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 was replaced by Jason Manford. Manford departed following series 10, and was replaced by Jon Richardson for series 11 to 18. From series 19, the opposing captain is Aisling Bea. Every week, the captains are joined by two celebrities. Often, topical celebrities appear on the show, for example Ruth Badger following her appearance on "The Apprentice". The show is currently recorded at Pinewood Studios, previously at BBC Television Centre, typically the day before transmission. However, in the past few years, due to Jimmy Carr's stand-up schedule, certain episodes are pretaped and broadcast later as "special" episodes dealing with a particular