8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations. Amongst the programmes that were chosen to be merged for the evening of specials, production teams on "Countdown" and "8 Out of 10 Cats" agreed to merge the two formats of their respective programmes together - the crossover between the two formats meant that "Countdown"s arrangement of games would be interspersed with "8 Out of 10 Cats"-style banter. As part of the merger, both Rachel Riley and Susie Dent assumed their roles from the programme, while Jimmy Carr took on the mantle of host, with both Sean Lock and Jon Richardson competing as
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown episodes, Joe Wilkinson appeared as Rachel's assistant in the second half of the show, often dressed in costume whilst using props. The humour continued throughout the series, such as Wilkinson offered special prizes, replacing letter tiles with symbols or turning up despite having been "fired". During Wilkinson's sketches Robert Deaton (as Wilkinson's half-brother Fabio) sometimes appears. In addition to two specials, the show has aired 102 episodes since its premiere on 2 January 2012. The first mashup was watched by 2.49 million viewers, making it the second most watched Channel 4 show that week. The next episode, part of "Funny