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
Doctor Who in Australia and with Russell T. Davies as producer, the ABC responded by scheduling the series in the prime-time 7:30pm Saturday slot. Following the UK broadcast by less than two months, Series 1 of the new "Doctor Who" premiered in Australia with the first episode, "Rose", on 21 May 2005, going on to win its timeslot in four out of five capital cities. Series 1 of "Doctor Who" also saw the inception of the "Doctor Who" Christmas Special. The concept of a Christmas Special episode derived of an otherwise ongoing series has been commonplace in UK television for decades. However, the classic