I can't see David Cameron, I keep seeing Joe Pasquale!

Liked the irony of Suzi explaining the incorrect use of the word 'literally' (literally on fire etc) to serial offender Hewer, who used a very similar expression, 'literally in flames', when describing the performance of a contestant recently.

was Rachel's dress ripped at the back, today?

Yes, sorry about that.

I noticed that too, I just thought that a zip or button had come undone.

I think it was the cut of her jib, Clip> http://youtu.be/tXxTh6MHe24

Looking at that clip, it certainly looks as though the dress is torn.

I may be being a bit thick but can someone please explain the meaning of today's (Monday 17th Nov) contestants T-shirt. It read ...
Good Morning
That's a nice
TENTNNEBA
It made no sense to me, anyone have an idea?

"TENTNNEBA"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsFAokXCxTI

not that funny actually

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I don't have acess to a PC so I can't play the clip, I assume it's from 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown which I never watch 'cos I can't stand Jimmy Carr, the "celebs" just show how thick they are & it's not funny! But I guess they managed a 3-letter word & rambled on trying to be amusing.
Again, thanks anyway at least I understand now!

That pose by Rachel at the start of the clip is really summit else. Grrr.

http://youtu.be/tXxTh6MHe24

the present winner always seems to be puzzled about the words he comes up with, and his solutions to the numbers.....like 'I can't believe I'm say this but BANANA' sort of thing.

No it's from the IT Crowd. One of the characters goes on Countdown and get that as his nine letter word - it's actually put up as that so he doesn't have to rearrange it.

It's not a valid Countdown word as it's not in the ODoE but it is in some dictionaries.

I think it's just his Northern Irish accent. As with the Aussies, they tend to end their sentences with an upward inflection.

A 9 - Misplaced

Two in a row, but the second one from Dictionary Corner. OUTDRIVEN

Does anyone else find the obscure ad break conundrums a bit pointless, and annoying?

Why do they think we want to know what these words mean?

What fun is there in trying to solve them?

I don't think Countdown is for you if you cannot understand that words and meanings are fascinating, important and fun.

I think your name on here gives us all a clue or you're taking the 'Michael'!

Solving words is the major part of the fun of Countdown. If you don't like doing that why do you watch?

well I can't solve the obscure ad-break ones, and Nick is always saying 'Sue, help me out here.', so I guess most people couldn't solve those ones.

I quite like solving the ad break ones.

Very obscure words aren't that interesting.

The point of most of the game is to be able to identify words from a selection or to unscramble an anagram, ie. to exercise the pattern recognition part of your brain. That's not possible with words you've never heard of.

If they want to teach us about some of these words, fine (this is where I reach for the fast-forward button). But what's the point of a teaser anagram that no-one will be able to get? Now I hardly bother with it because unless it's obvious, I'm likely wasting my time.

If the full OED was being used, then practically any odd selection of letters will match some obscure, archaic entry, but for me it's more interesting when a common, everyday word is lurking amongst the letters. In fact it's more of an achievement to win a round with a long but common word, than to do so with an unusual word because the contestant has memorised a dictionary. It's almost cheating.

One thing I used to think was that if someone were trying to do the teaser in their head, they wouldn't be paying attention to the adverts......maybe these obscure words are to remidy this situation...? Well I want the program to be supported, so I guess it's ok.

One person's obscure word can be familiar to a better-read individual. It you dislike learning so much that you FF past it, then you're ensuring you'll be stuck in ignorance forever.

In the case of the tea-time-teaser (if that's what it's still called), when Nick has to enlist Susie's help to explain the solution, then you can assume even better-read individuals wouldn't have a clue.

(Nick presumably is among the better-read ones, or has correctly gauged the vocabulary level of the typical Countdown viewer.)

Whatever, such an anagram is effectively setting an impossible task for the 99% of viewers, or whatever the figure is, who have no knowledge of the word. A far better puzzle is the well-known word that is so cleverly disguised (or with a misleading clue) that 99% don't get it.

I think it is just agreed upon that the word will be defined by Susie.

Usually the conundrum at the end of the game is fairly well know, whereas they could choose an obscure word to really test the actual contestants.

They vary them so some are difficult to solve and some (very very few) are words most of us have never heard of. Often it can be fun with the difficult words as you can guess and it's surprising how often a random guess is correct.