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
Cats (musical) fans who could not acquire a ticket for the final performance. It held the record as London's longest-running musical until 8 October 2006, when it was surpassed by "Les Misérables". The show made its debut on Broadway on 7 October 1982, at the Winter Garden Theater with the same production team. On 19 June 1997, "Cats" became the longest-running musical in Broadway history with 6,138 performances. It closed on 10 September 2000, after a total of 7,485 performances. Its Broadway record was surpassed on 9 January 2006 by "The Phantom of the Opera". It remains Broadway's fourth-longest-running show in history.