enjoyable show up to now.

I imagine they shoot 2 episodes a day, and Rachel will have missed both.

Well, I did warn you. Even Lock is giving it a wide berth this week. Surprised Dent is hanging in there.

It does sound like they passed the point where they should have decided to cancel the recording. It has a the signs of being the worst episode ever (currently held by last week's episode!).

I wonder if Lock swerved this one after being visibly annoyed by her inane antics on the first one, assuming they were filmed in order that is? If they were filmed on the same day it's odd that he's absent for the second. Don't blame him for second though!!

I had the same thought when a poster earlier mentioned that Riley and Lock were missing from the recording they went to.

Not sure I can handle Claudia Winkleman again tonight. Especially dressed as a giant chicken.

Oh ffs she`s on again.

Well, I can see Rachel five days a week if I want to, so here's the deal. If the talentless waste of space Lock is not appearing because Claudia's on, then give Claudia a permanent job. How can people talk of her "inane antics" when the height of Lock's humourous ability consists of tipping a cat litter tray over himself?

Has Claudia written a BAFTA nominated, critically acclaimed sit-com then? If so I must've missed it but I did see Lock's brilliant 15 Storeys High. He's one of the most naturally funny comics in the country whereas she, most obviously...isn't.

You do know that these shows involve contracts and planning and stuff? It's really unlikely someone can just throw a strop and miss a show because they didn't like a guest. I don't think Lock is like that at all.

This is yet another show where most people seem to talk about hating it but don't seem able to stop watching.

So, nobody in the whole history of showbusiness has refused to work with someone else, ever??

Plus, Sean's had shows off before hasn't he? I don't see any reason to put two and two together and make 65 as regards Claudia being on.

Naturally funny? Does that mean not funny at all? Did you collapse in fits of helpless laughter the other week when he spent ten minutes pouring a random selection of drinks into a vase? Tedious.

Incidentally, BAFTA's impress me as much as new years honours do.

I did - it was awful. Claudia was reigned in a bit from last week and had Rob Beckett alongside, but she was still a step too far. Sean Lock is one of the best so his absence, coupled with Jonny Vegas - can't do with him & his one joke career - made it easy to ignore. For good measure the Mr Riley joke was even more unfunny than Jonny Vegas. And fwiw the Dictionary Corner guest was a duffer too - woohoo a gay man banging on about being a gay man. Big deal mate.

I was able to stop watching; wife was sort of watching but twice I didn't realise the ads were on so failed to skip through them. As soon as Carr said that's it I looked up & switched it off.

They might have done themselves a lot of collateral with these two shows, after building a good name over the last few series. Shame.

Go away and watch 15 Storeys High and we'll talk afterwards.

He's been on 8/10 (both incarnations) from the start - Do you think that would be the case if the producers and audience thought he wasn't funny? He's good at what he does - I daresay he's not losing any sleep just because you disagree.

But he wasn't just pouring random drinks in. It had a theme to it, and his commentary made it a v funny little routine. The producer seems to agree, as he gave it a decent chunk of time in the show.

So yes - Sean pouring drinks into a vessel and maintaining a funny discourse whilst doing so was 'naturally funny'. He's got it. A lot haven't, eg Tom in Dictionary Corner last night. Unfunny. Jonny Vegas - unfunny.

It lived up to the signs. A dreadfully unfunny combination of guests this week. Even Jimmy was struggling to inject some humour. Claudia was her usual hyperactive self with exagerated hysterics at the most mundane of 'jokes'.

Hopefully,, it'll return to form next week with Rachel, Sean and a couple of decent guests.

Vegas comes across, perhaps deliberately, as a big fat slob. But is actually surprisingly funny. Not quite as good as Lock when he's on form, but I think he's struggling with all these gimmicks he's obliged to come up with every week. So's Jon Richardson.

In fact I haven't managed to completely watch either of the episodes with Claudia at the board. (And hopefully there will be only two.)

At the minute, regular Countdown is more entertaining and less cringing.

I know, it's nothing but wild speculation. Earlier in this thread, some posters who were stating as fact that Sean hated this show, as though they could read his mind. Think they may have got confused with the grumpy element of his comic persona and what he really feels about the show.


There seems to be a lot of posters like that on DS, noticed this poster earlier who commented multiple times about how much he hated the show, yet kept watching it.

Have been watching this new series since it started and this thread was resurrected only fairly recently. Was thinking of resurrecting it myself but thought it would yet again be dominated by depressing perpetually negative posters and I wasn't far wrong.

The point of it being 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is because it has the host and team captains from Cats and the Riley and Dent from Countdown.

Remove Lock, Richardson and Riley and what's the point in the format?

Not what I said. In THIS show what do you think is more likely? That Sean needed time off (as he and Jon have both had more than once in the past) or that he threw his dummy out the pram and said he's not working with Claudia? I think he used her as a springboard quite well last time and don't think for a minute he would care enough who else was on the show to not want to do it.