Rachel Riley "The Gadget Show," although her profile was significantly boosted by her appearance as a contestant on "Strictly Come Dancing", which largely "catapulted [Riley] onto the A-list" and opened up the doors for new television roles, according to another commentator. In 2014, two years before her role on "It's Not Rocket Science", she said, "I'd love to present a popular science programme because it's something I feel very passionate about." On "Countdown", Riley replaced the long-serving Carol Vorderman. Like Vorderman, Riley's role is to handle the placement of tiles on the board for the letters and numbers rounds and to find
Rachel Riley an exact solution in the numbers rounds if the contestants are unable to do so. Riley's appointment to "Countdown" was announced at the same time as the announcement of a new main host, Jeff Stelling, replacing Des O'Connor; the duo of Stelling and Riley were in place for the new series beginning in January 2009. Although she had no ambition to be a television presenter, she was encouraged to apply by her mother, and decided to do so because she was interested in the numbers part of the game. Having beaten 1,000 applicants for the role, she commented, "There's only